Leaked emails show that Deloitte’s Cyprus affiliate approved backdated paperwork for companies beneficially owned by Roman Abramovich. This helped the firms retroactively shift billions of dollars in assets from Cyprus to the British Virgin Islands (BVI) in an apparent attempt to get around tightening tax and transparency laws.
The findings come from the Cyprus Confidential project. The project drew on leaked data from Cyprus-based service provider MeritServus, which Distributed Denial of Secrets shared with the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), ICIJ and other media partners.
How the alleged scheme worked
In one case involving a company called Amiscan, files show Abramovich aides, including MeritServus director Demetris Ioannides, worked together to backdate contracts. The false impression was that Amiscan’s assets had moved to its BVI shareholder, Kelvedon Worldwide, at the start of 2003, and Deloitte Cyprus staff took part in those discussions.
Deloitte Cyprus reviewed the backdated documents and judged them adequate to remove the assets from Amiscan’s accounts. BBC Panorama reported that accounts signed off by Deloitte in Cyprus made assets worth $672m, including superyachts, mansions and private jets, vanish from Abramovich’s company accounts.
READ ALSO:
- CAC Moves to Delist 100,000 Companies Over Regulatory Violations
- CAC Exposes 248 Fake Firms, Accuses Banks of Weakening Nigeria’s Compliance Chain
- CAC Registration Doesn’t Authorise Investment Deals – SEC
- https://thepinnacleng.com/banking-finance/80-of-financial-crimes-involve-registered-companies-efcc
OCCRP says a second Cyprus-registered firm followed a similar pattern. It indirectly held billions of dollars in assets for Abramovich, but statements certified by Deloitte Cyprus and filed with the Cypriot registrar some 14 years later did not list those assets.
Responses
Abramovich’s lawyers deny any wrongdoing. They say he was not involved in the day-to-day running of the companies and that relying on professional advisers was entirely proper. Deloitte Cyprus said it “acts in compliance with applicable laws.” It added that it could not comment on specific allegations because the documents are more than 20 years old and no longer accessible. The OCCRP report concerns Deloitte’s Cyprus affiliate only, and the member firms of the global network are separate legal entities.
Background
Cyprus Confidential is a cross-border investigation that found Cypriot financial firms were working for more than 95 sanctioned individuals. MeritServus closed after the leak.
The MeritServus files also indicate that Deloitte Cyprus, MeritServus, and staff at Millhouse agreed to create paperwork that would allow another company beneficially owned by Abramovich to leave hundreds of millions of dollars of his personal assets undeclared in financial filings to Cyprus authorities.
Why it matters for Nigeria
The leak concerns Cyprus, but the mechanics of the allegations apply to Nigerian corporate structures too. Layered holding companies and offshore parents can obscure who ultimately owns or controls a business, and Nigerian regulators have spent recent years trying to close that gap.
Section 119 of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020, read with the Persons with Significant Control (PSC) Regulations 2022, requires companies and LLPs to disclose their beneficial owners.
The rules also reach foreign exempted companies and government-owned entities. The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) maintains the register, and members of the public can search it online at bor.cac.gov.ng. Access to the data is free.
Gaps remain. CAC Registrar-General Hussaini Magaji said last month that Nigeria runs three separate beneficial ownership registers: the CAC’s own, one for Free Trade Zone entities under NEPZA, and one for the extractive industries under NEITI.
He argues that this fragmentation creates duplication, inconsistencies and loopholes that could be exploited for illicit activity and has urged lawmakers to elevate the PSC Rules into an Act of the National Assembly.
He also said companies that fail to disclose their beneficial owners are flagged as inactive in CAC records.
The CAC is also encouraging journalists to use the data. At a September training for journalists and civil society organisations, it said the aim is to “lift the veil of complexity” around corporate structures. It plans a Global Conference on Beneficial Ownership in Lagos on November 8, 2026.
Pinnacle analysis:
The Cyprus files show that a register is only as reliable as the paperwork behind it. If ownership records or audited accounts can be backdated or left incomplete, a declaration on the register may not reflect who really controls a company. For Nigerian banks, pension administrators, energy firms and other regulated entities, that makes the checks done by auditors and compliance teams as important as the filing itself.
This report is based on investigative reporting by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) as part of its Cyprus Confidential series, produced with ICIJ and other media partners. The Amiscan and $672m details were also reported by BBC Panorama and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Read the original at occrp.org.
Sunday Michael Ogwu is a Nigerian journalist and editor of Pinnacle Daily. He is known for his work in business and economic reporting. He has held editorial roles in prominent Nigerian media outlets, where he has focused on economic policy, financial markets, and developmental issues affecting Nigeria and Africa more broadly.