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# The Auditors
- URL: https://theroundabout.eu/the-auditors/
- Published: 2026-10-29T15:45:39.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-29T15:45:39.000Z
- Author: Aristidis Myrmidon
- Tags: Issue 5, Investigation

*What Deloitte’s Cyprus operation tells us about the EU’s financial architecture* 
*By Our Brussels Correspondent*

On 12 October 2026, a joint investigation by BBC Panorama, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, The Guardian, and the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project published findings from more than 500,000 leaked documents from MeritServus, a Cyprus-based corporate services provider that managed Roman Abramovich’s offshore network between 1995 and 2022\. The documents show that more than 1,000 corporate records tied to Abramovich’s companies were backdated — with the knowledge of those closest to him — to conceal assets and reduce tax exposure. Among them is correspondence showing that Deloitte Cyprus, the Cypriot branch of one of the world’s four largest professional services firms, reviewed and approved backdated financial statements that removed approximately $672 million in assets from a company called Amiscan Investments, leaving it with $75,000 on its books. The assets included superyachts, private jets, and property. The backdating was triggered by a 2006 Cypriot transparency law that would have required disclosure. Andrew Mitchell KC told Panorama the arrangement amounted to tax evasion and that “it couldn’t be more blatant.” Deloitte Cyprus said it had always complied with local law. Abramovich denied evading tax or concealing wealth.

MeritServus was a division of Deloitte Cyprus until 2005, and continued to work closely with the firm thereafter. The scheme was not a single transaction but a sustained operation: more than 1,000 backdated documents, spanning nearly two decades, across multiple companies, asset classes, and jurisdictions. Deloitte Cyprus employees discussed by email how to make assets “disappear” from financial statements. When the 2006 transparency law created a compliance problem, advisers and Deloitte representatives devised a solution: transfer the assets to British Virgin Islands companies, backdate the paperwork by three years, and present Deloitte with documents showing the transfer had occurred before the law came into force. Deloitte reviewed the result and deemed it “adequate.” The $672 million disappeared. The accounts showed $75,000.

Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004\. The transparency law that prompted the scheme was itself a product of EU accession — Cyprus was required to align its financial disclosure standards with EU norms. Deloitte Cyprus operates under EU audit regulation, including Regulation (EU) No 537/2014, which requires auditors to be independent, objective, and free from conflicts of interest. None of this prevented the scheme from running for nearly two decades, in an EU member state, through an EU-regulated firm. This publication notes it.

The sanctions imposed on Abramovich by the UK and EU in early 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, were designed to freeze his assets. Their effectiveness depended on the accuracy of the financial picture available to sanctioning authorities. The leaked documents suggest that picture had been systematically distorted — by backdated records reviewed and approved by an EU-regulated auditor — for the better part of two decades before the sanctions were ever applied. Abramovich’s lawyers said he had no knowledge of unlawful backdating or tax evasion and had relied on his advisers and Deloitte’s Cyprus office. Two former directors of an Abramovich-linked yacht firm are currently facing trial in Cyprus on VAT evasion charges. Abramovich is not named in the indictment. Deloitte Cyprus has not been charged. The UK sanctioned MeritServus in 2023 and accused its then chairman of creating “murky offshore structures.” The chairman declined to comment, citing ill health.

The European Commission has not commented. The European Central Bank, which oversees EU audit regulation, has not commented. The Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Cyprus has not commented. This publication asked all three. None had responded at the time of going to press. The situation, one assumes, is being monitored.