Roman Abramovich’e ait varlıkları saklama ve vergi kaçırma iddialı sahte evraklar, yaptırımlarla sonuçlandı

Kısaca

Varlıkların saklanması ve vergi kaçırma iddiaları güç kazandı; Abramovich’e yaptırımlar uygulanıyor. İsmi taşıyan uluslararası aydınlatıcı belgeler ve Deloitte Cyprus de gündeme geldi. Yatırımcılar ve finansal kurumlar riskleri izlemeli, yaptırımlara uyum süreci ve yasal sonuçlar takip edilmeli

Ana mesele

Sahte evraklarla varlıklar saklanıyor ve vergi kaçırma iddiaları güç kazanıyor

Ne değişti?

Sanksiyonlar artırıldı; dosyada yeni kanıtlar kamuya açıklandı

Beni nasıl etkiler?

Okuyucuya, varlık saklama ve vergi kaçırma risklerinin yatırım güvenini zedeleyebileceği bilgisi verir

Ne oldu?

The Guardian’a göre Abramovich’e ait varlıkların saklanması ve vergi kaçırma iddialı sahte evraklar mevcut

Neden şimdi?

Sivil ve mali yaptırımların artmasıyla konunun yeniden gündeme gelmesi

Neden önemli?

Büyük ölçekli finansal işlemler ve varlık yönetimi güveni etkiler

Kimler etkileniyor?

• Uluslararası yatırımcılar
• Finansal kurumlar
• Avrupa Birliği ve Birleşik Krallık mali otoriteleri

Sektör ve piyasa etkisi

Finans ve yatırım piyasalarında belirsizlik ve riskler artabilir

Riskler

• Uyum maliyetleri yükselir
• Davalar ve itiraz süreçleri uzar
• Piyasa güveni zedelenir

Takip edilmesi gerekenler

• Yeni yaptırım kararları ve uygulanabilirlik
• İç ve dış denetim raporları
• Kamu açıklamaları ve yasal süreçler

Haberin tamamı

Roman Abramovich has now been placed under sanctions by the UK and EU. Photograph: Alexander Hassenstein/UEFA/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Roman Abramovich has now been placed under sanctions by the UK and EU. Photograph: Alexander Hassenstein/UEFA/Getty Images Roman Abramovich Roman Abramovich aides falsified paperwork to disguise assets and dodge tax, records suggest Accountancy firm Deloitte Cyprus among those that appear to have backdated records outlining the Russian billionaire’s assets

Prefer the Guardian on Google A ides of Roman Abramovich – including staff at the global accountancy firm Deloitte – falsified paperwork mapping the oligarch’s sprawling offshore business empire, records suggest, helping his businesses dodge tax and disguise assets.

New analysis of leaked corporate records uncovers what appears to have been a long-running and carefully orchestrated strategy of backdating documents.

The Russian billionaire’s closest aide, London-based Eugene Tenenbaum, appears to have been involved in the backdating and may also have given false evidence to the UK high court during a potentially costly lawsuit, the papers indicate.

Abramovich’s personal and financial affairs are now restricted, owing to sanctions imposed by the UK and EU in response to Russia’s war on Ukraine.

But the documents raise questions about how Abramovich was able to shield his financial affairs from the authorities for more than a decade, with the apparent assistance of apparatchiks and blue-chip advisers.

The findings are based on the Cyprus Confidential leak , more than 500,000 documents, first released to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and analysed by organisations including the Guardian, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the BBC.

View image in fullscreen Eugene Tenenbaum with Roman Abramovich at a Chelsea FC match. Photograph: Matthew Ashton/Corbis/Getty Images The digital paper trail charts the reorganisation of billions of pounds that the former Chelsea FC owner obtained via the controversial acquisition of oilfields in the frozen wastes of Siberia, amid the break-up of the Soviet Union.

From 1999 until at least 2013, a cadre of aides and accountants tasked with shifting the funds between offshore jurisdictions deployed tactics that experts say may have constituted fraud and tax evasion.

This, it seems, involved backdating documents to create a convenient paper trail showing that agreements and transactions had taken place years earlier.

Lawyers for Abramovich denied any wrongdoing and said he relied on the advice of his advisers and Deloitte Cyprus. Tenenbaum denied any wrongdoing and said he also relied on the specialist advice given by Deloitte Cyprus. Deloitte Cyprus said that it “acts in compliance with all applicable laws” and that it could no longer access the relevant material because of the time that has elapsed.

A crown jewel in Russia’s rich seam of natural resources, Sibneft’s oilfields fell into Abramovich’s hands during the chaotic post-Soviet privatisation era.

The famously shrewd entrepreneur obtained the business for roughly $250m, reportedly spending as little as $19m of his own money.

By the time he sold the last of his shares to Gazprom in 2005, Abramovich had raised $16bn, money he ploughed into investments, mansions, superyachts and Chelsea FC.

One Cyprus-based company, Kravin Investments, was among several early vehicles through which that cash flowed. Kravin received a $3bn windfall in May 2003, of which it retained about $2bn.

The money sat in Kravin’s bank account or was loaned to other companies, accruing interest that was, in theory, taxable in Cyprus.

But Abramovich’s aides soon began devising plans to “eliminate” a tax liability that one financial adviser warned could be “very large”, records suggest.

View image in fullscreen Demetris Ioannides was the chair of Deloitte Cyprus before spinning out Meritservus. Photograph: No Credit The gatekeeper to Abramovich’s fortune was Demetris Ioannides, who was the chair of Deloitte Cyprus before spinning out his own business Meritservus. That firm became Abramovich’s go-to financial advisory, serving him for nearly 20 years, before it was sanctioned by the UK in 2023 , along with Ioannides, for its role helping Russian oligarch hide their wealth.

“It will be necessary to change the [Kravin’s] financial statements and the accounting records accordingly for 2003 and 2004,” Ioannides wrote in August 2005 email, citing discussions with Deloitte Cyprus partners and erstwhile colleagues Antonis Taliotis and Nicos Charalambous.

The following month, in an email copying in staff at Meritservus and Abramovich’s investment vehicle, Millhouse, Taliotis appeared to agree.

“Certain changes will have to be made to the accounts […]” he wrote.

View image in fullscreen An August 2005 email from Demetris Ioannides. Photograph: - Millhouse and Meritservus duly began producing paperwork showing that Kravin was simply holding and investing the Sibneft billions as a trustee for another business, the British Virgin Islands-based Kelvedon Worldwide.

Documents detailing this supposed fact, including correspondence and trust agreements, were given dates between March and December 2003, despite being created at least two years later.

The result was simple: although the billions had sat in Kravin’s accounts for years, it now appeared that the money had never really been Kravin’s at all. Deloitte Cyprus, apparently aware of the deception, duly signed off the accounts.

History had effectively been rewritten, analysis of the documents suggests, disappearing $2bn from Kravin’s balance sheet – and with it any tax liability.

Andrew Mitchell KC, a leading expert in financial crime and tax law, described the scheme as a “blatant move to protect from legitimate taxation assets which should otherwise have been subject to tax”. This, he claimed, would amount to “straightforward” tax evasion.

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Kaynaklar

• The Guardian - Business