
Sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich have to be investigated over the £1bn he may owe, a bunch of MPs has urged HMRC.
In a letter to the tax authority, Joe Powell, a Labour MP who leads a Parliamentary group on truthful taxation, refers to ORIONEWS stories elevating questions on whether or not tax is due on offshore investments.
“Correct investigation of those issues is important,” the letter mentioned. HMRC mentioned it was “dedicated to making sure everybody pays the fitting tax beneath the legislation, no matter wealth or standing”.
Mr Abramovich’s legal professionals have advised the ORIONEWS he “all the time obtained unbiased professional skilled tax and authorized recommendation” and “acted in accordance with that recommendation”.
Leaked papers reveal investments from Mr Abramovich value $6bn (£4.7bn) had been routed by way of firms within the British Virgin Islands (BVI), however proof seen by the ORIONEWS suggests they had been managed from the UK, so ought to have been taxed there.
The ORIONEWS and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism have been inspecting the papers for over a 12 months – hundreds of recordsdata and emails from a Cyprus-based firm that administered Mr Abramovich’s world empire.
The ORIONEWS and its media companions, together with The Guardian, have been reporting on the leaked recordsdata since 2023 as a part of the Worldwide Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ Cyprus Confidential investigation.
Among the cash that funded Chelsea FC when Mr Abramovich owned it may be traced again to firms concerned within the scheme, the ORIONEWS and its companions additionally discovered.
Mr Powell’s letter mentioned these findings increase “severe questions on Mr Abramovich’s potential tax liabilities”
It known as on HMRC “to research and, if acceptable, to reclaim any funds probably owed by Roman Abramovich to the UK tax authorities” in reference to the findings from the ORIONEWS, TBIJ, and The Guardian.
“Given the size of the sums concerned, making certain that any unpaid taxes are recovered is a matter of public curiosity—significantly at a time when funds are urgently wanted for public providers and to handle the nationwide debt,” the letter added.
A HMRC spokesperson mentioned it was “persevering with to steer worldwide efforts to enhance world transparency”.
‘Broadest doable powers’
It isn’t uncommon for companies to legally keep away from paying tax on their income by making their investments from firms in tax havens. However the firms concerned have to be managed and managed offshore the place they’re included.
If an offshore firm’s strategic choices are being taken by somebody within the UK, its income might be taxed as if it had been a UK firm.
The leaked paperwork seen by the ORIONEWS present how the administrators of the BVI funding firms handed sweeping powers over them to a buddy of Mr Abramovich, Eugene Shvidler, who was dwelling within the UK and gained British citizenship in 2010.
The ORIONEWS has seen “normal energy of lawyer” paperwork dated between 2004 and 2008, that gave him the “broadest doable powers” and “full energy to do all the things and something” to funding firms within the BVI.
Legal professionals for Mr Shvidler mentioned the ORIONEWS was basing its reporting on “confidential enterprise paperwork that current an incomplete image” and had “drawn robust and inaccurate conclusions as to Mr Shvidler’s conduct”.
They mentioned “the construction of investments” was “the topic of very cautious and detailed tax planning, undertaken and suggested on by main tax advisors”.
Cyprus Confidential is worldwide collaborative investigation launched in 2023 led by the Worldwide Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) into Cyprus corporations offered company and monetary providers to associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime, primarily based on paperwork from a company service supplier initially obtained by the whistleblowing group Distributed Denial of Secrets and techniques.
Media companions embody The Guardian, the investigative newsroom Paper Path Media, the Italian newspaper L’Espresso, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Challenge (OCCRP) and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ).
TBIJ reporting staff: Simon Lock and Eleanor Rose.