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The European Union has removed Panama from its tax haven “blacklist” in a move acknowledging corporate and tax transparency reforms made by a country infamously synonymous with offshore financial secrecy.

The update to the EU’s list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes was made by EU Finance Ministers last week, and comes a decade after Panama dealt with the fallout from the Panama Papers, an investigation led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung into 11.5 million financial and legal records. The investigation exposed how a single Panama-based law firm registered 214,000 shell companies in over 200 countries, enabling companies and people to hide wealth and transactions.

“The Panama Papers revelations exposed weaknesses in the global financial system, with a particular focus on Panama and the lax regulations regarding transparency that were in place there at the time,” said Luis Moreno, an economist with the Global Alliance for Tax Justice and International Taxation Director at Latindadd.

“After the Panama Papers, Panama addressed various recommendations — including those from the OECD regarding tax transparency — which is precisely why it has now been removed from the ‘blacklist,'” Moreno added.

https://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/former-co-owner-of-panama-papers-law-firm-convicted-of-aiding-and-abetting-tax-evasion/

IMPACT Former co-owner of Panama Papers law firm convicted of aiding and abetting tax evasion Apr 24, 2026

https://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/swedbank-fined-50-million-by-new-york-authorities-over-panama-papers-revelations/

IMPACT Swedbank fined $50 million by New York authorities over Panama Papers revelations Jul 17, 2026

https://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/watch-the-panama-papers-ten-years-of-impact/

VIDEO WATCH: The Panama Papers — ten years of impact Apr 02, 2026

Recommended reading IMPACT Former co-owner of Panama Papers law firm convicted of aiding and abetting tax evasion Apr 24, 2026 IMPACT Swedbank fined $50 million by New York authorities over Panama Papers revelations Jul 17, 2026 VIDEO WATCH: The Panama Papers — ten years of impact Apr 02, 2026

The accounting giant Deloitte helped doctor a paper trail that enabled Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich to conceal billions in assets and dodge millions in tax, according to a joint investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and BBC Panorama.

A forensic analysis of corporate records obtained as part of the Cyprus Confidential leak reportedly shows how staff at Deloitte’s Cyprus branch, and its offshoot MeritServus, routinely falsified documents while managing the oligarch’s vast offshore fortune.

Between 1999 and 2013, Abramovich’s associates worked closely with the financial services providers to backdate and rubber-stamp more than 1,000 documents, the investigation found, including as part of an alleged scheme that one leading expert described as “straightforward and blatant” tax evasion.

“What you take away from it is that there are professionals who are prepared to bend and break the rules of their profession and therefore the law,” Andrew Mitchell KC, a financial crime barrister who reviewed the findings, told BBC Panorama. “And it looks that they will stop literally at nothing in terms of creating documents.”

Around 2006,

 

after Cyprus introduced new corporate disclosure rules,

more than $600 million in luxury assets — including a French château, superyachts and private jets — disappeared from the accounts of one of Abramovich’s Cypriot companies, Amiscan Investments, TBIJ and the BBC reported. A separate yearslong maneuver wiped nearly $2 billion from the balance sheet of Kravin Investments, another Cypriot company, by effectively rewriting its financial history.

The revelations from TBIJ and the BBC, alongside the Guardian and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, are the latest from the Cyprus Confidential leak obtained by Paper Trail Media and Distributed Denial of Secrets and shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The leak includes about 450,000 files from Meritservus, a family-run Limassol firm that spun off from Deloitte in 2005.

The Deloitte headquarters in Cyprus. Image: Kostas Pikoulas/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Despite the public split, the firms worked together closely behind closed doors and served as key financial advisors to Abramovich for nearly 20 years, severing ties after he was sanctioned by the United Kingdom and the European Union in response to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. ICIJ’s previous reporting on the MeritServus files connected Abramovich to 261 companies and trusts in Cyprus, the British Virgin Islands, Jersey and other secrecy jurisdictions.

In response to TBIJ and the BBC’s findings, Abramovich’s lawyers denied their client was aware of unlawful backdating, evaded taxes or misled Cypriot authorities: “If an arrangement was proposed by professional advisers of Deloitte’s standing, it would have been entirely proper for companies linked to our client … to rely on it.”

Deloitte Cyprus said that it “acts in compliance with all applicable laws.”

The vanishing billions

Abramovich made his fortune in the 1990s by buying Russia’s state-owned oil company Sibneft after the fall of the Soviet Union for roughly $250 million. A decade later he sold the company back to the government for billions in profit, which he parlayed into investments in real estate, superyachts, a nearly $1 billion art collection and the Chelsea Football Club.

In 2003, one of Abramovich’s Cypriot companies, Kravin Investments, received a windfall of $3 billion from his sale of Sibneft shares, TBIJ and the BBC reported. Around $2 billion was left accruing interest in Kravin’s bank account — and becoming a tax liability.

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Leaked emails show how members of Abramovich’s inner circle, who oversaw his financial affairs from London, agreed on a plan to solve the tax issue with his advisors in Cyprus, including MeritServus founder Demetris Ioannides and Antonis Taliotis, a senior tax advisor at Deloitte Cyprus until earlier this year. In one email, Deloitte advised that “certain changes will have to be made to the accounts (bank account balances, interest income, profit and loss account).”

Ioannides’ lawyers told TBIJ and the BBC that he was unable to respond to requests for comment. Talitotis declined to comment through Deloitte Cyprus.

From 2005, MeritServus began backdating documents to 2003, making it appear as though the $3 billion was transferred out of Kravin’s accounts to another of Abramovich’s companies in the British Virgin Islands instead of sitting untouched for years, the investigation found.

MeritServus reportedly then created a backdated agreement claiming that Kravin had been holding and investing the money on the other company’s behalf and therefore shouldn’t be taxed in Cyprus. To add to the illusion, MeritServus also drafted fake correspondence between the companies as well as other corroborating documents — some reportedly as recently as 2008.

Several experts, including Mitchell, told TBIJ and the BBC that the backdated records were devised to evade taxes.

https://www.icij.org/investigations/cyprus-confidential/chelsea-fc-fined-millions-over-secret-payments-under-abramovich-ownership/

IMPACT Chelsea FC fined millions over secret payments under Abramovich ownership Mar 17, 2026

https://www.icij.org/investigations/cyprus-confidential/uk-mps-push-for-probe-into-russian-billionaires-possible-1b-tax-dodge/

TAX HAVENS UK MPs push for probe into Russian billionaire’s possible $1B tax dodge Feb 05, 2025

https://www.icij.org/investigations/russia-archive/leak-reveals-majority-interest-in-roman-abramovichs-nearly-1-billion-art-collection-was-transferred-to-his-ex-wife-ahead-of-sanctions/

Art Leak reveals majority interest in Roman Abramovich’s nearly $1B art collection was transferred to his ex-wife ahead of sanctions Sep 22, 2023

Recommended reading IMPACT Chelsea FC fined millions over secret payments under Abramovich ownership Mar 17, 2026 TAX HAVENS UK MPs push for probe into Russian billionaire’s possible $1B tax dodge Feb 05, 2025 Art Leak reveals majority interest in Roman Abramovich’s nearly $1B art collection was transferred to his ex-wife ahead of sanctions Sep 22, 2023