Cypriot tax authorities have acknowledged they are unable to recover over $15 million in unpaid taxes linked to a now-defunct company allegedly used by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich to dodge value-added tax (VAT) on his luxury superyacht operations. The case has sparked intense political scrutiny in Cyprus and raised broader questions about the country’s vulnerabilities to financial manipulation by sanctioned oligarchs.

The company at the heart of the controversy, Blue Ocean Yacht Management, was reportedly used by Abramovich to manage and lease his $1.2 billion fleet of superyachts through a network of offshore firms. Despite a Cypriot Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that Blue Ocean was liable for unpaid taxes, officials have admitted that the money cannot be reclaimed because the company was removed from the corporate registry in July 2024-months before the final ruling was issued.

The unraveling of this complex financial web is the result of a collaborative investigation spearheaded by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ), in partnership with the BBC, The Guardian, Cyprus-based CIReN, and other media outlets. The reporting, which drew on leaked documents from the “Cyprus Confidential” files released in 2023 by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and Paper Trail Media, detailed how Abramovich controlled both the leasing company (Blue........

© Blitz