Tony Halpin in Moscow
March 10, 2007
The Moscow headquarters of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) was raided yesterday by two teams of investigators from the Russian Government.
Ten Interior Ministry police officers demanded access to documents relating to allegations that the accountancy firm owes back taxes of 290 million roubles (£5.7 million) and investigators from the Prosecutor-General’s Office arrived to search for papers linked to its criminal inquiry into the fallen oil giant Yukos.
PwC was the auditor for Yukos, which was bankrupted by the Kremlin after being found guilty of fraud and tax evasion. Prosecutors laid fresh money-laundering charges last month against Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former chairman of the oil company, alleging that he stole $25 billion (£13 billion) from the company. He is serving eight years in jail for fraud and tax evasion.