PricewaterhouseCoopers has withdrawn ten years of audit reports for Yukos after stating that its financial accounts for the now-bankrupt Russian oil group were based on inaccurate information.

PwC’s decision, which covers the period 1994 to 2004, is seen as a climbdown for the audit firm and a victory for the Kremlin and Russian prosecutors, who have waged a long campaign against Yukos and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once its largest shareholder, who is serving an eight-year prison sentence after being convicted of fraud and tax evasion.

In a statement, PwC said it “decided to withdraw its audit opinions for Yukos when it became aware of new information which, had it been known at the time, may have affected Yukos’s audit reports. PwC now believes information and representations which was provided to PwC by Yukos’s former management may not have been accurate.”

Yukos was Russia’s largest oil producer, but was broken up and sold off to state-controlled energy groups after being served with a claim for about $27 billion (£13.5 billion) in back taxes three years ago.

PwC has faced persistent pressure from the Russian Government, including a police raid on its Moscow office in March.

Although Russia’s Finance Ministry has recently renewed PwC’s licence to operate in the country for a further five years, the firm faces a criminal investigation into alleged underpayment of taxes.

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