Pandora Papers: A simple guide to the Pandora Papers leak BBC - https://tinyurl.com/273xvhka The Pandora Papers is a leak of almost 12 million documents that reveals hidden wealth, tax avoidance and, in some cases, money laundering by some of the world's rich and powerful. More than 600 journalists in 117 countries have been trawling through the files from 14 sources for months, finding stories that are being published this week. The data was obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in Washington DC, which has been working with more than 140 media organisations on its biggest ever global investigation. BBC Panorama and the Guardian have led the investigation in the UK. What has been uncovered? The Pandora Papers leak includes 6.4 million documents, almost three million images, more than a million emails and almost half-a-million spreadsheets. Stories revealed so far include: the prominent Tory donor who was involved in one of Europe's biggest corruption scandals the King of Jordan's £70m spending spree on properties in the UK and US through secretly-owned companies Azerbaijan's leading family's hidden involvement in property deals in the UK worth more than £400m the Czech prime minister's failure to declare an offshore investment company used to purchase two French villas for £12m how the family of Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta's secretly owned a network of offshore companies for decades The files expose how some of the most powerful people in the world - including more than 330 politicians from 90 countries - use secret offshore companies to hide their wealth. Lakshmi Kumar from US think-tank Global Financial Integrity explained that these people "are able to funnel and siphon money away and hide it," often through the use of anonymous companies. What do we mean by 'offshore'? The Pandora Papers reveal complex networks of companies that are set up across borders, often resulting in hidden ownership of money and assets. For example, someone may have a property in the UK, but own it via a chain of companies based in other countries, or "offshore". These offshore countries or territories are where: it's easy to set up companies there are laws that make it difficult to identify owners of companies there is low or no corporation tax The destinations are often called tax havens or secrecy jurisdictions. There is no definitive list of tax havens, but the most well known destinations include British Overseas Territories such as the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands, as well as countries such as Switzerland and Singapore. Is it illegal to use a tax haven? Loopholes in the law allow people to legally avoid paying some taxes by moving their money or setting up companies in tax havens, but it is often seen as unethical. The UK government says tax avoidance "involves operating within the letter, but not the spirit, of the law". There are also a number of legitimate reasons people may want to hold money and assets in different countries, such as protection from criminal attacks or guarding against unstable governments. Although having secretive offshore assets is not illegal, using a complex network of secret companies to move around money and assets is the perfect way to hide the proceeds of criminality. There have been repeated calls for politicians to make it harder to avoid tax or hide assets, particularly following previous leaks such as the Panama Papers. But Mr Ryle said the Pandora Papers show that "the people that could end the secrecy offshore… are themselves benefiting from it. So there's no incentive for them to end it". How easy is it to hide money offshore? All you need to do is set up a shell company in one of the countries or jurisdictions with high levels of secrecy. This is a company that exists in name only, with no staff or office. It costs money though. Specialist firms are paid to set up and run shell companies on your behalf. These firms can provide an address and names of paid directors, therefore leaving no trail of who is ultimately behind the business. How much money is hidden offshore? It is impossible to say for sure, but estimates have ranged from $5.6 trillion to $32 trillion, according to the ICIJ. The International Monetary Fund has said the use of tax havens costs governments worldwide up to $600bn in lost taxes each year. Ms Kumar said it is detrimental to the rest of society: "The ability to hide money has a direct impact on your life... it affects your child's access to education, access to health, access to a home." What is the UK doing about it? The UK has been criticised for allowing property to be owned by anonymous companies overseas. The government published draft legislation in 2018 that would require the ultimate owners of UK properties to be declared. But it is still waiting to be presented to MPs. A 2019 parliamentary report said the UK system attracts people "such as money launderers, who may wish to use property to conceal illicit funds". It said criminal investigations are often "hindered" because police cannot see who ultimately owns properties. The government recently raised the risk of money laundering through property from "medium" to "high". It says it's cracking down on money laundering with tougher laws and enforcement, and that it will introduce a register of offshore companies owning UK property when parliamentary time allows. The Pandora Papers is a leak of almost 12 million documents and files exposing the secret wealth and dealings of world leaders, politicians and billionaires. The data was obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in Washington DC and has led to one of the biggest ever global investigations. More than 600 journalists from 117 countries have looked at the hidden fortunes of some of the most powerful people on the planet. BBC Panorama and the Guardian have led the investigation in the UK. Pandora Papers coverage: follow reaction on Twitter using #PandoraPapers, in the BBC News app, or watch Panorama on the BBC iPlayer (UK viewers only)
Pandora Papers: hundreds of politicians, public figures linked to offshore fortunes https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-...orld-leaders-offshore-fortunes/9901633331623/ An investigation into millions of confidential files has uncovered the alleged underhanded financial dealings of 35 current and former heads of state as well as more than 330 politicians and public officials. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released the report called the Pandora Papers on Sunday, accusing Jordan's King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein of using offshore companies to purchase Malibu beachfront property, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis of doing likewise to buy a French Riviera chateau and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair of purchasing a British Virgin Islands offshore company in order to avoid paying hundreds of thousands in property taxes. The ICIJ said the trove of 11.9 million documents from 14 offshore services firms worldwide is larger than its Panama Papers that rocked the financial world in 2016. "The Pandora Papers investigation unmasks the covert owners of offshore companies, incognito bank accounts, private jets, yachts, mansions, even artworks by Picasso, Banksy and other masters," it said. The consortium of 600 journalists from 150 news outlets accuse King Abdullah II of working with a Switzerland-based English accountant to anonymously purchase 14 luxury homes worth more than $106 million in the United States and Britain through the use of 36 shell companies between 1995 and 2017. The report also states that Babis bought Chateau Bigaud in Mougins, France, in 2009 through shell companies, neither of which he declared as assets as required by Czech law. Concerning Blair, the report alleges the he and his wife, Cherie Blair, came to own a $8.8 million Victorian building through buying the British Virgin Islands company that held its deed from Zayed bin Rashid al-Zayani, Bahrain's industry and tourism minister. The consortium said that by purchasing the company in order to buy the property, the Blairs avoided paying more than $400,000 in property taxes. The Pandora Papers also connects the inner circle of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan to offshore companies and trusts worth millions of dollars while also linking the presidents of Ukraine, Kenya and Ecuador to offshore dealings. Khan tweeted that they "welcome the Pandora Papers" and the "ill-gotten wealth of the elites" it exposed. "My government will check all its citizens whose names appear in the Pandora Papers and if anything goes wrong, we will take appropriate action," he said. "I urge the international community to do the same to address this blatant injustice." The consortium said it has identified 956 offshore tax haven companies linked to 336 politicians and public officials in the Pandora Papers. "In an era of widening authoritarianism and inequality, the Pandora Papers investigation provides an unequaled perspective on how money and power operate in the 21st century -- and how the rule of law has been bent and broken around the world by a system of financial secrecy enabled by the U.S. and other wealthy nations," it said. Oxfam International, a British confederation of charities, cheered the reporters who published the report while calling for immediate and long-promised action from world leaders on preventing the use of offshore tax havens. "This is where our missing hospitals are. This is where the pay-packets sit of all the extra teachers and firefighters and public servants we need," Oxfam International's tax policy lead Susana Ruiz said in a statement. "Whenever a politician or business leader claims there is 'no money' to pay for climate damage and innovation, for more and better jobs, for a fair post-COVID recovery, for more overseas aid, they know where to look." Tax havens, Ruiz said, cost governments $472 billion a year. "Ordinary taxpayers have to pick up the pieces. Developing countries are being hardest hit, proportionately," she said. "We cannot allow tax havens to continue to stretch global inequality to breaking point while the world experiences the largest increase in extreme poverty in decades." The report comes years after the consortium's Panama Papers was published, implicating some of the world's rich and powerful with fortunes hidden in offshore havens. Some of those connected included FIFA members, Putin and movie star Jackie Chan. Celebrities and world leaders implicated in the Panama Papers leak (Slide show in article)
Let's take a look at what Kristi Noem's state is famous for under her policies with assistance of the GOP legislature -- South Dakota is a center of money laundering. Major probe accuses South Dakota of rivaling offshore tax havens https://www.axios.com/pandora-paper...ens-67243448-d2bf-4545-bdc9-920ee7ca4f23.html Over a dozen U.S. states have become "leaders" in "peddling financial secrecy," according to a global investigation of leaked documents, known as the "Pandora Papers," published this weekend. Why it matters: "South Dakota, Nevada and other states have adopted financial secrecy laws that rival those of offshore jurisdictions," per the papers, obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in Washington, D.C., and shared with major news outlets. The investigation, involving more than 600 journalists examining over 11.9 million financial records, found data showing "leaders of foreign governments, their relatives and companies moving their private fortunes into U.S.-based trusts," per the Washington Post, an investigation media partner. President Biden has pledged that his administration will lead efforts to bring transparency to the U.S. and global financial systems. The files suggest that the U.S. has emerged as "a leading tax haven," with S.D. in particular allegedly "sheltering billions of dollars in wealth linked to individuals previously accused of serious financial crimes," notes the Guardian, another partner, along with the BBC and Le Monde. Of note: The records provide "substantial new evidence" that South Dakota "now rivals notoriously opaque jurisdictions in Europe and the Caribbean in financial secrecy," per WashPost. "Year after year in South Dakota, state lawmakers have approved legislation drafted by trust industry insiders, providing more and more protections and other benefits for trust customers in the U.S. and abroad," according to the ICIJ. "Customer assets in South Dakota trusts have more than quadrupled over the past decade to $360 billion," the ICIJ added. Zoom in: "Tens of millions of dollars from outside the United States are now sheltered by trust companies in Sioux Falls, some of it tied to people and companies accused of human rights abuses and other wrongdoing," WashPost reports. The outlet notes records show that in 2019, "family members of the former vice president of the Dominican Republic, who once led one of the largest sugar producers in the country, finalized several trusts in South Dakota." "The trusts held personal wealth and shares of the company, which has stood accused of human rights and labor abuses, including illegally bulldozing houses of impoverished families to expand plantations," WashPost adds. Representatives for S.D. and Nevada legislators and the Biden administration did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.
Let's take a look at the guy who has effectively looted Haiti and how he has been hiding his money and living in luxury in Florida. Pandora Papers: A mega wealthy man from the region’s poorest country — and his Miami palace https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article254361683.html When the Jeffrey Epstein estate needed to sell off assets to compensate victims and cover litigation costs, retired Haitian businessman Gilbert Bigio was the man with the money. He purchased the disgraced financier’s Mercedes Maybach sedan in Paris for a cool sum of about $132,000. The sale is buried at the end of a 418-page document accounting for the estate’s finances in the third quarter of 2020. Nothing indicates how and why the man considered one of the richest if not the richest person in Haiti knew to snap up Epstein’s chariot for a bargain. (Today’s cheapest models start at $185,000.) Bigio, 86, is a well-known power broker in Haiti’s political circles. When Haitians talk about families that run the country, the Bigios invariably come up. A new and massive global leak of secret offshore shell company documents shows just how far-reaching his empire stretches — and how the Caribbean’s wealthy elite have for decades masked their fortunes and protected their assets through offshore shell companies that point to Swiss bank accounts. Dubbed the Pandora Papers, the leak involves more than 11.9 million documents from 14 global offshore service providers — companies or law firms that create offshore entities, often with obscure and complex ownership structures. Collectively, the Pandora Papers show how the wealthy elite across the globe shield, even hide their fortunes. There are legitimate reasons for seeking the anonymity a shell company provides. Secrecy can prevent a seller from jacking up the price if the buyer is a celebrity, smooth the process of a merger in the works or enable an individual to legally minimize their tax obligations. But offshore entities also can wall off revenue entirely from taxing authorities, hide stolen money and obscure illicit drug profits that can be funneled into corrupting government officials and law enforcement. Bigio retired as CEO of the GB Group in 2018, and is frequently referred to as a billionaire, yet hails from the hemisphere’s poorest country. It’s a nation torn apart by earthquakes, corruption, gang violence and this summer’s horrifying assassination of the president. The Pandora Papers show the Bigios, sometime Miami residents, used offshores in multiple tax havens and moved wealth to Miami and to Switzerland. Who Are They? Along with his 48-year-old son Reuven, Gilbert Bigio controls the GB Group he founded in 1972. The conglomerate’s reach extends to the entire Haitian economy, from providing construction supplies and fuel to offering household necessities like cooking oil and food. He has branched out as well into the Dominican side of Hispaniola. GB Group, which boasts offices in the tony Florida city of Aventura, over the past decade constructed Haiti’s private Port Lafito container terminal and free-trade zone. Much of what is bought, sold or consumed in Haiti is likely to touch some corner of the Bigio empire. Despite that grip on the Haitian economy, Bigio prefers to operate behind the scenes. He’s not considered allied to any politician or political party or diplomats who have worked in Haiti over the years. The family, sanctioned by the United States in the 1990s, mostly refuses interviews. “He was not a big name when I was ambassador,” recalled Pamela White, who was U.S. envoy to Haiti from 2012 to 2015 and served in a junior role there from 1985 to 1990. In Florida, the Bigios have lived behind protective gates in the most exclusive of zones, Indian Creek Island. They’ve enjoyed protection from local police officers who around the clock staff the entrance gate to the private island community. Property records show their home is held in the name of two corporations: Agro Products and Services, registered in Florida, and Porpoise Investments Ltd., a shell company registered in the Isle of Man, a self-governing low-tax British Crown dependency in the Irish Sea. (More at above url)
2.9 TB of papers. A single lifetime would be not enough to read all of that. Nothing surprising tho. ,,Shakira Shakira''
Yeah... Tax havens are the cause of government's incompetence. If only they had stolen even more money, then it would all have worked out. Government throwing more money at something has always worked wonders. American public education, for example, it is one of the biggest examples of that "successful strategy".
Why are there no big American names in Pandora Papers? https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...cs/pandora-papers-us-tax-policy-b1932093.html