Over the last quarter-century, international leaders, influential politicians, billionaires, and others have utilized offshore accounts to protect assets worth trillions of dollars, according to a new analysis.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists enlisted the help of 600 journalists from 150 media outlets in 117 countries for the report. The findings have been termed the “Pandora Papers” because they reveal previously secret dealings between the powerful and the unscrupulous.
According to an examination of roughly 12 million papers collected from 14 firms around the world, hundreds of politicians, celebrities, religious leaders, and drug dealers have been hiding their investments in homes, exclusive beachfront property, yachts, and other assets.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Czech Republic Prime Minister Andrej Babis, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso, and associates of both Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Russian President Vladimir Putin are among the more than 330 current and former politicians identified as beneficiaries of the secret accounts.
Turkish construction entrepreneurs Erman Ilicak and Robert T. Brockman, the former CEO of software manufacturer Reynolds & Reynolds, are among the billionaires named in the report.
According to the investigation, many of the accounts were put up to cheat taxes and hide assets for other nefarious purposes.
Sven Giegold, a Green Party lawmaker in the European Parliament, said, “The fresh data leak must be a wake-up call.” “Tax avoidance on a worldwide scale fosters global inequity. Now is the time to broaden and refine our countermeasures.”
The Pandora Papers were praised by Oxfam International, a British charity group, for exposing blatant cases of selfishness that deprived governments of tax revenue that could have been used to fund programs and projects for the greater good.
In a statement, Oxfam said, “This is where our missing hospitals are.” “This is where all of the extra teachers, firefighters, and public officials’ pay packages are kept. They know where to look whenever a politician or corporate leader declares there is “no money” to pay for climate harm and innovation, more and better jobs, a fair post-COVID recovery, or more overseas help.”
The Pandora Papers are a follow-up to the “Panama Papers,” a similar initiative published by the same journalistic organization in 2016.
The most recent revelation is much bigger, relying on over 3 gigabytes of data — around 750,000 photos on a smartphone — leaked from 14 distinct service providers operating in 38 different regions around the world. The files extend back to the 1970s; however, most of them are from 1996 to 2020.
The Panama Papers, on the other hand, were collected from 2.6 terabytes of data leaked by a now-defunct legal firm called Mossack Fonseca, which was based in the country that gave the initiative its name.
Accounts registered in well-known offshore havens such as the British Virgin Islands, Seychelles, Hong Kong, and Belize were investigated in the most recent inquiry. However, some of the secret accounts were hidden in trusts set up across the United States, including 81 in South Dakota and 37 in Florida.
From 1995 to 2017, advisers helped Jordan’s King Abdullah establish up at least three dozen shell companies, allowing the monarch to purchase 14 residences for more than $106 million in the United States and the United Kingdom, according to the study. One was a $23 million ocean-view property in California purchased in 2017 by a British Virgin Islands firm. An English accountant in Switzerland and lawyers in the British Virgin Islands were named as the advisers.
In a statement released Monday by the Royal Palace, Abdullah denied any wrongdoing, citing security concerns and claiming that no public funds were utilized.
The revelations are an embarrassment for Abdullah, whose government has been dogged by scandal since his half-brother, former Crown Prince Hamzah, accused the “ruling system” of corruption and ineptitude earlier this year. The king claimed he was the victim of a “malicious scheme,” imprisoned his half brother, and tried two former close associates.
Abdullah’s lawyers in the United Kingdom claim he is not compelled to pay taxes in his own country and has not misappropriated public monies. Most of the firms and assets are not tied to the king or no longer exist, according to the attorneys, who declined to offer specifics.
According to the research, Blair, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007, purchased an $8.8 million Victorian building in 2017 by purchasing a British Virgin Islands corporation that owned it, and the building now houses the legal office of his wife, Cherie Blair. The two bought the company from Zayed bin Rashid al-Zayani, Bahrain’s industry, and the tourism minister’s family. The Blairs saved more than $400,000 in property taxes by purchasing company shares rather than the London building, according to the study.
According to the investigation, both the Blairs and the al-Zayanis claimed they were unaware the other party was participating in the trade at the time. Cherie Blair said her husband was not involved in the acquisition, which was made to bring “the firm and the building back into the U.K. tax and regulatory environment,” according to her. She also stated that she did not wish to own a British Virgin Islands corporation and that the “seller just wanted to sell the company for their own interests,” which is now closed.
The al-Zayanis’ lawyer claimed that they followed all UK laws.
Khan, Pakistan’s prime minister has been cleared of all charges. According to the journalists’ findings, members of his inner circle, including Finance Minister Shaukat Fayaz Ahmed Tarin, are accused of hiding millions of dollars in fortune in secret corporations or trusts.
Khan promised to reclaim the “ill-gotten gains” in a tweet, adding that his government will investigate all citizens named in the documents and take action if necessary.
After directing the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Putin’s image-maker and chief executive of Russia’s biggest TV station, Konstantin Ernst, received a discount to buy and develop Soviet-era cinemas and surrounding property in Moscow, according to the group of journalists. Ernst told the group that the arrangement was not a secret and that he was not given preferential treatment.
Babis, the Czech prime minister, deposited $22 million into shell companies in 2009 to acquire a chateau property in Mougins, France, near Cannes, according to the probe. According to documents obtained by the journalistic group’s Czech partner, Investigace.cz, Babis failed to reveal the shell firms and the chateau in his necessary asset statements.
According to the investigation, a real estate group owned indirectly by Babis purchased the Monaco Company that held the Château in 2018.
Babis has categorically rejected any wrongdoing.
He told Czech public television on Monday, “I don’t own any offshore, I don’t own any property in France, and all the money I loaned then I got back.” “Leave it to the cops to look into it.”
The story, according to Babis, was intended to undermine him ahead of the Czech Republic’s parliamentary election on Friday and Saturday.
“It’s a campaign of ugly, baseless charges aimed at swaying the election. “That’s all I have to say about it,” he said. The organized crime unit of the Czech police said it will look into the report
