Earthquake causes the Pandora Papers journalistic investigation, which reveals that more than 160 politicians and public figures hid their assets in offshore companies in order to evade taxes. Among them are the Czech Prime Minister, the King of Jordan and the Presidents of Kenya and Ecuador. Claudia Seifer, Julio Iglesias and Shakira are some of the stars that appear in the same list. The leak also links Russian President Vladimir Putin to hidden assets in Monaco.
The International Journalists’ Investigation Consortium (ICIJ) survey was published yesterday, Sunday. According to her, a well-known Panamanian law firm is involved in setting up offshore companies in order for the rich and powerful on the planet to hide their wealth and evade taxes.
The rich and powerful in the list of Pandora Papers
According to the BBC, 35 political leaders, current and former, and more than 300 officials are including documents from offshore companies called Panama Papers.
THE King of Jordan, reveal the documents, secretly amassed a property with properties in the United Kingdom and the United States. Jordan’s King Abdullah II has set up at least 30 offshore companies in tax havens. Through these companies, he bought 14 properties in the US and the UK worth over $ 106 million.
The Jordanian ambassador to Washington declined to comment, but the king’s lawyers, quoted by the BBC, said he had used his personal property and turned to offshore companies for security and confidentiality.
THE former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and his wife saved 360 360,000 in property taxes when they bought a London building. The couple made the purchase offshore, to which the building belonged.
Russian President Vladimir Putin linked to hidden assets in Monaco, while the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Andrei Babis has invested $ 22 million in showcase companies that served in the market for the Bigo Tower in Mougins in southern France. “I have never done anything illegal or bad,” Babis responded on his Twitter account. “But that does not stop them from trying to discredit me and influence the parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic,” which are scheduled for Friday and Saturday.
The list also includes celebrities such as Claudia Seifer, Julio Iglesias and Shakira, according to the Spanish El Pais.
Among the celebrities from the field of sports is Carlo Ancelotti, which is already being investigated by the Spanish tax authorities and the former coach of Barcelona, Pep Guardiola.
Another well-known name is that of the former minister of France Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The former director general of the International Monetary Fund has transferred several million dollars of his salary as a business consultant through a Moroccan company that is tax-free.
The President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta has repeatedly expressed his determination to fight corruption in his country and to impose transparency on Kenyan public officials over their property. However, according to the Pandora Papers, the Kenyan president owns an institution in Panama and many members of his immediate family – including his mother, brother and two sisters – hold more than $ 30 million in offshore accounts. .
The Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan was elected flag of the fight against corruption. His name was also in the Panama Papers survey. According to the Pandora Papers survey, members of his family and government hold millions of dollars in offshore accounts. On Twitter, the Pakistani Prime Minister assured that he will “investigate” all the Pakistani citizens mentioned in the Pandora Papers
His people President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev – who is systematically accused of corruption – carried out shady real estate transactions in the United Kingdom. Among them, the purchase of an office building in the name of Haider’s 11-year-old son, according to the BBC.
The president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso has deposited assets in two trusts in South Dakota, according to the ICIJ, which also made revelations about the presidents of Chile and the Dominican Republic. “All my income is declared and I have paid the corresponding taxes to Ecuador,” assured Lasso, a former banker. “All the investments I have made in Ecuador and abroad were made legally,” he added.
According to the same post, other names will be announced in the coming weeks.
Pandora Papers: The Panama scandal and law firm
A well-known Panama law firm cites the Pandora Papers journalistic investigation. The law firm Aleman, Cordero, Galindo & Lee, or Alcogal, is involved in setting up offshore companies for some of these individuals, including Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic and three former Panamanian presidents, according to the French news agency the Athenian News Agency.
The ICIJ survey, the work of more than 600 journalists in 117 countries, lists 14,000 offshore companies based in Belize, the British Virgin Islands and Panama created in 1996 with the help of Alcogal to provide approximately 15,000 law firm clients with hide their assets.
About 2 million of the 11.9 million Pandora Papers documents released yesterday are related to Alcogal, which, according to the ICIJ, played a “significant role in tax evasion”.
For its part, the law firm “rejects these speculations, inaccuracies and lies,” it said in a statement. He even stressed that he is ready to cooperate with the authorities in order to investigate any irregularities.
The Panamanian authorities have long feared that they would be involved in the Pandora Papers investigation.
“The damage could be irreparable,” the government said in a letter to the ICIJ through a law firm.
The letter warned that “any disclosure” would reinforce the “false belief” that the country was a tax haven, which would have “catastrophic consequences for Panama and its people”.
The letter also mentioned many reforms that have taken place in recent years in this Central American country, which, however, remains on the list of EU tax havens.
Already in 2016 Panama found itself at the heart of a tax haven scandal in a previous ICIJ investigation, the Panama Papers.
At the heart of the scandal, which erupted on April 3, 2016, was the law firm of Jürgen Mosak and Ramon Fonseca, which in 2018 announced the suspension of its activities.
The leak of 11.5 million digital files of the law firm Mossack Fonseca has brought to light the financial practices of many of its clients, including businessmen, banks, football teams and heads of state.
The publication of Panama Papers had shocked the world public opinion and led, among others, to the resignation of the Prime Minister of Iceland Sigmundur David Gunlaugsson and then the Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif.
The revelations also led to at least 150 investigations in 79 countries for tax evasion and money laundering, according to the US Center for Public Transparency.
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