Key Sentence:
- The most significant data leak from an overseas tax haven has shed light on Forbes’ secret financial operations of royalty, world leaders, and 130 billionaires.
The Pandora document, released on Sunday (October 3), contains 11.9 million financial records leaked by 14 law firms and offshore service providers from locations like the British Virgin Islands (BVI), Panama, and Belize.
Documents show that Jordan’s King Abdullah owns 14 luxury properties in the UK and the US. Worth an estimated $106 million, which he purchased through an offshore account with the BVI. For example, a house in Malibu is said to have seven bedrooms, a gym, a cinema, and a swimming pool. Which bought the London office from Bavarian Minister Zayed bin Rashid Alzayani for £6.5 million (US$8.8 million).
Using an offshore company to buy or sell assets is a legal process shared among the wealthy. Many celebrities use it to hide their identity. Lawyers for King Abdullah told ICIJ that there was nothing wrong with the transaction. Cherry Blair told the Guardian that “there is nothing unusual or unspoken in any of this.”
However, offered tax breaks will not be accepted. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which worked on the leak, among other things. Estimates Blairs could save £312,000 (US$423,800) in property taxes by using an offshore company. King Abdullah does not have to pay taxes, but the suppression of hidden wealth began in June last year.
Corruption in the BVI is known to be widespread.
In January, Governor Gus Jaspert asked a British judge to investigate “rising evidence of a serious organized crime.” Trusts in US states.
Among the US billionaires named in the Pandora Papers are private equity billionaire Robert F. Smith and his financier Robert Brockman. Last year, Smith approved a $139 million tax audit deal, and Brockman was charged with tax fraud by a grand jury. Smith refused to speak to ICIJ, and Brockman pleaded not guilty.
But most of the billionaires named in the document are from Russia, including former senator and oil magnate Leonid Lebedev. Other documents show how Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta’s family ran a law firm in Panama called Aleman. Cordero, Galindo & Lee (Alcohol), a Pandora Papers court worth nearly half a billion dollars. Colleagues from Africa, Ali Bongo Ondimba from Gabon and Denis Sasu-Ngeso from the Republic of Congo, use a similar structure.
In Europe, Czech Prime Minister Andrei Babis bought the BVI company a $22 million castle in southern France. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky used companies from Cyprus and Belize to purchase real estate in London. And Azerbaijan’s ruling Aliyev family bought nearly $700 million of land in London, including a 19th-century pub.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis is running for re-election this week.
It’s also inconvenient for England. When asked by the why London is the tax avoidance capital of the world, Chancellor Rishi Sunak replied. “This is a global problem, there is a global dimension, and we need other countries to work with us to deal with it.”
The UK has pressured coronation Jersey and Guernsey, both popular offshore wealth management sites, to publish a beneficiary database containing the names of the principal owners of companies listed there.
The list would end the secrecy of offshore tax havens and lead to data leaks such as the Pandora Papers and its predecessors, the Paradise Papers and Panama Papers, which would be a thing of the past.