Leaked Bombshell! Secret Offshore Tax Haven Details
Exposed!
. Financial Industry Leak Exposes The Rich Who Hide Money Overseas
Millions
of internal records have leaked from Britain's offshore financial industry,
exposing for the first time the identities of thousands of holders of
anonymous wealth from around the world, from presidents to plutocrats, the
daughter of a notorious dictator and a British millionaire accused of
concealing assets from his ex-wife.
The
leak of 2m emails and other documents, mainly from the offshore haven of the
British Virgin Islands (BVI), has the potential to cause a seismic shock
worldwide to the booming offshore trade, with a former chief economist at
McKinsey estimating that wealthy individuals may have as much as $32tn
(£21tn) stashed in overseas havens.
In
France, Jean-Jacques Augier, President François Hollande's campaign
co-treasurer and close friend, has been forced to publicly identify his
Chinese business partner. It emerges as Hollande is mired in financial
scandal because his former budget minister concealed a Swiss bank account for
20 years and repeatedly lied about it.
In
Mongolia, the country's former finance minister and deputy speaker of its
parliament says he may have to resign from politics as a result of this
investigation.
But the
two can now be named for the first time because of their use of companies in
offshore havens, particularly in the British Virgin Islands, where owners'
identities normally remain secret.
The
names have been unearthed in a novel project by the Washington-based
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists [ICIJ], in
collaboration with the Guardian and other international media, who are
jointly publishing their research results this week.
The
naming project may be extremely damaging for confidence among the world's
wealthiest people, no longer certain that the size of their fortunes remains
hidden from governments and from their neighbours.
BVI's
clients include Scot Young, a millionaire associate of deceased oligarch
Boris Berezovsky. Dundee-born Young is in jail for contempt of court for
concealing assets from his ex-wife.
Young's
lawyer, to whom he signed over power of attorney, appears to control
interests in a BVI company that owns a potentially lucrative Moscow
development with a value estimated at $100m.
Another
is jailed fraudster Achilleas Kallakis. He used fake BVI companies to obtain
a record-breaking £750m in property loans from reckless British and Irish
banks.
As well
as Britons hiding wealth offshore, an extraordinary array of government
officials and rich families across the world are identified, from Canada, the
US, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Iran, China, Thailand and former communist
states.
The
data seen by the Guardian shows that their secret companies are based mainly
in the British Virgin Islands.
Sample
offshore owners named in the leaked files include:
•
Jean-Jacques Augier, François Hollande's 2012 election campaign co-treasurer,
launched a Caymans-based distributor in China with a 25% partner in a BVI
company. Augier says his partner was Xi Shu, a Chinese businessman.
•
Mongolia's former finance minister. Bayartsogt Sangajav set up "Legend
Plus Capital Ltd" with a Swiss bank account, while he served as finance
minister of the impoverished state from 2008 to 2012. He says it was "a
mistake" not to declare it, and says "I probably should consider
resigning from my position".
The
president of Azerbaijan and his family. A local construction magnate, Hassan
Gozal, controls entities set up in the names of President Ilham Aliyev's two
daughters.
• The
wife of Russia's deputy prime minister. Olga Shuvalova's husband, businessman
and politician Igor Shuvalov, has denied allegations of wrongdoing about her
offshore interests.
•A
senator's husband in Canada. Lawyer Tony Merchant deposited more than
US$800,000 into an offshore trust.
He paid
fees in cash and ordered written communication to be "kept to a
minimum".
• A
dictator's child in the Philippines: Maria Imelda Marcos Manotoc, a
provincial governor, is the eldest daughter of former President Ferdinand
Marcos, notorious for corruption.
•
Spain's wealthiest art collector, Baroness Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, a
former beauty queen and widow of a Thyssen steel billionaire, who uses
offshore entities to buy pictures.
• US:
Offshore clients include Denise Rich, ex-wife of notorious oil trader Marc
Rich, who was controversially pardoned by President Clinton on tax evasion
charges. She put $144m into the Dry Trust, set up in the Cook Islands.
It is
estimated that more than $20tn acquired by wealthy individuals could lie in
offshore accounts. The UK-controlled BVI has been the most successful among
the mushrooming secrecy havens that cater for them.
The
Caribbean micro-state has incorporated more than a million such offshore
entities since it began marketing itself worldwide in the 1980s. Owners' true
identities are never revealed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Secret
Files Expose Offshore's Global Impact
Dozens
of journalists sifted through millions of leaked records and thousands of
names to produce ICIJ’s investigation into offshore secrecy.
More
here with video: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/03/offshore-companies-politicians_n_3008426.html
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