The offshore secrets of more than 35 current and former presidents revealed in a massive leak

[Kartal1]

Pandora papers: biggest ever leak of offshore data exposes financial secrets of rich and powerful​

The Pandora papers reveal the inner workings of what is a shadow financial world, providing a rare window into the hidden operations of a global offshore economy. Illustration: Guardian Design

Millions of documents reveal offshore deals and assets of more than 100 billionaires, 30 world leaders and 300 public officials

Guardian investigations team
Sun 3 Oct 2021 17.30 BST



The secret deals and hidden assets of some of the world’s richest and most powerful people have been revealed in the biggest trove of leaked offshore data in history.

Branded the Pandora papers, the cache includes 11.9m files from companies hired by wealthy clients to create offshore structures and trusts in tax havens such as Panama, Dubai, Monaco, Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.

They expose the secret offshore affairs of 35 world leaders, including current and former presidents, prime ministers and heads of state. They also shine a light on the secret finances of more than 300 other public officials such as government ministers, judges, mayors and military generals in more than 90 countries.

The files include disclosures about major donors to the Conservative party, raising difficult questions for Boris Johnson as his party meets for its annual conference.

More than 100 billionaires feature in the leaked data, as well as celebrities, rock stars and business leaders. Many use shell companies to hold luxury items such as property and yachts, as well as incognito bank accounts. There is even art ranging from looted Cambodian antiquities to paintings by Picasso and murals by Banksy.

The Pandora papers reveal the inner workings of what is a shadow financial world, providing a rare window into the hidden operations of a global offshore economy that enables some of the world’s richest people to hide their wealth and in some cases pay little or no tax.

Read full article below:

Pandora papers: biggest ever leak of offshore data exposes financial secrets of rich and powerful

Millions of documents reveal offshore deals and assets of more than 100 billionaires, 30 world leaders and 300 public officials

www.theguardian.com

 

[Kartal1]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1444716805986082816

 

[Kaptaan]

Crap is about to hit the fan and many heads will roll. My understanding is some former Pakistan PM's are on the list including former PM Nawaz Sharif who is very fond of buying expensive real estate in posh area of London. e got caught in the Panama leaks and now is about to get drowned in Pandora.

 

[Nilgiri]

Crap is about to hit the fan and many heads will roll. My understanding is some former Pakistan PM's are on the list including former PM Nawaz Sharif who is very fond of buying expensive real estate in posh area of London. e got caught in the Panama leaks and now is about to get drowned in Pandora.

View attachment 32824

Let's see how it goes with PMIK "inner circle" too:

Prime Minister Imran Khan promised ‘new Pakistan’ but members of his inner circle secretly moved millions offshore - ICIJ

Leak shows a key ally tried to bypass tax authorities and political and military elites bought luxury apartments and set up shell companies.

www.icij.org

@VCheng @Jackdaws

 

[Kaptaan]

Let's see how it goes with PMIK "inner circle" too:

The question here is how the money was made or is it money made by legitimate means that is hidden to avoid tax by using legal loop holes.

Also to note this is a global issue and rich or elites hide their money. The Pandor papers have exposed politicians etc across the world including UK, Pakistan, India, Italy, France etc.

 

[Kaptaan]

Prime Minister Imran Khan has not been shown to be involved in any such activity unlike for British PM Blair, Czech PM and King of Jordan. Furthermore he has just today announced anybody with offshore accounts will be invrestigated.

PM Imran says govt will investigate all citizens mentioned in Pandora Papers​

Shortly after the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on Sunday unveiled “Pandora Papers” — a major international research into the financial secrets held by high-profile individuals around the world — Prime Minister Imran Khan said his government would investigate all citizens mentioned in the report.


Among those named as holding foreign assets are Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, his family, and the son of Prime Minister Imran's former adviser for finance and revenue, Waqar Masood Khan.


The documents contain no suggestion that Imran Khan himself owns offshore companies, said ICIJ.


"We welcome the Pandora Papers exposing the ill-gotten wealth of elites, accumulated through tax evasion & corruption & laundered out to financial 'havens'," PM Imran tweeted. "The UN SG's Panel FACTI [International Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity] calculated a staggering $7 trillion in stolen assets parked in largely offshore tax havens.

"My government will investigate all our citizens mentioned in the Pandora Papers and if any wrongdoing is established we will take appropriate action. I call on the international community to treat this grave injustice as similar to the climate change crisis."

'Companies registered at a similar address of PM Imran'​

According to the ICIJ, in the 48 hours leading up to the publication of the Pandora Papers, ARY News reported that “the owner of two offshore companies registered at a similar address as of Prime Minister Imran Khan has revealed that they were registered by him on a different address and denied any role of the premier in this regard”. The story also attributed the information to “a database of the offshore companies".


ICIJ added that ARY is not a partner and doesn’t have access to ICIJ data. It did not provide more details of the said company in this report.


The consortium said: "In its reporting prior to publication, ICIJ had asked Khan about the same companies. A Khan spokesman told ICIJ that the prime minister had no link to either, adding that two houses in the same neighborhood share an address, providing a map as evidence.


"The spokesman also told ARY News that Khan denied any connection to the companies, adding that their owner 'never met Imran Khan face to face and it may however be possible that they had attended an extended family function'."


Ahead of the release, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Communication Dr Shahbaz Gill had categorically denied Prime Minister Imran having any offshore company.


Addressing a gathering in Faisalabad, Gill stressed that if any other member of the government was found to have hidden offshore assets, they would have to answer for themselves. "Everyone has to go into their own grave," he said.


"The entire country is not the prime minister's offspring if they are caught doing anything wrong ... everyone has to answer for their own actions," he had added.

 

[VCheng]

Let's see how it goes with PMIK "inner circle" too:

Prime Minister Imran Khan promised ‘new Pakistan’ but members of his inner circle secretly moved millions offshore - ICIJ

Leak shows a key ally tried to bypass tax authorities and political and military elites bought luxury apartments and set up shell companies.

www.icij.org

@VCheng @Jackdaws

We all know what will happen: It will go anywhere the real bosses where it needs to go, just like the Panama papers saga. That is all.

 

[Nilgiri]

We all know what will happen: It will go anywhere the real bosses where it needs to go, just like the Panama papers saga. That is all.

Meet the new boss.....same as the old boss....

- "who" (said that?)

 

[VCheng]

Meet the new boss.....same as the old boss....

- "who" (said that?)

The Who said that.

Just like the Naya Pakistan was always destined to be the same as the Purana Pakistan.

And I said that one.

 

[Jackdaws]

Let's see how it goes with PMIK "inner circle" too:

Prime Minister Imran Khan promised ‘new Pakistan’ but members of his inner circle secretly moved millions offshore - ICIJ

Leak shows a key ally tried to bypass tax authorities and political and military elites bought luxury apartments and set up shell companies.

www.icij.org

@VCheng @Jackdaws

Anil "bankrupt" Ambani also has 18 off shore firms. Let's see when the India report comes out.

 

[Turko]

❗️The journalists discovered 84 previously unknown offshore companies that the Aliyevs and two of their closest associates - former tax officials and now businessmen Ashraf Kamilov and Gafar Gurbanov - have owned since 2006.

❗️The cost of London real estate bought by the Aliyevs reached $ 694 million. The period of constant accumulation of wealth was interrupted in 2015 - at the beginning of the financial crisis for Azerbaijan, which began due to the fall in oil prices and the massive devaluation of the currency. The Aliyevs have sold many commercial real estate, including a large development in the historic Bloomsbury district of London.

⚡️ Ilham Aliyev's son Heydar studied in elementary school when he became the owner of the first offshore company. His daughter Arzu at 19 became a shareholder in Strahan Holding and Finance Corp, an offshore company with a Swiss bank account, which acquired £ 5 million worth of property in London. In addition, Pandora's Files revealed that through an offshore company that Arzu Aliyeva opened when she was 19, she owned a stake in the AAC building materials plant, which was opened in part thanks to a 10 million manat ($ 12.8 million) loan from the state. The plant produced building materials for large state facilities. By 2012, she owned 39% of the plant's shares.

The Washington Post promises to publish new materials within the Pandora Dossier in the coming days, incl. on the impact of US sanctions on Russian "oligarchs"

 

[Turko]

AT LEAST 220 NAMES FROM TURKEY

Pandora Papers includes more than 220 names from Turkey. Among these names are prominent representatives of the business world, from Turkey's newly rich to well-established holding owners, as well as public figures from the world of arts and sports.

Pandora Papers documents, published simultaneously all over the world and reviewed by Deutsche Welle, revealed striking facts about Rönesans Holding. According to the details of the tenders announced only to the public, Rönesans Holding, which has received 10 tenders of approximately 16 billion liras in the last five years; According to Pandora Papers documents, it transfers some of its profits from public projects paid for by citizens' taxes to the British Virgin Islands to avoid taxes. It turned out that Rönesans Holding, which came to the fore with numerous tenders from the AKP government, on the one hand built the Presidential Palace with public money, and on the other hand transferred 210 million dollars to the tax haven. With the tax of money transferred offshore by Ayşe Ilıcak, one of the founders of Rönesans Holding, the contractor of the Presidential Palace, only 25 primary schools, 8 hospitals, a dormitory for 15 thousand students could be built or a monthly salary of 115,000 teachers could be paid.

In Turkey, starting from January 2006, subparagraph 7 of Article 30 of the Corporate Tax Law was amended, and it was decided to impose a 30 percent tax on commercial transactions made in tax haven countries. However, since the Council of Ministers has not decided which countries are tax havens, this tax cannot be applied for 15 years. Therefore, the Ministry of Finance cannot act. Treasury loses revenue. According to the news of DW Turkish, the fight against tax havens in Turkey is not about preventing the escape of money, but rather the return of unregistered wealth already transferred to tax havens to the country and registering it. These periodically issued regulations, known as "asset peace" in the public, are criticized as promoting rather than fighting offshore. In the event that assets held abroad are brought to Turkey, these regulations, which do not ask "where did you find it", are a matter of debate as they pave the way for money laundering. The number of asset peace implemented since 2008 has so far reached seven. The arrangement was last extended to the end of the year last June. There are no obstacles to the export of these resources, which have been legalized by entering the system in Turkey. Zero tax advantage is applied to those who register their assets of uncertain origin. This situation leads to tax injustice as well as the risk of money laundering in Turkey.

 

[kumata]

Other than creating some sensational news, these articles means nothing IMO.

 

[Kaptaan]

We all know what will happen: It will go anywhere the real bosses where it needs to go, just like the Panama papers saga. That is all.

Naya to Purana. Purana from naya Pakistan. In India they mercifully are free from 'naya' and are just plain old 'purana India'. Indian Army officers [shake my timbers], politicians, bureaucrats etc are knee deep in Pandora. But 'shoo' let's not talk about that shall we - just target the 'evil pakistan'.

5. Leaked records reveal that many of the power players who could help bring an end to the offshore system instead benefit from it— stashing assets in covert companies and trusts. The confidential data of the 14 offshore service providers, for instance, shows offshore entities set up by a former Revenue Service officer, a former tax commissioner,

former senior Army officer,

a former top law officer and so on.

@Nilgiri And this is before the full list is released.

After Panama, it’s Pandora: facing regulatory heat, elite Indians find new ways to ringfence wealth in secret havens

Pandora Papers | Top businessmen to corporate defaulters, CBI, ED-accused to celebrities: an investigation by The Indian Express finds how complex offshore trusts are used to park assets and evade detection

indianexpress.com

 

[crixus]

Naya to Purana. Purana from naya Pakistan. In India they mercifully are free from 'naya' and are just plain old 'purana India'. Indian Army officers [shake my timbers], politicians, bureaucrats etc are knee deep in Pandora. But 'shoo' let's not talk about that shall we - just target the 'evil pakistan'.

5. Leaked records reveal that many of the power players who could help bring an end to the offshore system instead benefit from it— stashing assets in covert companies and trusts. The confidential data of the 14 offshore service providers, for instance, shows offshore entities set up by a former Revenue Service officer, a former tax commissioner,

former senior Army officer,

a former top law officer and so on.

@Nilgiri And this is before the full list is released.

After Panama, it’s Pandora: facing regulatory heat, elite Indians find new ways to ringfence wealth in secret havens

Pandora Papers | Top businessmen to corporate defaulters, CBI, ED-accused to celebrities: an investigation by The Indian Express finds how complex offshore trusts are used to park assets and evade detection

indianexpress.com

Its too much profitable to be a Senior Army office in Pakistani Army ... millions in bank account , western passports , Pizza chains , they can even own an iland in Australia

I remember Gen. Vinod Bhatia sitting in his 2 BHK apartment said, that I would have been in different world if i retired from the same position in Pak Army LoL

 

[VCheng]

Naya to Purana. Purana from naya Pakistan. In India they mercifully are free from 'naya' and are just plain old 'purana India'. Indian Army officers [shake my timbers], politicians, bureaucrats etc are knee deep in Pandora. But 'shoo' let's not talk about that shall we - just target the 'evil pakistan'.

I have no reservations about talking about that too, in the correct context of the thread topic.

Having said above, let me clearly state once again what I have said before: Modi has been a huge disappointment in making any significant changes to India as was initially hoped, and he has clearly frittered away much of the goodwill and enthusiasm that was generated when he was elected.

Just like in Pakistan, actually.

 

[Anastasius]

And to my complete lack of surprise, of course Ilham Aliyev was in that list. $400 million...I swear, if you were to take all of the money being traded on the Azerbaijani "black market" and the amount that our ministers steal on an annual basis, our official GDP would be at least 4 times bigger.

And the worst thing is that unlike other countries, where there's at least the pretense of a solid opposition offering better alternatives, our opposition is a complete joke and nobody even thinks of voting for them.

 

[Nilgiri]

Naya to Purana. Purana from naya Pakistan. In India they mercifully are free from 'naya' and are just plain old 'purana India'. Indian Army officers [shake my timbers], politicians, bureaucrats etc are knee deep in Pandora. But 'shoo' let's not talk about that shall we - just target the 'evil pakistan'.

5. Leaked records reveal that many of the power players who could help bring an end to the offshore system instead benefit from it— stashing assets in covert companies and trusts. The confidential data of the 14 offshore service providers, for instance, shows offshore entities set up by a former Revenue Service officer, a former tax commissioner,

former senior Army officer,

a former top law officer and so on.

@Nilgiri And this is before the full list is released.

After Panama, it’s Pandora: facing regulatory heat, elite Indians find new ways to ringfence wealth in secret havens

Pandora Papers | Top businessmen to corporate defaulters, CBI, ED-accused to celebrities: an investigation by The Indian Express finds how complex offshore trusts are used to park assets and evade detection

indianexpress.com

I will wait to see what the numbers, damage etc all stack up.

Given India is far larger economy, I would not have expected for Pakistan to numerically be much larger than India in these leaks tbh....but then again no leak is truly going to be representative anyway....nor is each leak 100% credible in veracity.

I mean India round-trips investment through Mauritius alone several times (for FDI from Mauritius) the total FDI Pakistan gets from the entire world.

Stockmarket wise....Indian market cap is now 75 times what Pakistan's is.

Similar ratio for total equity and corporate balance sheets.

Yet we have 700 or so Pakistanis compared to 300 Indians AFAIK in these Pandora leaks.

When surely these numbers should at least be reversed and something like 10x for India?

But maybe in total value (rather than number of ppl named) it might end up so, I suppose lets see.

I guess Pakistan big-wig laundering is far more monotone and focused around London...drag net gets more of them commensurately.

Cabinet ministers too (hence the PMIK "inner circle")....I am not aware of any Indian cabinet minister name here. But I guess lets see how it goes.

 

[Ravenman]

No Erdogan or members of his family or cabinet.

There goes the screaming and winy Turkish opposition and leftist kemalists whahahaha

 

[Nilgiri]

No Erdogan or members of his family or cabinet.

There goes the screaming and winy Turkish opposition and leftist kemalists whahahaha

Why would one leak be the be all end all on something like that? It was that complete and extensive?

The govts etc not caught by this dragnet get clean chit? I don't think so.

Dragnets are only so big, the rivers here are many and wide.