JohnQPublic
15th April 2013, 09:30 PM
Secret Files Expose Offshore’s Global Impact (http://www.icij.org/offshore/secret-files-expose-offshores-global-impact)
"A cache of 2.5 million files has cracked open the secrets of more than 120,000 offshore companies and trusts, exposing hidden dealings of politicians, con men and the mega-rich the world over.
The secret records obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (http://www.icij.org/) lay bare the names behind covert companies and private trusts in the British Virgin Islands, the Cook Islands and other offshore hideaways..."
"Offshore patrons identified in the documents include:
Individuals and companies linked to Russia’s Magnitsky Affair, a tax fraud scandal that has strained U.S.-Russia relations and led to a ban on Americans adopting Russian orphans.
A Venezuelan deal maker accused of using offshore entities to bankroll a U.S.-based Ponzi scheme and funneling millions of dollars in bribes to a Venezuelan government official.
A corporate mogul who won billions of dollars in contracts amid Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s massive construction boom even as he served as a director of secrecy-shrouded offshore companies owned by the president’s daughters.
Indonesian billionaires with ties to the late dictator Suharto, who enriched a circle of elites during his decades in power."
"...The anonymity of the offshore world makes it difficult to track the flow of money. A study (http://www.taxjustice.net/cms/upload/pdf/Price_of_Offshore_Revisited_120722.pdf) by James S. Henry, former chief economist at McKinsey & Company, estimates that wealthy individuals have $21 trillion to $32 trillion in private financial wealth tucked away in offshore havens — roughly equivalent to the size of the U.S. and Japanese economies combined..."
"A cache of 2.5 million files has cracked open the secrets of more than 120,000 offshore companies and trusts, exposing hidden dealings of politicians, con men and the mega-rich the world over.
The secret records obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (http://www.icij.org/) lay bare the names behind covert companies and private trusts in the British Virgin Islands, the Cook Islands and other offshore hideaways..."
"Offshore patrons identified in the documents include:
Individuals and companies linked to Russia’s Magnitsky Affair, a tax fraud scandal that has strained U.S.-Russia relations and led to a ban on Americans adopting Russian orphans.
A Venezuelan deal maker accused of using offshore entities to bankroll a U.S.-based Ponzi scheme and funneling millions of dollars in bribes to a Venezuelan government official.
A corporate mogul who won billions of dollars in contracts amid Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s massive construction boom even as he served as a director of secrecy-shrouded offshore companies owned by the president’s daughters.
Indonesian billionaires with ties to the late dictator Suharto, who enriched a circle of elites during his decades in power."
"...The anonymity of the offshore world makes it difficult to track the flow of money. A study (http://www.taxjustice.net/cms/upload/pdf/Price_of_Offshore_Revisited_120722.pdf) by James S. Henry, former chief economist at McKinsey & Company, estimates that wealthy individuals have $21 trillion to $32 trillion in private financial wealth tucked away in offshore havens — roughly equivalent to the size of the U.S. and Japanese economies combined..."