Research
The documents were obtained from an anonymous source by German Süddeutcsche Zeitung newspaper, which he shared with the international Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) who in turn provided to a broad network involving hundreds of international media. The documents cover 40 years of emails, financial records and personal and financial details involving some 214,000 companies in over 200 countries.
Who are involved?
research splashes at least 140 politicians and officials around the globe, including 12 old and current world leaders. Among the principals involved are Russian President Vladimir Putin; of Argentina, Mauricio Macri; footballer Lionel Messi, the Spanish film director Pedro Almodovar and Pilar de Borbon, aunt of King Philip VI, among others, have or had in Panama opaque companies, according to recent reports.
For Putin, the documentation reveals his relationship with the conductor Sergey Roldugin and a “fabric of society” that served to hide the “hidden business” friends ” innermost “the Russian president.
on the sides of Macri, research suggests that the current president of Argentina” administered an undeclared Bahamas “when he was mayor of Buenos Aires society .
Regarding the footballer Messi, financial movements began in 2013, the day after the Spanish prosecutor accused the player of three alleged crimes prosecutors. The company used by Messi and his family would be the company Mega Star Enterprises, and according to the player’s lawyer quoted by the channel La Sexta, “the final beneficiaries of society are Jorge Horacio and Lionel Messi”.
film director Pedro Almodovar, who is also among the firm’s clients, shared with his brother Augustine in 1991, “an offshore company called Glen-Valley Corporation”. The Almodóvar brothers have assured Sixth that currently have “no participation in foreign companies” and “pay their taxes in Spain”.
In the revelations also exfutbolista appears and former leader of the Uefa Michel Platini. The ‘papers Panama’ also reveal that Pilar de Borbon, sister of King Juan Carlos and aunt of the current king, princess also “presided over and directed for years a company based in Panama.
the Prime Minister of Iceland, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, and his wife would have used an opaque society, Wintris Inc., to hide millions of dollars of investment in three large banks during the financial crisis.
Also, family of Chinese President Xi Jinping and British Prime Minister David Cameron listed by the Prime Minister of Pakistan, the Ukrainian president and the king of Saudi Arabia.
the documents also identify a money launderer (an American who had a small role in the Watergate scandal), 29 billionaires on the Forbes list, star martial arts movies Jackie Chan, who owned at least six fictitious companies.
Moreover, according to ICIJ, the research shows at least 33 people and fichadas by the US government for evidence of involvement in illicit activities with Mexican drug traffickers, terrorist organizations like Hezbollah or nations like Iran and North Korea companies.
in addition, more than 500 banks and their subsidiaries, including HSBC and UBS, have promoted the creation of companies in tax havens and have established more than 15,000 such companies to their customers through Mossack Fonseca, according to research.
Who is behind this research?
The International Consortium of Investigative journalists (ICIJ, in English) is a group of 190 journalists in more than 65 countries seeking to unearth international crimes, corruption and abuse of power.
Founded in 1997 by the American journalist Chuck Lewis and based low profile in Washington, the ICIJ is a nonprofit organization with a reduced crew of collaborators, funded by foundations and private donations, according to its website, ICIJ. org.
Modeled after WikiLeaks, the site gained worldwide notoriety by publishing million diplomatic cables leaked, ICIJ was based on respected international media, including Le Monde, the South China Morning Post, the BBC, the Washington Post, Folha de Sao Paulo and the Sueddeutsche Zeitung to classify information.
This week distributed 11.5 million documents compiled from more than a hundred newspapers exposing transboundary secret business (offshore) made by relatives to powerful world leaders and sports and entertainment celebrities.
in terms of volume, “the ‘Panama Papers’ are probably the biggest leak confidential information in history, “according to ICIJ.
Research documents lasted for a year, led by the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung and the ICIJ, and with the collaboration of journalists from more than a hundred media all the world. Documents database of Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca reveal the creation of thousands of companies “offshore” and tax havens for politicians, celebrities and recognized characters manage their heritage.
How is the scheme?
the” trusts “are legal structures” offshore “foreign-based and often havens prosecutors. They are run by people who appear as directors of these “trusts”, which allows you to hide the identity of the actual beneficiaries, who shirk and tax in their country of origin.
“There hundreds of thousands of trusts in the world “in Panama, but also in Guernsey, Bahamas or the British Virgin Islands, told AFP Daniel Lebègue, president of Transparency International France.
the scandal of the “Panama papers” also illustrates the strategies of tax evasion, the pervasiveness of “bearer shares” or “bearer shares”, actions that allow not disclose the identity of its owner, unlike nominal shares .
Resorting to companies “offshore” is not in itself illegal. In France, for example, they are permitted if they are declared to the tax authorities.
But according Lebègue, “behind these opaque structures, there is very black money from criminal activities (drugs, terrorism, crime) of black money (obtained through corruption) and gray money (obtained from tax optimization). “
Nor bearer shares are illegal, according to experts. “Instead, they are contrary to international standards. Not for bearer share itself, but for not knowing who is behind it,” said Pascal Saint Amans, which coordinates the fight against tax havens by the OECD.
they are also used as they are completely legal for reasons of heritage and planning funds.
About Mossack Fonseca
Born in 1977, the Mossack Group Fonseca, “with offices on every continent,” according to its website, specializes in wealth management, fiscal, international structures and commercial law.
offers its services in the jurisdictions of the UK, Malta, Hong Kong, Cyprus, British Virgin Islands, Bahamas, British Anguilla, Seychelles, Samoa, Nevada and Wyoming ( United States) and Panama.
the firm refused to TVN News Sunday any involvement in the crimes alleged to have committed hundreds of customers. “As a firm we simply create the society, not to manage it and we have no responsibility in what society does,” said Fonseca Mora.
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