Explainer: What are the Pandora Papers?

Leaked files from 14 offshore service providers tie more than 330 public
officials, including 35 world leaders, to offshore fortunes.

The millions of leaked confidential files linked more than 330 politicians to hidden fortunes worth
billions of dollars [Reuters]

Dozens of world leaders and hundreds of public officials used offshore

tax havens to hide assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars, a
massive investigation has found.

The Pandora Papers, published on Sunday, are based on documents

leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism
(ICIJ) and exposed the offshore dealings of kings, presidents and
prime ministers, including Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Czech Prime
Minister Andrej Babis and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.

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The leaked records come from 14 offshore services firms from around
the world – from Vietnam to Belize to Seychelles.

Who was behind it?

The ICIJ – a network of reporters and media organisations – launched
a two-year effort to sift through 11.9 million confidential files leaked to
it, aided in that effort by more than 600 journalists from 150 media
outlets.

The team also verified the information from the 2.94-terabyte haul by
cross-referencing it to public records from dozens of countries.

The ICIJ found that the documents were linked to more than 330
politicians and public officials, including 35 current and former
national leaders, in more than 91 countries and territories.

“The records include information about the dealings of nearly three

times as many current and former country leaders as any previous leak
of documents from offshore havens,” the ICIJ wrote on its website.

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Are offshore companies illegal?
Setting up offshores companies to do business is not in itself illegal,
the ICIJ stressed, as some people might have legitimate reasons to
keep their finances secret.

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But such entities have often proven to be attractive as they can
facilitate tax evasion and money laundering.

Such revelations are no less of an embarrassment for leaders who may

have campaigned publicly against tax avoidance and corruption, or
advocated austerity measures at home.

Who has been named?

Among significant individuals named are Jordan’s King Abdullah II
who was alleged to have used offshore accounts to spend more than
$100m on luxury homes in the UK and US.

Days ahead of the Czech Republic’s October 8-9 parliamentary

election, the documents allegedly tied the country’s prime minister,
Babis, to a secret $22m estate in a hilltop village near Cannes, France.

The Papers also listed Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta and his
mother as beneficiaries of a secretive foundation in Panama.

The leaked document also showed that three of Kenyatta’s siblings

own five offshore companies with assets worth more than $30m.

As well as politicians, the public figures exposed included Colombian

singer Shakira, German supermodel Claudia Schiffer and former
Indian cricket captain Sachin Tendulkar.

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Offshore system
Besides unveiling the financial dealing of hundreds of world leaders
and celebrities, the investigation put the spotlight on the offshore
system itself, with the US emerging as a big player in the offshore
world.

South Dakota, the files show, emerged as the US state with the largest
number of trusts – a financial mechanism used often to avoid or
greatly reduce taxation.

The Pandora Papers are the latest in a series of mass ICIJ leaks of
financial documents, from LuxLeaks in 2014, to the 2016 Panama
Papers, which triggered the resignation of the prime minister of
Iceland and paved the way for the leader of Pakistan to be ousted.

They were followed by the Paradise Papers in 2017 and FinCen files in
2020.

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Pandora Papers: Russia dismisses leaks
implicating Putin
Revelations accusing the Russian president, who is not directly named but
linked via associates, are ‘unsubstantiated’, says Kremlin.

Putin is not directly named in the Pandora Papers, but he is linked via associates to secret assets in
Monaco [File: Sputnik/Ramil Sitdikov/Kremlin via Reuters]

Russia has dismissed revelations leaked in the Pandora Papers as

“unsubstantiated claims” after an investigation by a media consortium
shone a light on wealth allegedly amassed by Kremlin-linked
individuals.
The Pandora Papers investigation, involving some 600 journalists
from media including The Washington Post, the BBC and The
Guardian, is based on a leak of 11.9 million documents from 14
financial services companies around the world.

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The files were leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative
Journalists (ICIJ) and published on Sunday.

Putin is not directly named, but he is linked via associates to secret

assets in Monaco, notably a waterfront home acquired by a Russian
woman reported to have had a child with the Russian leader.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday slammed the leaks

as “just a set of largely unsubstantiated claims”.

“We didn’t see anything on hidden wealth within Putin’s inner circle,”
Peskov said, adding it was not clear “how this information can be
trusted”.

The leaks reveal that the $4m Monaco property was purchased
through an offshore company towards the end of 2003 for the woman
– a native of Putin’s hometown Saint Petersburg – who was previously
reported to have had a relationship with Putin.

“If there are serious publications, that are based on something

concrete and refer to something specific, then we will read them with
interest,” said Peskov.

Russian investigative outlet Proekt reported in November last year

that the woman, Svetlana Krivonogikh, had at one point worked as a
cleaner, and was the mother of Putin’s child.

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The purchase of the property went ahead shortly after Krivonogikh
gave birth, the leaks showed.

The media consortium said Krivonogikh had not responded to

requests for comment.

Proekt last year described Krivonogikh as an elusive millionaire who

lives in Russia’s former imperial capital and is the recipient of
expensive gifts from Kremlin-connected individuals.

It said facial-recognition analysis of photographs obtained by their

reporters showed Krivonogikh’s daughter bears a close resemblance to
Putin.

The investigative outlet was earlier this year declared an “undesirable

organisation” by authorities as part of a broader crackdown on
dissenting voices, banning its work in Russia under the threat of jail
time.

The Pandora leaks also revealed that the head of a state-run television
network, Konstantin Ernst – who oversaw the opening and closing
ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Olympics – was gifted a stake in a
billion-dollar Moscow property deal.

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Two former Hong Kong leaders named in
Pandora Papers leak
CY Leung accused of failing to disclose sale of company shares while
Tung Chee-hwa allegedly set up offshore companies to skirt taxes.

Former Hong Kong chief executives CY Leung, left, and Tung Chee-hwa, centre, toast with current
leader Carrie Lam during the 23rd anniversary of Hong Kong's handover from Britain to China last
year [File: Anthony Wallace/AFP]
Two former leaders of Hong Kong have been named in the Pandora
Papers leak, the most extensive global data drop detailing secretive
financial dealings by the world’s wealthiest people that aim to conceal
their assets.
Leung Chun-ying, or CY Leung, reportedly did not declare his income
from the sale of shares of a Japanese company while still serving as the

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Chinese territory’s chief executive. Tung Chee-hwa, a billionaire,
allegedly set up offshore companies after he retired from office.

CY Leung was Hong Kong’s leader between 2012 and 2017, while Tung
was the city’s first chief executive after Hong Kong’s handover to
China in 1997. He remained in charge until 2005.

Both men are now serving as senior members of an advisory

committee for the Chinese government and there are reports that CY
Leung could seek a political comeback as the term of the current Hong
Kong chief executive, Carrie Lam, comes to an end.

The landmark investigation involved 600 journalists from 150 news

organisations in 117 countries, sorting through about 11.9 million files
from more than a dozen financial institutions. It is estimated that the
world leaders in business and politics are linked to offshore wealth
amounting to trillions of dollars.

The opening of offshore accounts is not prohibited by law. But if the

purpose of those accounts is to avoid taxes in their respective
countries, then that could be deemed illegal.

Aside from CY Leung and Tung, some 35 current and former world
leaders, including the Russian President Vladimir Putin and King
Abdullah II of Jordan, were also named.

According to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

(ICIJ), CY Leung failed to declare the sale in 2015 of an estimated
2.3m Hong Kong dollars ($295,000) worth of shares of the company

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DTZ Japan Ltd. ICIJ collaborated with Hong Kong’s Stand News in
the investigation.

Stand News said CY Leung reportedly held 30 percent of shares in the

company through two offshore firms.

The report also said that even after he took office as Hong Kong’s chief
executive on July 1, 2012, Leung continued to serve as director of three
offshore companies and only quit his posts in August that same year.

Leung never publicly acknowledged his role and duties in the three
companies, according to the report.

Leung furious
Leung characterised the Stand News report as misleading and warned
against fanning the “flames of irresponsible journalism” in a series of
posts on social media.

Writing on Facebook, he said he was only required to declare shares

he owned directly owned, and not those in subsidiaries of companies.

“Possession and transactions of share in subsidiaries need not be

declared,” he said, adding that he did not exercise decision-making
rights in the companies mentioned, including DTZ Japan.

He also justified his continued presence as director of the three

companies into his term as Hong Kong leader, saying there were

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different procedures in contracts, and in some instances, resignations
did not take effect immediately.

“I activated all resignation procedures before I took office as the chief

executive,” he said.

Leung reacted angrily to the Pandora Papers leak and warned against fanning the ‘flames of
irresponsible journalism’ following the expose of his business transactions [File: Anthony
Wallace/AFP]

Leung came under investigation following allegations published in the

Sydney Morning Herald in 2014 that he had received 50m Hong Kong
dollars ($6.4m) in connection with bidding for property firm DTZ that
he did not declare.

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The report said that Leung was paid the sum to stop him from taking a
position with DTZ’s competitor. The complaint against him was
dropped in 2018, with the justice department citing insufficient
evidence.

He was also investigated for alleged potential conflict of interest and

tax evasion, but those cases were dropped in 2020.

The Stand News report also said that both CY Leung and Tung were
clients of Trident Trust, an international company that manages trusts
and funds. The paper alleged both men used intermediaries to register
offshore accounts and shell companies around the world for
themselves and family members to shelter them from taxes.

Meanwhile, Tung also reportedly set up at least seven offshore

companies after he left office. Using one of those companies, an
account was opened with HSBC with an estimated $1m (7.8m Hong
Kong dollars) in assets.

Tung and his family members also opened up to 72 offshore company

accounts.

According to Forbes Magazine, which charts the fortunes of the

world’s richest people, Tung’s wealth is estimated at $2.6bn.

Tung and his family have yet to respond to the report.

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Pandora Papers: Ukraine leader seeks to
justify offshore accounts
Files obtained by ICIJ claim Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his partners
established a network of offshore companies in 2012.

An adviser to Zelenskyy's chief of staff said the president created the offshore companies to 'protect'
income from then pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych [File: Ukrainian Presidential Press Office
via AP]
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office has sought to justify
his use of offshore companies as protecting him against pro-Russian
forces, following leaked revelations in the Pandora Papers.

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A former comedian, Zelenskyy was elected president in 2019 on
promises to fight corruption and reduce the influence of oligarchs in
the ex-Soviet country.

But the files obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative

Journalists (ICIJ) and published on Sunday claimed that Zelenskyy
and his partners established a network of offshore companies back in
2012.

The Pandora Papers are based on documents leaked to the ICIJ and
exposed the offshore dealings of kings, presidents and prime
ministers, including Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Czech Prime Minister
Andrej Babis and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.

According to its findings, two of the offshore companies belonging to

Zelenskyy’s partners were used to buy three lavish properties in
central London.

The report also found that Zelenskyy, just before he was elected,
transferred his stake in one of the offshore companies to his top aide
Serhiy Shefir – the target of a shooting attack last month.

An adviser to Zelenskyy’s chief of staff said on Monday that the

president had created the offshore companies to “protect” the group’s
incomes against the “aggressive actions” of the “corrupt” government
of then pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.

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“Journalists have de facto confirmed the president’s absolute respect
for the standards of anti-corruption legislation,” Mykhailo Podoliak
told the AFP news agency.

Podoliak, however, did not comment on the details of other revelations

from the investigation, which said that the president’s wife has
continued to receive dividends from an offshore company.

Supporters of another ex-president, Petro Poroshenko – a billionaire

defeated by Zelenskyy in 2019 and who also appeared in an earlier
investigation into offshore companies – accused Zelenskyy of tax
evasion.

“He and his accomplices took funds offshore without paying any taxes
to the Ukrainian budget,” Iryna Gerashchenko, a lawmaker from
Poroshenko’s faction, wrote on Facebook.

Before becoming president, Zelenskyy played a history teacher in a

comedy series who was elected president after denouncing endemic
corruption.

In his election campaign, he cultivated an image of a leader seeking to

“break the system” and promised a fierce fight against corruption in
one of Europe’s poorest countries.

The Pandora Papers are the latest in a series of mass ICIJ leaks of
financial documents, from LuxLeaks in 2014, to the 2016 Panama
Papers, which triggered the resignation of the prime minister of

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Iceland and paved the way for the forced resignation of the leader of
Pakistan.

They were followed by the Paradise Papers in 2017 and FinCen files in
2020.

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Who has been named in the Pandora Papers?
Some of those named after secret files were leaked to a consortium of
journalists that revealed offshore deals.

A massive global investigation has exposed the ties between world leaders, celebrities and sport
stars to the hidden world of offshore wealth collectively worth trillions of dollars [Reuters]
A massive global investigation has exposed the ties between world
leaders to the hidden world of offshore wealth collectively worth
trillions of dollars.
Dubbed the Pandora Papers, the landmark probe, published on
Sunday, was conducted by the International Consortium of
Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) – an ensemble of 600 journalists from
150 media outlets in 117 countries.

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Digging into more than 11.9 million documents leaked from 14
offshore financial services firms, the ICIJ found that 35 heads of state
and government and more than 300 politicians have set up offshore
structures and trusts in tax havens from the British Virgin Islands,
Seychelles, to Hong Kong and Belize.

In addition to the politicians and heads of states, singer Shakira and

former Indian cricket captain Sachin Tendulkar are among celebrities
and sport stars named in the investigation.

Here is a look at some of those names:

Jordan
Jordan’s King Abdullah II amassed about $100m worth of property in
the United States and United Kingdom through secret companies.
They were purchased between 2003 and 2017 via firms registered in
tax havens and include properties in Malibu, southern California, and
Washington and London.
DLA Piper, a London law office representing Abdullah, told the ICIJ
that he had “not at any point misused public monies or made any use
whatsoever of the proceeds of aid or assistance intended for public
use”.
The royal palace said in a statement on Monday that the king’s
ownership of private properties in the UK and the US was not a secret,
adding that privacy and security reasons were behind not disclosing it.

Lebanon
The leaked files also showed that in neighbouring Lebanon, top
political and financial figures have embraced offshore havens.

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These include Prime Minister Najib Mikati, his predecessor Hassan
Diab, Riad Salameh, the governor of Lebanon’s central bank –
currently under investigation in France for alleged money laundering
– and former minister of state and the chairman of Al-Mawarid Bank
Marwan Kheireddine.

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The consortium said Kheireddine and Diab did not respond to
requests for comment while Salameh said he declares his assets.

Mikati’s son, Maher, told the ICIJ that owning real estate through
offshore entities offers more “flexibility” when it comes to renting,
inheritance planning, and “potential tax advantages”.

He told Al Jazeera that: “Using offshore entities could be considered

as forms of tax evasion for US and EU nationals but this is not the case
for Lebanese nationals.”

Pakistan
The Pandora Papers show that prominent members of Pakistani Prime
Minister Imran Khan’s government, donors to his party and family
members of the country’s powerful military generals moved millions
of dollars of wealth through offshore companies.

Two members of Khan’s cabinet – Water Resources Minister Moonis

Elahi and Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin – were prominent in the
leaks, alongside more than 700 other Pakistani citizens.

The consortium said the documents contained no suggestion that

Khan himself – who rose to power in 2018 on the back of promises to
arrest Pakistan’s “corrupt” political elites – owns offshore companies.

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Czech Republic
The report said Czech PM Andrej Babis moved $22m through offshore
companies to buy an estate on the French Riviera in 2009 while
keeping his ownership secret.

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Babis, speaking on Sunday in a TV debate ahead of October 8-9
elections, denied wrongdoing and said “the money left a Czech bank,
was taxed, it was my money, and returned to a Czech bank”.

Azerbaijan
The investigation found Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his
family have secretly been involved in British property deals worth
more than 400 million pounds ($542m), according to the BBC.

The files show how the family bought 17 properties, including a

33-million pound ($44.8m) office block in London for the president’s
11-year-old son.

South Dakota
The Guardian newspaper said the files provided evidence that the US
state of South Dakota rivalled opaque jurisdictions in Europe and the
Caribbean for financial secrecy.

The documents reveal almost $360bn in customer assets are sitting in

trusts in South Dakota, some of it tied to foreign individuals and
companies accused of human rights abuses and other wrongdoing, it
said.

Kenya
Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta and six members of his family have
been linked to 13 offshore companies, according to the documents.

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The Kenyattas’ offshore investments included a company with stocks
and bonds worth $30m, the BBC reported.

United Kingdom
Tony Blair, the UK prime minister from 1997 to 2007, became the
owner of an $8.8m Victorian building in 2017 by buying a British
Virgin Islands company that held the property, and the building now
hosts the law firm of his wife, Cherie Blair, according to the
investigation.

The two bought the company from the family of Bahrain’s industry
and tourism minister, Zayed bin Rashid al-Zayani.

Buying the company shares instead of the London building saved the
Blairs more than $400,000 in property taxes, the investigation found.

The Blairs and the al-Zayanis both said they did not initially know the
other party was involved in the deal, the probe found. A lawyer for the
al-Zayanis said they complied with UK laws.

Russia
The Washington Post said Russian woman Svetlana Krivonogikh
became the owner of a Monaco apartment via an offshore company
incorporated on the Caribbean island of Tortola in April 2003, just
weeks after she gave birth to a girl.

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At the time, she was in a secret, years-long relationship with Russian
President Vladimir Putin, the Post said, citing Russian investigative
outlet Proekt.

The report also revealed Putin’s image-maker and chief executive of

Russia’s leading TV station, Konstantin Ernst, got a discount to buy
and develop Soviet-era cinemas and surrounding property in Moscow
after he directed the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Ernst told the organisation the deal was not secret and denied
suggestions he was given special treatment.

Ukraine
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has been vocal on
anti-corruption issues, used a network of offshore companies to buy
three upmarket properties in London.

His office said it had been a way of protecting himself against the
“aggressive actions” of the regime of his predecessor, the pro-Russia
president Viktor Yanukovich.

Chile
The leaked documents revealed Chilean President Sebastian Pinera,
one of the country’s wealthiest men, used offshore companies in the
British Virgin Islands for dealings involving the Dominga mining
project, which his family co-owned in part with a friend.

The final payment on the mine’s sale in 2011 hinged on the

government declining to declare its location in north-central Chile a

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protected natural reserve, according to the report. The government –
at that time headed by Pinera – did not do so, despite appeals from
environmentalists, nor did subsequent governments.

When investigators looked into the case a few years later, Pinera said
he had not been involved in managing the companies and had not
even realised the connection with Dominga.

A statement issued on Sunday from the president’s office noted that

prosecutors and courts decided in 2017 that no crime had been
committed and Pinera had not been involved.

Montenegro
Montenegro’s President Milo Djukanovic and his son in 2012 allegedly
established a trust and hid their wealth in a complicated network of
companies, according to the investigation.

Djukanovic’s office said that he did establish a business trust with his
son in 2012, while not in office. After he became the prime minister
later the same year, Djukanovic transferred all the rights to his son,
the office said. While Djukanovic was one of the owners there had
been no business transactions, they said.

Brazil
The documents showed Brazilian Economy Minister Paulo Guedes had
multimillion dollar investments in an offshore company named
Dreadnoughts International in the British Virgin Islands.

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In a statement sent through his press office, Paulo Guedes said he
provided all the necessary information to the Public Ethics
Commission when he took office in the government in 2019.

Mexico
Three prominent Mexican business tycoons with a combined fortune
of about $30bn are among those named in the leaked documents,
media involved in the investigation reported.

They are mining magnate German Larrea, Modelo beer heiress Maria
Asuncion Aramburuzabala and Olegario Vazquez Aldir, who heads
Grupo Empresarial Angeles, according to the Spanish daily El Pais.

According to the allegations, 25 of the Mexicans named together

moved about $1.27bn to offshore jurisdictions for the purchase of
luxury goods.

China
China’s only politician to be named in the Pandora Papers is a female
entrepreneur who the report says set up an offshore firm to trade US
stocks, according to Bloomberg.

Feng Qiya, a delegate to China’s annual parliamentary pageant, the

National People’s Congress, in 2016 set up an offshore company in the
British Virgin Islands called Linkhigh Trading Ltd. to make the
transactions, according to the International Consortium of
Investigative Journalists.

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The company had $2m in assets and was registered with the US
Securities and Exchange Commission, but is currently inactive, ICIJ
said.

Hong Kong
Two former leaders of Hong Kong have been named in the Pandora
Papers leak.

Leung Chun-ying, or CY Leung, reportedly did not declare his income

from the sale of shares of a Japanese company while still serving as the
Chinese territory’s chief executive. Tung Chee-hwa, a billionaire,
allegedly set up offshore companies after he retired from office.

CY Leung was Hong Kong’s leader between 2012 and 2017, while Tung
was the city’s first chief executive after Hong Kong’s handover to
China in 1997. He remained in charge until 2005.

Both men are now serving as senior members of an advisory

committee for the Chinese government and there are reports that CY
Leung could seek a political comeback as the term of the current Hong
Kong chief executive, Carrie Lam, comes to an end.

India
The Indian Express, part of the ICIJ consortium, said the Pandora
Papers showed that businessman Anil Ambani and his representatives
owned at least 18 offshore companies in Jersey, the British Virgin
Islands and Cyprus.

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Set up between 2007 and 2010, seven of these companies had
borrowed and invested at least $1.3bn, the report said.

In 2020, following a dispute with three Chinese state-controlled

banks, Ambani, chairman of Reliance Group, had told a London court
his net worth was zero.

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Jordan king exposed over tax havens and
luxury homes
So-called Pandora Papers says King Abdullah II is among dozens of
world leaders secretly holding millions of dollars offshore.

King Abdullah's lawyers were cited as saying all the properties were bought with personal wealth
[Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters]

Jordan’s King Abdullah II is among dozens of world leaders to have

hidden millions of dollars in offshore tax havens and secretly bought
luxury homes around the globe, according to an investigation
published on Sunday.

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The so-called Pandora Papers probe involving some 600 journalists is
based on the leak of some 11.9 million documents from 14 global
financial services.

The documents show how King Abdullah II created a network of

offshore companies and tax havens to amass a $100m property empire
from Malibu, California to Washington, DC and London.

According to the investigation: “Three beachfront mansions in Malibu

[were] purchased through three offshore companies for $68 million by
the King of Jordan in the years after Jordanians filled the streets
during Arab Spring to protest joblessness and corruption.”

Abdullah, 59, also owns three luxury apartments in a complex in

Washington, DC, with panoramic views of the Potomac River, and a
house in Ascot, one of England’s most expensive towns, along with
multimillion-dollar apartments in central London, the report said.

“Jordan doesn’t have the kind of money that other Middle Eastern
monarchies, like Saudi Arabia, have to allow a king to flaunt his
wealth,” Annelle Sheline, a Middle East scholar, was quoted as saying.

“If the Jordanian monarch were to display his wealth more publicly, it
wouldn’t only antagonize his people, it would p**s off Western donors
who have given him money.”

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The royal palace said on Monday that King Abdullah’s properties in
the US and UK were “no secret”, and that privacy and security reasons
were behind not disclosing it.

“This is not unusual nor improper,” said the royal palace statement.

“The cost of these properties and all related expenditures have been
personally funded by His Majesty. None of these expenses have been
funded by the state budget or treasury,” the statement continued.

The Jordanian palace said these properties were used during official
visits and some of these are used during private visits.

King Abdullah’s lawyers were cited saying all the properties were
bought with personal wealth, and it was common practice for
high-profile individuals to buy properties via offshore companies for
privacy and security reasons.

“Any implication that there is something improper about ownership of

property through companies in offshore jurisdictions is categorically
denied,” said DLA Piper, the law firm that represents the monarch.

“[Abdullah] has not at any point misused public monies or made any
use whatsoever of the proceeds of aid or assistance intended for public
use.”

336 high-level politicians

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Some 35 current and former leaders are featured in the documents
analysed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
(ICIJ) – facing allegations ranging from corruption to money
laundering and global tax avoidance.

The documents also show Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis – facing
an election later this week – failed to declare an offshore investment
company used to buy a chateau worth $22m in the south of France.

In total, the ICIJ found links between almost 1,000 companies in

offshore havens and 336 high-level politicians and public officials,
including country leaders, cabinet ministers, ambassadors and others.

More than two-thirds of the companies were set up in the British

Virgin Islands.

In most countries, the ICIJ stresses, it is not illegal to have assets

offshore or to use shell companies to do business across national
borders.

But such revelations are no less of an embarrassment for leaders who

may have campaigned publicly against corruption, or advocated
austerity measures at home.

“The new data leak must be a wake-up call,” said Sven Giegold, a
Green party lawmaker in the European Parliament. “Global tax
evasion fuels global inequality. We need to expand and sharpen the
countermeasures now.”

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Aliyev and Kenyatta on the list
Among the other revelations from the ICIJ investigation:

● Family and associates of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev are

alleged to have been secretly involved in property deals in Britain
worth hundreds of millions.
● Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and six family members are
alleged to secretly own a network of offshore companies.
● Members of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s inner circle,
including cabinet ministers and their families, are said to secretly
own companies and trusts holding millions of dollars.
● Russian President Vladimir Putin is not directly named in the
files, but he is linked via associates to secret assets in Monaco.

The Pandora Papers are the latest in a series of mass ICIJ leaks of
financial documents that started with LuxLeaks in 2014, and was
followed by the Panama Papers, the Paradise Papers and FinCen.

The documents behind the latest investigation are drawn from

financial services companies in countries including the British Virgin
Islands, Panama, Belize, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore
and Switzerland.
The latest bombshell is even more expansive than the Panama Papers,
porting through nearly 3 terabytes of data — the equivalent of roughly
750,000 photos on a smartphone — leaked from 14 different service
providers doing business in 38 different jurisdictions in the world.
The records date back to the 1970s, but most of the files span from
1996 to 2020.

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