The so-called “Pandora Papers” investigation — involving some 600 journalists from dozens of media including The Washington Post and The Guardian — is based on the leak of some 11.9 million documents from 14 financial services companies around the world.
The 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 while their governments do little to slow a global stream of illicit money that enriches criminals and impoverishes nations.
Here’s what we know
- The documents have exposed over 300 Indians, including those accused in economic offences, former members of Parliament and those under the radar of investigation agencies.
- According to a report by the Indian Express, which was part of the consortium, businessman Anil Ambani has 18 asset holding offshore companies despite declaring bankruptcy in a UK court.
- Biocon promoter Kiran Mazumder Shaw’s husband allegedly set up a trust with keys to a person who was banned by Sebi for insider trading.
- Also, fugitive Nirav Modi’s sister set up a trust just a month before the diamantaire fled the country.
- The Express report added that several individuals who owned offshore entities opted for a reorganisation of their foreign assets after the massive Panama papers leak in 2016.
- The report also mentions that cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar was among individuals who asked for the liquidation of his offshore entity after the Panama leak.
- According to Guardian, the papers reveal that King of Jordan, Abdullah II, secretly amassed $100 million worth of property in the US and UK, including plush ocean view mansions in Malibu.
- Over 700 Pakistanis, including some ministers and key members of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s inner circle have been listed. Some retired army officials, businessmen — including Axact’s CEO Shoaib Sheikh — and media company owners, have also been named in the leaks.
- The secret documents expose offshore dealings of the King of Jordan, the presidents of Ukraine, Kenya and Ecuador, the prime minister of the Czech Republic and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
- The files also detail financial activities of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “unofficial minister of propaganda” and more than 130 billionaires from Russia, the United States, Turkey and other nations.
The Pandora Papers investigation is larger and more global than even ICIJ’s landmark Panama Papers, which rocked the world in 2016, spawning police raids and new laws in dozens of countries and the fall of prime ministers in Iceland and Pakistan.
The Panama Papers came from the files of a single offshore services provider — the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. The Pandora Papers shine a light on a far wider cross-section of the lawyers and middlemen who are at the heart of the offshore industry.
The Pandora Papers provide more than twice as much information about the ownership of offshore companies. In all, the new leak of documents reveals the real owners of more than 29,000 offshore companies. The owners come from more than 200 countries and territories, with the largest contingents from Russia, the UK, Argentina and China.
Agency inputs
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