WHAT’S THE STORY?
A DELUGE of stories have begun to surface following the release of the Pandora Papers that reveal hidden wealth, tax avoidance and, in some cases, money laundering by some of the world’s richest and most powerful people.
The data was obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in Washington DC, which has been working with more than 140 media organisations on its biggest ever global investigation with BBC Panorama and The Guardian leading the investigation in the UK.
The files show that some of the most powerful people in the world use secret offshore companies to hide their vast wealth. In total the amounts being concealed add up to the equivalent of the gross domestic product of large countries. As yet no individual Scots or Scottish companies have been named but The National understands that situation could alter as more stories are published over the next few days and weeks.
WHAT ARE THE MOST INTERESTING REVELATIONS?
MORE than 330 politicians from 90 countries are named in the Pandora Papers, which are so named after Pandora, the female figure in Greek mythology that opened her eponymous box and released all the evils of humanity.
READ MORE: Pandora Papers: Secret wealth of billionaires and world leaders exposed
Former Labour prime minister Tony Blair with his wife Cherie are alleged to have avoided paying £321,000 in stamp duty when they bought an office in London by purchasing the offshore company that owned it. The Tories shouldn’t gloat – Jacob Rees-Mogg’s wife Helena is said to be one beneficiary of an offshore trust.
According to the ICIJ, The Pandora Papers indicate that a holding company and a trust benefitting his spouse, Helena de Chair, owned “pictures and paintings” worth $3.5 million.
Tory donors originating from Eastern Europe have also been named. 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.
Some 13 billionaires in the UK have been named, At least two US billionaires are already in trouble. ICIJ reported that “the American billionaires mentioned in the secret documents include two tech moguls, Robert F Smith and Robert T Brockman, whose trusts have been the targets of investigations by US authorities. Both were clients of CILTrust, an offshore provider in Belize operated by Glenn Godfrey, a former attorney general of Belize.
Smith agreed last year to pay US authorities $139m to settle a tax probe and is cooperating with prosecutors. A US grand jury indicted Brockman, Smith’s mentor and financial backer, in what prosecutors called the biggest tax fraud in US history. Smith declined to comment. Brockman has pleaded not guilty. King Abdullah of Jordan has denied that he spent £70m on UK property through secretly-owned companies. The Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis - facing an election later this week - allegedly failed to declare an offshore investment company used to purchase two villas for £12m in the south of France.
WHAT’S THE SCALE OF THIS?
IT’S off the scale, actually. Like the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers, the Pandora Papers are a massively revealing source of information about the financial dealings of everyone from supermodel Claudia Schiffer and Sir Elton John to the rulers of Jordan and Dubai.
In Pakistan alone, some 700 individuals have been named.
The Pandora Papers data leak consists of 2.94 terabytes of raw data with more than 6.4m documents, almost 3m images, more than 1.2m emails and almost 1.4m spreadsheets and other files.
That’s almost 12m documents in total. They come from firms in 14 countries including the British Virgin Islands, Panama, Belize, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Switzerland.
READ MORE: Rishi Sunak defends Tories after Panama papers linked to major party donor
No wonder it took some 650 journalists in 117 countries many months to trawl through the files from the 14 sources, finding stories that are being published this week.
That’s the rub for all those named in the papers – the stories have only just started.
WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS?
WELL it won’t be the end of capitalism as we know it, but it’s likely that some very rich people are going to have to cough up a little of their wealth if only to avoid going to jail. The problem is that for most of the people named in the papers, what they have done is perfectly legal. Their activities may stink morally and ethically, but the proper use of tax havens is not illegal.
The ICIJ admits: “Many obstacles remain. Big banks, law firms and other powerful groups often oppose stronger transparency rules and tougher enforcement against offshore abuses.”
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