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Paradise papers - leaked document trove show Trump officials, Queen Elizabeth's offshore tax dodges
While you were doing whatever you were doing last Sunday, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists - the same that brought you the Panama papers less than two years ago revealed itself to be in the possession of a 13.4 million leaked documents on tax dodgers.
A trove of 13.4 million records exposes ties between Russia and U.S. President Donald Trump's billionaire commerce secretary, the secret dealings of the chief fundraiser for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the offshore interests of the queen of England and more than 120 politicians around the world.
The leaked documents, dubbed the Paradise Papers, show how deeply the offshore financial system is entangled with the overlapping worlds of political players, private wealth and corporate giants, including Apple, Nike, Uber and other global companies that avoid taxes through increasingly imaginative bookkeeping maneuvers.
One offshore web leads to Trump's commerce secretary, private equity tycoon Wilbur Ross, who has a stake in a shipping company that has received more than $68 million in revenue since 2014 from a Russian energy company co-owned by the son-in-law of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In all, the offshore ties of more than a dozen Trump advisers, Cabinet members and major donors appear in the leaked data.
The new files come from two offshore services firms as well as from 19 corporate registries maintained by governments in jurisdictions that serve as waystations in the global shadow economy. The leaks were obtained by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and a network of more than 380 journalists in 67 countries.
[...] The most detailed revelations emerge in decades of corporate records from the white-shoe offshore law firm Appleby and corporate services provider Estera, two businesses that operated together under the Appleby name until Estera became independent in 2016.
At least 31,000 of the individual and corporate clients included in Appleby's records are U.S. citizens or have U.S. addresses, more than from any other country. Appleby also counted clients from the United Kingdom, China and Canada among its biggest sources of business.
Keep your eyes peeled for more articles as they are published by various news outlets:
- Russia funded Facebook and Twitter investments through Kushner associate
- US Commerce Chief Tied to Russian Shipping Venture, U.S. Commerce chief Ross kept holdings in Russian-tied firm - reports
- Glencore's Role in Paradise Papers "Documents cover Glencore in Congo, Australia and shipping unit"
- Paradise Papers: Queen's private estate invested £10m in offshore funds
- Revealed: Justin Trudeau's close adviser helped move huge sums offshore
- The wealthy men in Trump's inner circle with links to tax havens: chief economic adviser Gary Cohn, secretary of state Rex Tillerson, treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, vice-chairman for supervision at the Federal Reserve Randal Quarles, friend and former adviser to Trump Carl Icahn, new US ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman, ambassador to India Kenneth Juster and others
- Offshore Trove Exposes Trump-Russia Links and Piggy Banks of the Wealthiest 1 Percent
- Bono used Malta-based firm to invest in Lithuanian shopping centre
- Paradise Papers: leaks show 'one rule for rich and another for rest'
- The Paradise Papers Data Dump: What's Been Reported So Far
- Paradise Papers: Biggest data leak reveals trails of India's corporates in global secret tax havens
(Score: 5, Touché) by looorg on Monday November 06 2017, @02:45PM (5 children)
For what? Why would she ever do that? Apologise that is. I'm sure there are a lot of Richy Rich people being called out right about now for potential tax dodging, questionable morals, using various grey areas or down right illegalities. But the Queen is most likely not one of them. Why is that? Cause she is exempt from paying taxes on her holdings. So she can't be breaking the law. Hench no tax dodging going on.
She doesn't have to pay ANY taxes. But she does so voluntarily anyway. She is actually giving away money she doesn't have to give away. But according to Corbyn she is a tax dodger and should appologise. He can just go and fuck right off. At moments like this I wish the Queen could still have people beheaded.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @03:15PM (1 child)
If she didn't "voluntarily" pay taxes, she could lose a lot of esteem from the general public in the current economic and political environment. Queen Liz isn't getting any younger and, with Charismaless Charles being next in line to the throne, the last thing the monarchy needs is increased republican sentiment.
(Score: 4, Touché) by looorg on Monday November 06 2017, @03:24PM
All true. I don't believe she just does it out of the goodness of her hearth. But she still does it. So Corbyn is full of shit as per usual. I also still believe that the Queen is somewhat more popular then Corbyn. So this probably hurt him more then her, even tho the people that like him probably already hate the Queen so perhaps no great change at all. But as noted the monarchy is probably going to take a hit when she eventually dies if she is replaced by Charles. One could only hope he decided to skip being King, like that is ever going to happen -- after all he has been waiting all his life for mommy to die so he can become King, and let his offspring William step in instead, at least he is probably moderately more popular then Charles is.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @08:01PM
U.S. income tax is also voluntary, some people say. [irs.gov]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday November 06 2017, @10:07PM (1 child)
Well, the sad thing is, I invest in mutual funds, and if my mutual fund managers are doing a good job, they are investing my money in companies that are increasing in value, profitable, and otherwise going to grow my investment. Dodging taxes is one of the ways that this is done. Take two identical businesses, one with a billion dollars a day in cashflow with a 1% profit margin after taxes, and another that has increased their profit margin after taxes by 1% to 2%, that's a 10 million dollar a day difference in profits, double the profits. Which one do you want your fund manager to invest in?
Now, say you have morals, principles, and you care about where your money is invested - how much of your personal time and attention would be required to ensure that your investments aren't backing tax dodgers, cheats, thieves, and other miscreants? Even if you dig deep in the quarterly statements, it will be hard to find any evidence of criminal wrongdoing - you'll have to be digging harder than the regulators; granted, that's probably not too hard, but still more time than an individual should be spending to manage a $4K investment.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Tuesday November 07 2017, @01:54AM
And this is why it's a government trough problem, not a tax cheat problem:
Close the loophole that allows this, so they can't legally do it!
But pigs gotta eat, snouts gotta.....push against my crotch.....?
The rich push for the loophole, then use it. Politicians are to blame.
And the rich are to blame.
Crikey... I'm going walkies...about....errr.....
.....what?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---