Paradise Papers . Also known as Paradise Paper (in English) is the name given to the massive leak of documents made public by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) (for its acronym in English), which revealed how billionaires and multinationals from around the world they used complex financial structures to hide assets and move large amounts of money away from the tax authorities of the countries in which they reside or carry out their activity.
Summary
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- 1 Background
- 1 The ICIJ
- 2 The documents
- 1 Offshore companies and trusts
- 2 Companies mentioned
- 3 References
- 4 sources
Background
The name was chosen for the idyllic places in which the opaque societies used are located; among them: Bermuda , Barbados , Bahamas and Cayman Islands .
The documents, leaked to the public onNovember 5,2017,were obtained by the German newspaperSüddeutsche Zeitungthanks to a duo of its reporters and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), aWashington-based group that won thePrize . Pulitzerfor the investigation he carried out of the law firm Mossack Fonseca in Panama in 2016 and which generated the so-calledPanama Papers.
The ICIJ
Created in 1997 at the initiative of the Center for Public Integrity, based in Washington and a member of the structure of think tanks (Think Tanks) created by circles of power in the United States for their ideological campaigns against progressive political leaders and social destabilization [1 ] . It is funded, among others, by the Open Society Foundations and the Ford Foundation. The first is directly linked to the well-known financial speculator George Soroswhich, in turn, is an active member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the most influential structure in US foreign policy. The second is a foundation that has historically been related to the CIA, and that serves as a front for it, like USAID [2] .
In total, almost 400 journalists from 67 countries investigated the 1.4 terabytes of information received, some 13.4 million documents, during a year.
Documents
- There were 13.4 million documents related to investments in tax havens.
- They contain the names of more than 120,000 people and companies.
- Many of them contain spreadsheets, projections, and statements.
- Some helped reveal how multinational companies dodged taxes and how the super-rich hid their wealth.
- The files go from1950to2016.
Of the 13.4 million documents, 6.8 million came from the Appleby law firm , which is based in Bermuda and has offices around the world, offering offshore services to its clients, normally with fortunes starting at 30 million. of dollars. The legal firm was founded in 1898 and serves select corporations and very wealthy individuals. Appleby helps its clients reduce their tax burden; overshadow holdings of assets such as companies, private plans, real estate and yachts; as well as to establish trusts—which in some cases reach billions of dollars—in tax havens.
Appleby has offices in tax havens around the world. In addition to its main office in Bermuda, it also has subsidiaries in theBritish Virgin Islandsand theCayman Islandsin the Caribbean; the Isle of Man and the bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey nearEngland; Mauritius and the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean, andHong KongandShanghai.
Another part of the documents, half a million, came from Asiaciti Trust, anotherSingapore- based law firm with similar activity to Appleby but smaller. And another part comes from the commercial registries of 19 opaque jurisdictions.
Offshore companies and trusts
The use of offshore companies and trusts is legal as long as they are declared to the tax authorities of the country of residence.
The ‘offshore’ services offered by these offices consist of creating complex and opaque corporate structures to hide the true beneficiary of some assets, reduce or even completely evade the payment of taxes. An ‘offshore’ company is created in a tax haven, does not carry out any commercial activity but takes advantage of the tax advantages and secrecy of the country.
A ‘trust’ or trust is a legal figure of Anglo-Saxon law that allows managing property and assets transferred by one or more constituents. It is a transfer of assets or capital from natural or legal persons, but executed in an ‘offshore’ jurisdiction to benefit from the privileges of tax havens.
Companies mentioned
In addition to Appleby and Asiaciti Trust ,Facebook,Apple,Disney,Microsoft,eBay,Glencore,UberandNikeare also among the companies that own subsidiaries operating in tax havens or offshore companies according to the documents. According to The Express Tribune, “Apple,Nike, andFacebookhave avoided paying billions of dollars in taxes by using offshore companies.”
