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Reporters have unveiled some 13.4 million secret documents detailing evidence of tax avoidance among high-ranking politicians and the super wealthy. Some in US President Donald Trump’s cabinet have been implicated.

Paradise Papers

Some 400 reporters from 67 countries have scoured 13.4 million secret documents and uncovered tax-avoidance techniques used by the super rich and high-ranking politicians, German media reported on Sunday.

The leaked data was obtained by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which said that the majority of the documents stem from offshore law firm Appleby, which was founded in Bermuda but has offices in several other locations. The company reported last month that it had been hacked.

The documents, dubbed the Paradise Papers, appear to show ties between members of US President Donald Trump’s cabinet and Russian firms.

Shrinking taxes

The documents also show that by using shell companies, corporations such as Nike, Apple, Uber and Facebook are able to shrink their taxes to low rates.

Rock star Bono, as well as British Queen Elizabeth II’s private estate, has also been involved in offshore funds, Süddeutsche Zeitung reported.

Over 120 politicians from 47 countries are involved in the tax-avoidance schemes, the paper reported.

Economist Gabriel Zucman told the Süddeutsche Zeitung that the global elite have parked an estimated 7.9 trillion euros ($9.1 trillion) in offshore tax havens.

The data was published by a number of news organizations in cooperation with the US-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

German ex-chancellor implicated

Data from the Paradise Papers shows that former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder had a management role at an offshore company.

In 2009, he was part of a so-called “independent supervisory board” of the Russian-British energy company TNK-BP, the documents show. The joint venture by Britain’s BP and Russia’s Alfa-Group was based, like many other oil joint-ventures, in the British Virgin Islands.

Schröder and two others on the board contacted Appleby “about certain procedural company affairs under the laws of the British Virgin Islands,” according to an email from a London-based lawyer in October 2011. Appleby declined to offer their services due to a conflict of interest with another client.

Source: http://www.dw.com/en/paradise-papers-expose-tax-schemes-of-global-elite/a-41246087

160512panamabubbles It appears to show that politicians are mentioned most often, followed by lawyers, business people, entrepreneurs, and those working in association football,

By Hazel Sheffield,

Politicians are by far the most referenced occupation in the Panama Papers.

That’s according to a chart created by a data researcher from Denmark, who used Wikidata to plot the occupations associated with those featured in the leaked documents.

Finn Årup Nielsen, senior researcher from the department of applied math and computer science at the Technical University of Denmark, published the bubble chart on his blog.

It appears to show that politicians are mentioned most often, followed by lawyers, business people, entrepreneurs, and those working in association football.

Nielsen said the flaw with the Wikidata means that only people who are notable enough to get their own Wikipedia page will be included in the data, which might mean many smaller business people featured in the papers don’t count towards the bubble chart.

At least three dozen Americans did business with Mossack Fonseca, the law firm based in Panama that wrote to all its clients to tell them it had leaked their details to the press on April 1.

Among the Americans listed are Len Gotshalk, a former Atlanta Falcons football star who was charged in 2010 with being a key player in a kickbacks scheme to inflate stocks of tech companies. Three days later, he bought a British Virgin Islands shell company that Mossack Fonseca had set up.

Emma Watson’s name has also been found in the searchable database published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

Watson’s spokesperson confirmed the 26-year-old had set up an offshore company, but added that she does not receive any tax or monetary advantages whatsoever. The spokesperson said she uses it for privacy purposes.

Setting up an offshore company is not in itself illegal or evidence of illegal conduct.

A number of past and present world leaders were named in the first leak as having offshore holdings. The database is the largest ever trove of data about offshore companies to be made publicly available.

Paradise Papers expose tax schemes of global elite

Paradise Papers

Panama Papers bubble chart shows politicians are most mentioned in document leak database