paradise Archives

Turkey’s AKP votes down Paradise Papers investigation

November 9, 2017 By administrator

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) voted down a parliamentary motion to investigate revelations in recent leaks of offshore financial dealings by high level officials, including the energy minister and son-in-law to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Berat Albayrak, and the sons of Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım.

Mithat Sancar, a member of parliament for the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), said the documents – known in the press as the Paradise papers – revealed that Yıldırım’s sons had registered businesses on Malta, a choice he said was for the purpose of avoiding Turkish taxes.

Sancar asked:

What amount of tax would Prime Minister Yıldırım’s sons have paid in Turkey if they had conducted business through Turkish companies? How much has Turkey lost, and how much did they profit by moving their operations to Malta?

AKP parliamentarian Mehmet Şükrü Erdinç said his party provided investment in the people and stood against corruption.

Erdinç said:

What we are witnessing today is a perception operation against the people. It is cheap politics to draw our prime minister into a perception operation. He is someone who led the people on July 15 (the failed coup attempt), has struggled for his people; he is a leading actor in the fight against corruption.

The HDP and the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), plan to submit another motion on the same subject.

Yıldırım has said his sons do not have immunity and therefore can be investigated.

Source: https://ahvalnews.com/paradise-papers/turkeys-akp-votes-down-paradise-papers-investigation

Paradise Papers expose tax schemes of global elite

November 6, 2017 By administrator

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

Fox News: Armenia is former war zone turned into vacation paradise

August 26, 2015 By administrator

Some of the worst war-torn regions of the 20th century have made miraculous recoveries, transforming from places of carnage and decimation to hubs for comfort and fun, tourist journalist Katie Jackson writes in Fox News. She includes Columbia, South Africa, Nicaragua, Northern Island, Rwnada, Croatia, Armenia, Burma and Jamaica in her list.

As to Armenia, she writes that the country underwent many shocks and its capital Yerevan frequently changed hands, but it was the horrors of the Armenian Genocide that occurred between 1915 and 1918 that people remember most. “Today, Armenia has become a favorite destination for European budget travelers. Last year the number of foreign tourists increased to over 1.2 million, 11.3 percent more than the year before,” the article reads.

According to the author, the mountainous landscape affords wonderful opportunity for hiking and outdoor activities. “Culturally, the first nation to establish Christianity as a state religion, boasts of countless churches and monasteries — all free to visit. Also, public transportation is affordable and reliable, crowds are few and far between and everything is relatively cheap,” Jackson writes.