Rich Americans accused of criminal activity revealed in leaked offshore accounts data

By Agence France-Presse
Sunday, April 7, 2013 8:10 EDT
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/07/rich-americans-accused-of-criminal-activity-revealed-in-leaked-offshore-accounts-data/

A trove of data obtained by a US-based journalists’ group that details thousands of offshore accounts reveals several instances of swindles and other financial crimes, The Washington Post newspaper reported Sunday.

Among the 4,000 US individuals listed in the records, at least 30 were American citizens accused in lawsuits or criminal cases of fraud, money laundering or other serious financial misconduct, the report said.

They include billionaire hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam, who was convicted in 2011 in one of the biggest insider trading scandals in US history, and Paul Bilzerian, who was convicted of securities fraud, the paper noted.

The report was the latest by prominent newspapers around the world which were given copies of the data for scrutiny by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The head of the ICIJ, Gerard Ryle, obtained the data — involving 2.5 million records of more than 120,000 companies and trusts set up by two offshore companies operating in the British Virgin Islands and in Asia and the South Pacific — on a hard drive after investigating a fraud and offshore haven case in Australia.

Several newspapers, including France’s Le Monde and Britain’s Guardian, have been publishing revelations based on the data.

The Washington Post’s report said the records contained information on at least 23 companies linked to an alleged $230 million tax fraud in Russia that was investigated by a Moscow-based lawyer named Sergei Magnitsky.

After Magnitsky informed Russian authorities of his findings, he was accused of fraud himself and thrown in prison, where he died in 2009 under suspicious circumstances.

One of the companies mentioned in the records was used to set up Swiss bank accounts, into which the husband of a Russian tax official deposited millions in cash, the paper said.

Today, there are between 50 and 60 offshore financial centers around the world holding billions of dollars at a time of historic US deficits and budget cuts, The Washington Post said.

Groups that monitor tax issues estimate that between $8 trillion and $32 trillion in private global wealth is parked offshore, according to the paper.

According to fraud experts, offshore bank accounts and companies are vital to those wishing to conceal complex financial crimes.

For example, Allen Stanford, who ran a $7 billion Ponzi scheme, used a bank he controlled in Antigua, The Post noted.

And Bernard Madoff, who ran the largest Ponzi scheme in US history, used a series of offshore “feeder funds” to fuel the growth of his scam.

The Washington Post quoted a top official in the US Justice Department’s fraud section, Paul Pelletier, as saying US owners of offshore accounts were sometimes trying to hide money from US tax authorities, law enforcement or regulators.

“As a prosecutor, it was very difficult pursuing these people,” he said.

Poofness 4-7-13…”Let the Good Times Roll”

Greetings and Salutations;

So, like the beatles said, 'christ you know it ain't easy, you know how hard it can be', and that one said he'd be back 'soon', 2,000 years ago! Every week since the late 90's I've been talking about the things to come and the events that would shape them. It takes fire to make a phoenix egg break open so, this past week, the furnace was turned up and the eggs began to crack open. Some contractors in Iraq had their smart card loaded, one's they could use internationally, too. That should tell you 'something' is locked in place. The folks in the rafters also put the rvs into the system and let them process thru it. That started the final countdown so you could start exchanging your currencies. It also began the the final move to the new metal backed banking system. Let the good times roll.

This is no secret, Canada has the machinery that controls the western banking system, it's been that way for years, from the arctic to the antarctic. Should have remembered from junior high, I know it was boring, who cares? Well, it means something now, as all this stuff comes to a head. When is always the question, the answer is, it's all relative. Jamaicans are fond of saying, 'soon come', which you learn means, when it's 'time', like 'shaman time' amongst the native people. A clock watcher would find themselves very frustrated. As a farmer looks into the sky and feels the wind, he gets a reading on the weather. Even the moon phases tells him much about 'when' to plant, he using farmer time. City folk check their televisions and sometimes that's iffy on accuracy. A watched pot never boils, is what the old folks say. But, there are measurements one can use internally to have a 'feel' for 'when'. The Now is a broad range, as I learned, thru the years. The actual 'moment' is pinpointed somewhere in the now. Did I make That clear enough?

Bankers are not patriotic. Their game is money, they don't care about politics unless it results in more money for them. Wall St is killing it right now, so much for the political rhetoric you hear on Rupert Murdoch's franchise in NY, fox news. Shades of '1984', 'big brother loves you', 'war is peace'..etc. You are entering the 'time' when you'll enter 'non time', it'll take some getting used to. Babies use it all the time, until we teach them to pay attention to the ticking on the wall. Your dog or cat doesn't have a wrist watch but something tells them to go stand by their bowls. Not compare anyone with an animal but, it's 'time' to stay close to your bowls. As you consume, you needn't worry about a bigger dog cleaning out your bowl, they'll find a cattle prod tapping that backside. Yipe, yipe. You're getting a 5 star trust for the programs, work from a position of safety. The folks in the rafters had to work thru government politics to get things right for all, and you wanted to know what took them so long. Watched DC lately? The good news is, the long and winding road is at it's end point. Consultations until the door bell rings.

Good luck and let the good time roll.

LINK

Love and Kisses,

Poofness 

2goforth@Safe-mail.net

Let The Good Times Roll Lyrics Ray Charles.

LINK

Hey everybody, 

Let's have some fun 

You only live but once 

And when you're dead you're done 

So let the good times roll, 

I said let the good times roll, 

I don't care if you're young or old, 

You oughtta get together and let the good times roll 

Don't sit there mumbling 

Talkin' trash 

If you want to have a ball, 

You got to go out and spend some cash 

And let the good times roll now, 

I'm talkin' 'bout the good times, 

Well it makes no difference whether you're young or old, 

All you got to do is get together and let the good times roll 

Hey y'all tell everybody, Ray Charles in town, 

I got a dollar and a quarter and I'm just ringing the clock, 

But don't let no female, play me cheap, 

I got fifty cents more than I'm gonna keep. 

So let the good times roll now, 

I tell y'all I'm gonna let the good times roll now, 

Well it don't make no difference if you're young or old, 

All you got to do is get together and let the good times roll 

Hey no matter whether, rainy weather, 

If you want to have a ball, you got to get yourself together, 

Oh, get yourself under control, woah, and let the good times roll. 

Highlights of Offshore Leaks So Far

By Emily Menkes, April 5, 2013, 11:15 am

 

This week marks the beginning of one of the biggest financial leaks in history.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has just released the first stories from a global collaborative project into the world of offshore money. The Tax Justice Network, an advocacy group claims that a third of the world’s wealth is tied up in the secret area of offshore.

For the past 15 months, journalists from over 40 countries have worked together to shed light on this issue.

And here’s some of what they found.

• François Hollande’s treasurer during the 2012 presidential campaign, businessman Jean-Jacques Augier, is revealed to have investments in the Cayman Islands.
   
•  Philippine government officials said Friday that they will look into the disclosure that Maria Imelda Marcos Manotoc, the eldest daughter of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos was a beneficiary of a secret offshore trust in the British Virgin Islands. “We are duty bound to investigate and, depending upon informed preliminary findings, decide whether to pursue the matter,” said Andres Bautista, the chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, tasked with recovering the Marcos family’s alleged ill-gotten wealth.
   
•  Germany’s largest financial institution, Deutsche Bank, helped its customers maintain more than 300 secretive offshore companies and trusts through its Singapore branch.
   
• New light is shed on a half-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme  in Venezuela that shuffled investor money among a maze of offshore companies, hedge funds and bank accounts stretching from the Cayman Islands to Switzerland and Panama, smoothing the way by funneling bribes to officials in Venezuela.
   
• Commonwealth Trust Limited, a BVI-based firm, is revealed to have set up companies involved in the Magnitsky affair, a case that’s strained U.S.-Russian relations and blocked American adoptions of Russian orphans

• One of Mongolia’s most senior politicians says he is considering resigning from office after being confronted with evidence that he has an offshore company and a secret Swiss bank account.
   
• Newly uncovered documents link Maria Imelda Marcos Manotoc, the eldest child of the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos and now a senior political figure in her own right, to two secretive offshore trusts and an offshore company.
   
• A prominent Canadian lawyer, husband to a Liberal senator, moved CA$1.7 million (US$1.1 million) to secretive financial havens while he was locked in battle with the Canada Revenue Agency over his taxes, according to documents in a massive leak of offshore financial data.
   
• A corporate mogul whose business empire has won building contracts worth billions of dollars amid Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s massive construction spree is tied to the president’s family through secretive offshore companies.
   
• The prominent Thais listed in secret documents as owners of offshore holdings includes the former wife of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a sitting senator, a former high-ranking defense ministry official, Forbes-listed tycoons, and a former government minister whose assets in the United States are frozen because of her alleged links to Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe.
   
• Greek citizens who own or direct offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands and other tax havens rarely declare them to Greek tax officials, a review of more than 100 companies shows. Just four out of 107 offshore companies investigated by ICIJ are registered with tax authorities as the law usually requires, particularly when the firms hold assets or conduct business in Greece. Officials apparently have no record of the other 103 firms — or whether the owners declared any assets held by these entities or paid taxes on them.
   
• A list containing examples of some of the most high-profile names uncovered in this investigation, along with records of their offshore companies. Those named come in the form of politicians, businessmen, army generals, tycoons, relatives of dictators, and are scattered across 29 different countries.
   
• Finally, for those interested in how ICIJ managed to tackle records cache, the data manager of the project, Duncan Campbell, writes an in-depth explanation of how our journalists were able make sense of the 260 gigabytes of information obtained. Four large databases, half a million text, PDF, spreadsheet, image and web files were dissected to reveal over 130,000 records on the people and agents who run, own, benefit from or hide behind offshore companies. 

We hope you enjoy these stories; there will be more to follow daily for the next couple of weeks.

If you have story tips, documents or other information about this issue, contact us at investigations@icij.org.

 Subscribe to The ICIJ Global Muckraker by email or get the RSS feed

Source: http://www.icij.org/blog/2013/04/highlights-offshore-leaks-so-far

Stepping Into The Fire (full ayahuasca documentary)

You didn't come into this world. You came out of it, like a wave from the ocean. You are not a stranger here. -Alan Watts 

Stepping Into the Fire is the cinematic release that reaches into the ash of the bare bones of existence and asks the question “is humanity born to die, or is humanity born to live?” 
 

The film follows the true story of three successful individuals brought together by an ancestral medicine from South America that has become legendary for its miraculous and profound effects. Ayahuasca — as the Amazonian brew is known — is well known for its mental, physical and energetic healing properties. Stepping Into the Fire closely examines the life-changing effects Ayahuasca can have and illustrates why environment and health are so crucial to human success on a global scale.

Stepping Into the Fire features Roberto Velez, Donna Walsh, Bo and José Pineda Varges (a.k.a Maestro Mancoluto). The story begins with Roberto Velez — a high-level New York Stock Exchange trader — raised since adolescence in America, but ultimately of Peruvian descent. In the peak of his career, Velez finds himself seeking; unable to reconcile his material gains with the lack of direction and depth in his life. With nowhere else to turn, Velez scours Peru — the land of his ancestors — only to find Mancoluto, a first-level master shaman descended from one of the earliest civilizations in Amerindian history, Chavin. 

Mancoluto’s expertise in natural health, particularly in the case of two ancestral medicines known as Ayahuasca and Huachuma, provides him a unique lens when treating Velez’s predicament. Once this connection was made, countless other pieces start falling into place and a center for ancient Peruvian healing arts is quickly born.

Stepping Into the Fire is the beautifully woven tapestry of recent events that will leave you ignited and inspired to discover what it is in your life that keeps the fire alive

https://jhaines6.wordpress.com/2013/03/16/stepping-into-the-fire-full-ayahuasca-documentary/

ABSOLUTE DATA – Tsunami of Offshore Fraud

http://unitednationsoffilm.com/absolute-data-tsunami-of-offshore-fraud/

Dutch Queen Beatrix running away into hiding with all the loot as Dutch lawmakers fed up about Netherlands role as a $13 trillion tax haven … It’s an excellent story, and it’s great to see that quite a lot of people in the Netherlands are ashamed of the role their country is playing. Abdicating suddenly after 33 years ruling the former Nazi Empire of the German proxie of The Netherlands, Queen Beatrix hands over the family business to her son.

“The Netherlands’ role as a $13 trillion relay station on the global tax-avoiding network is prompting a backlash. The Dutch Parliament is scheduled to debate the fairness of its tax system today. Lawmakers from several parties, including members of the country’s governing coalition, say they want to remove a stain on the nation’s reputation.

Meanwhile all over the globe there’s an even larger story breaking :

The ABSOLUTE DATA TSUNAMI of FRAUD.

• Government officials and their families and associates in Azerbaijan, Russia, Canada, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, Mongolia and other countries have embraced the use of covert companies and bank accounts.
•  The mega-rich use complex offshore structures to own mansions, yachts, art masterpieces and other assets, gaining tax advantages and anonymity not available to average people.
• Many of the world’s top’s banks – including UBS, Clariden and Deutsche Bank – have aggressively worked to provide their customers with secrecy-cloaked companies in the British Virgin Islands and other offshore hideaways.
• A well-paid industry of accountants, middlemen and other operatives has helped offshore patrons shroud their identities and business interests, providing shelter in many cases to money laundering or other misconduct.
• Ponzi schemers and other large-scale fraudsters routinely use offshore havens to pull off their shell games and move their ill-gotten gains.

Ponzi Scheme Used Offshore Hideaways To Shuffle Investors’ Money

Who Uses the Offshore World

Don’t see your country in #offshoreleaks? We will release new stories daily over the next few weeks http://icij.org/offshore

ICIJ LIFTS VEIL ON OFFSHORE WORLD

INTERNATIONAL CONSORTIUM OF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISTS LIFTS VEIL ON OFFSHORE WORLD - 86 INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISTS FROM 46 COUNTRIES WORKED ON WHAT MAY BE LARGEST-EVER CROSS BORDER JOURNALISM COLLABORATION

WASHINGTON, DC – The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a project of the Center for Public Integrity, released today its first of many re- ports from a 15-month investigation that cracks open the historically impenetrable world of offshore tax havens.

Drawing from a leaked trove of 2.5 million digital files, ICIJ led what may be the largest cross border journalism collaboration in history.

ICIJ’s investigation opens the secrets of more than 120,000 offshore companies and trusts and nearly 130,000 individuals and agents, exposing hidden dealings of politi- cians, con artists, and the mega-rich in more than 170 countries. Secrecy for Sale: In- side the Global Offshore Money Maze, ICIJ’s largest investigative reporting project in its 15- year history, is available at www.icij.org/offshore.

OFFSHORE LEAKS: DATA JOURNALISM CHALLENGES POWERFUL HIDDEN INTERESTS

Following today’s publication of findings from the analysis of millions of leaked documents about offshore companies and tax havens, Reporters Without Borders hails the journalistic investigation of leaked data troves and the major progress it represents in the emergence of a journalism capable of confronting powerful hidden private sector interests

“The conjunction of whistle-blowers and investigative journalists acting as democracy watchdogs makes it possible to challenge a skilful network of secrecy with often planetary ramifications,” Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. “These new transparency tools will help to combat the embezzlement of public funds, the fraudulent acquisition of fortunes and corruption.”

Just as Reporters Without Borders saw the positive effects that the WikiLeaks revelations had on the fight against repressive regimes, so it now welcomes the work that has been carried out by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) with funding from the Centre for Public Integrity.

The findings published today by 38 news organizations around the world were based on 15 months of research and analysis of more than 2.5 millions leaked files. The work was led by the ICIJ’s network of investigative journalists and mobilized more than 86 journalists in 46 countries.

The Swiss daily Le Matin said the leaked data, which includes emails, contracts, passport photos and accounts, contains information about more than 122,000 offshore companies and trusts linked to at least 130,000 people in 140 countries. read more

KEY FINDINGS

Secret records obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reveal tens of thousands of people in more than 170 countries and territories linked to offshore companies and trusts. Here are some examples from around the world:

Georgia

Bidzina Ivanishvili
Prime Minister

Details: Georgia’s richest man, with a net worth estimated by Forbes magazine at more than $5 billion. Was elected prime minister in October 2012, straight from the business world.

Offshore business: Director of Bosherston Overseas Corp. in the British Virgin Islands (2006). The company is still in existence, according to BVI records.

Comment: “For the reporting period of 2011-2012 Prime Minister Ivanishvili had no interest in the company you have mentioned in your inquiry and therefore there was no obligation to report it in his declaration. The Prime Minister takes these reporting requirements seriously and everything is done according to the law,” a spokesman said.

France

Jean-Jacques AugierJean-Jacques Augier

Publisher

Details: Campaign treasurer of François Hollande for the 2012 presidential elections.  They studied together at the prestigious National School of Management (ENA). He’s also chief executive officer of investment holding company Eurane SA, mainly focused on the publishing field.

Offshore business: Shareholder — through Eurane SA — and director of International Bookstores Ltd (2005) in the Cayman Islands.

Comment: Jean-Jacques Augier said he used the company to do a large investment in China in 2005. One of his partners in the offshore firm was Xi Shu, a businessman and a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a political advisory body in China dominated by the Communist Party but with representatives from other parties and organizations.

 

 

Mongolia

Bayartsogt SangajavBayartsogt Sangajav

Politician

Details: Became his country’s finance minister in September 2008, a position he held until a cabinet reshuffle in August 2012. During those years he attended international meetings and served as a governor of the Asian Development Bank, pushing the case for his poor nation to receive foreign development assistance and investment. He was at the forefront of encouraging foreign mining and other companies to move into Mongolia. He currently serves as deputy speaker of the Mongolian Parliament.

Offshore business: Bayartsogt Sangajav controlled Legend Plus Capital Limited, an offshore company administered from Hong Kong but incorporated in the British Virgin Islands (2008). The documents show the company was used to open a secret Swiss bank account, controlled by Bayartsogt, just months before he was appointed his country’s minister of finance.

Comment: Bayartsogt said the company and the bank account were set up as a syndicate by him and three unnamed business friends to trade in stocks. Both the bank account and the company remain in his name, and he did not declare them to Parliament, something he now describes as a “mistake.” He said he was considering resigning from Parliament over the issue.

Venezuela

 

José Eliecer Pinto Gutiérrez

Army General

Details: Top commander in the Amazonas state, overseeing security in the Venezuela-Colombia border.

Offshore business: Shareholder, director and secretary of Romana International Holdings, Ltd. (2003-2006) in the British Virgin Islands.

Comment: Pinto Gutiérrez could not be reached for comment.

 

 

 

Myanmar/Burma

Aye Zaw Win   

Son-in-law of Burma’s former dictator Ne Win

Details: General Ne Win was a military strongman who ruled Burma during three decades, 1962-1988. His family became wealthy through business activities including forestry and fisheries.

Offshore business: Shareholder of Compass Point Finance Limited (1996) and Sky-Link Communications Ltd. (1997) in the British Virgin Islands. The companies were transferred to another offshore service provider, but the records do not provide a date.

Comment: Aye Zaw Win could not be reached for comment despite multiple attempts.

South Africa/Zimbabwe

“Billy” RautenbachMuller Conrad “Billy” Rautenbach

Businessman  

        

Details: Zimbabwean millionaire with close links to the Mugabe regime. The United States blacklisted him saying he has helped organized huge mining projects in Zimbabwe that “benefit a small number of corrupt senior officials.” Rautenbach fled South Africa in 1999 after being accused of fraud. The charges lodged personally against him were dismissed, but a South African company he controlled pleaded guilty to criminal charges and paid a fine of roughly $4 million.

Offshore business: Shareholder of Artemis Group, LTD. (2006) in the British Virgin Islands.

Comment: Rautenbach denies U.S. authorities’ allegations, contending that they made “significant factual and legal errors” in their blacklisting decision, his attorney, Ian Small Smith, said. Smith said Rautenbach’s BVI company was set up as “special purpose vehicle for investment in Moscow” and that it complied with all disclosure regulations. The company is no longer active.

 

 

 

Azerbaijan

Ilham AliyevIlham Aliyev, Mehriban Aliyeva, Arzu Aliyeva and Leyla Aliyeva

Ruling family

Details: Ilham Aliyev is the president of Azerbaijan and Mehriban Aliyeva is his wife. Arzu and Leyla are the couple’s daughters. The Aliyev family, beginning with Ilham’s father, Heydar Aliyev, has held power in Azerbaijan almost without interruption since the late 1960s.

Offshore business: Ilham Aliyev and Mehriban Aliyeva were directors of Rosamund International Ltd (2003) in the British Virgin Islands. Arzu Aliyeva was a director and shareholder of BVI company Arbor Investments (2008).  Leyla Aliyeva was director and shareholder of LaBelleza Holdings Ltd. (2008) and Harvard Management Ltd. (2008) both in the BVI.

Comment: Ilham Aliyev, Mehriban Aliyeva, Arzu Aliyeva and Leyla Aliyeva did not respond to ICIJ’s requests for comment.

United States

Denise Rich

Songwriter

Details: Ex-wife of the United States’ most famous tax fugitive, Marc Rich, who was controversially pardoned by former President Bill Clinton on Clinton’s last day in office. She is a Grammy-nominated songwriter, having written chart-topping songs for the likes of Sister Sledge and Celine Dion. In 2012, Rich resigned her U.S. citizenship.

Offshore business: Settlor and beneficiary of The Dry Trust (1992) and director of DTD Limited (2007), both in the Cook Islands.

Comment: Denise Rich did not respond to a request for comment.

 

 

 

Indonesia

Eka Tjipta WidjajaEka Tjipta Widjaja              

Businessman

Details: Head of Indonesia’s second richest family (2012), owns rainforest-clearing Asia Pulp and Paper and world’s second largest palm oil plantations.

Offshore business: Beneficial owner, through his Sinar Mas conglomerate, of various pulp and palm oil British Virgin Islands and Labuan offshore companies

Comment: Widjaja did not respond to a request for comment.

Thailand

Potjaman Na PombejraPotjaman Na Pombejra

Former Thai first lady

Details: Former wife of Thailand’s ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Potjaman and Shinawatra obtained a high-profile divorce at the Thai consular office in Hong Kong in 2008. Two years later, about $1.4 billion of Shinawatra’s family assets were seized after he was found guilty by the Supreme Court of corruption and abuse of power to benefit his family’s telecommunication company, Shin Corporation, while he was prime minister.

Offshore business:  Potjaman Na Pombejra acquired an offshore company called Premium Select Inc. (2007) in the British Virgin Islands, and soon after she was listed as the sole beneficial owner. The company was set up through the service of UBS AG Singapore.

Comment: Potjaman’s lawyer, Somporn Pongsuwan, did not return several phone calls seeking information on the offshore entity.

Fiji

Fred MarafonoFred Marafono       

Mercenary

Details: Ex-British SAS, he was involved in security work and diamond mining during the Sierra Leone civil war.

Offshore business: Director of Hinterland Mining Brokers Limited (1997-2000) in the Cook Islands.

Comment: Marafono passed away on March 27; earlier attempts to reach him for comment were unsuccessful.

Canada

Tony Merchant E.F. Anthony “Tony” Merchant

Trial lawyer

Details: A former politician, he is married to Canadian senator Pana Merchant. He has been involved in a number of high-volume class action suits, including a $1.9 billion settlement with the Canadian government on behalf of native groups over abuse of students in residential schools.  Merchant has had repeated battles with the Canadian revenue agency over his tax payments.   He has also been disciplined by the Law Society for “conduct unbecoming of a member.”

Offshore business: Beneficiary (1998-2002), settlor and protector of the Merchant (2000) US Inc Trust (incorporated 1998) in the Cook Islands.  His wife, Canadian senator Pana Merchant, is a beneficiary of the trust.

Comment: Anthony and Pana Merchant declined to comment.

 

Kazakhstan

Mukhtar AblyazovMukhtar Ablyazov

Businessman

Details: Ablyazov stands accused of embezzling up to $5 billion from a state-owned Kazakhstan bank in what British media describe as the biggest fraud in history.

Offshore business: An individual later named in U.K. court documents as a front man for Mukhtar Ablyazov set up 31 companies in 2006 and 2007 in the British Virgin Islands.

Comment: Ablyazov’s attorneys in London did not respond to a request for comment. Ablyazov has denied the fraud allegations in the past.

 

Philippines

Imee MarcosMaria Imelda Marcos Manotoc  

Politician

Details: Daughter of former Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos and at present governor of the province of Ilocos Norte.

Offshore business: Beneficiary and investment advisor to Sintra Trust (2002) in the British Virgin Islands. She was also a financial advisor for a company in which the Sintra Trust was a shareholder, ComCentre Corporation (2002), and a “master client” for the M Trust in Labuan, Malaysia (2007-2009).

Comment:  Manotoc did not respond to a request for comment.

 

 

Kuwait

Sheik Sabah Jaber Al-Ali Al-SabahSheik Sabah Jaber Al-Ali Al-Sabah and two relatives

Members of Kuwait’s ruling family

Details: Sheik Sabah Jaber Al-Ali Al-Sabah has headed the Kuwaiti Public Ports Authority. He and his brother are sons of Kuwait’s former deputy prime minister

Offshore business: He or his relatives are shareholders in two British Virgin Islands companies CIC Realty, Inc and Capital Investment Company Group, Ltd for seven years until 2002

Comment: Sheik Sabah Jaber Al-Ali Al-Sabah did not respond to a request for comment

 

 

Colombia

Alvaro Uribe and his sons, Tomás Uribe Moreno and Jerónimo Alberto Uribe Moreno

Businessmen

Details: Sons of former Colombian president, Alvaro Uribe. During their father’s eight years in office, they were accused of influence-peddling in two high-profile scandals, including in a case in which they acquired land in an area whose value skyrocketed after authorities granted it tax-free status. They were acquitted in both cases but prosecutors have started investigating new leads related to the land acquisitions.

Offshore business: Shareholders of Asia America Investment Corporation (2008) in the British Virgin Islands.

Comment: A lawyer for Tomás and Jerónimo Uribe Moreno, Jaime Lombana, said the company was created with the purpose of selling Colombian handcrafts abroad but the business never took off. The company was incorporated in the BVI because one of the partners in the venture lived there, said Lombana. The firm, he said, “didn’t produce any income.”

 

Djibouti

Abdourahman “Charles” BorehAbdourahman “Charles” Boreh          

Businessman and politician

Details: One of Djibouti’s most wealthy and powerful businessmen and a 2011 presidential election candidate. He is exiled in Dubai.

Offshore business: Beneficial owner of Net Support Holdings Ltd (2007) in the British Virgin Islands and Value Additions Ltd (2007) in Samoa

Comment: Boreh said he uses his offshore companies to steer his many investments worldwide and to protect his assets from potential political instability.

Spain

Carmen Thyssen-BornemiszaCarmen Thyssen-Bornemisza

Art collector and philanthropist

Details: Former Miss Spain and widow of a German-Hungarian baron, she’s one of the world’s top art collectors. Her hundreds of works of art ranging from Van Gogh to Goya are exhibited in museums in Madrid, Barcelona and Málaga.

Offshore business: Beneficial owner of Sargasso Trustees Limited (1996-2004)  and shareholder of Nautilus Limited (incorporated 1994) in the Cook Islands.

Comment: Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza’s lawyer acknowledged that she gains tax benefits by holding ownership of her art offshore, but stressed that she uses tax havens primarily because they give her “maximum flexibility” when she moves art from country to country.

Ukraine

Dmytro FirtashDmytro Firtash

Businessman

Details: Co-owns RosUkrEnergo, a partnership with Gazprom, the Russian natural gas giant. U.S. law enforcement officials and diplomats have linked him to arms and drug trafficking and to reputed Russian mob boss Semion Mogilevich.

Offshore business: Shareholder and director (since 2007) in Group DF Limited (incorporated in 2006) in the British Virgin Islands, which became a holding company for Firtash’s interests in energy, chemicals and real estate.

Comment: Firtash could not be reached for comment.

 

 

Pakistan

Moonis ElahiMoonis Elahi

Legislator

Details: Son of Chaudry Pervez Elahi, who until last month was Pakistan’s deputy prime minister. The Chaudry family has had a powerful role in the country’s politics for the past five decades. In 2010, Moonis Elahi was accused of receiving illicit payments as part of an alleged land scam. He was later acquitted amidst what Pakistan’s Supreme Court said was intense government interference in the investigation.

Offshore business: Shareholder and director of Olive Groves Assets Ltd. (2006) in the British Virgin Islands.

Comment: Moonis Elahi denied that he owns or controls Olive Grove Assets Ltd. He did not answer whether he had owned the firm in the past. ICIJ verified Elahi’s connection to the firm through the address listed for the politician in the corporate records, which is that of the Chaudry family residence in Lahore.

Saudi Arabia

Hassan Mohammed and Fady Mohammed Jameel

Businessmen

Details: Sons of one of the richest men in Saudi Arabia and executives in Abdul Latif Jameel Group, one of the world’s largest Toyota dealers, with operations in the Middle East, UK, Central Asia and China.

Offshore business: Directors (2002-2003) of Costa Azzoura Limited (incorporated in 2002) and directors (2004-2009) of Hillbeck Limited (incorporated in 2004) in the British Virgin Islands. Hassan was also shareholder of Hillbeck Limited (since 2004).

Comment: The Director of Business Development at the Abdul Latif Jameel Group, Farooq Vaid, said the Jameel brothers were not related to the offshore companies as directors or shareholders. He acknowledged knowing about the entities but didn’t want to confirm any further details. “These are privately held companies and nobody has the right to know,” he told ICIJ. Internal records show Vaid was shareholder of Costa Azzoura Limited and shareholder and director of Hillbeck Limited. He is also related to five more BVI companies — in one case as shareholder and in the other four cases as director. The Abdul Latif Jameel Group address in Jeddah is mentioned in most of the company records obtained by ICIJ.

Malaysia

Mirzan Bin Mahathir

Businessman

Details: Son of Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, the longest-serving prime minister of Malaysia (1981-2003), who modernized the country under an autocratic rule. Mahathir Mohamad was accused of abusing his extensive political powers to enrich his family and key business associates. Mirzan is a prominent entrepreneur, with directorships in various companies in Malaysia and internationally.

Offshore business: Shareholder and director of Utara Capital Limited (1997), Crescent Energy Limited (2003), and Al Sadd Investments Pte. Ltd. (2009) in Labuan.

Comment: An aide for Mirzan told Malaysiakini and ICIJ that Mirzan could not answer questions because he was out of town.

Italy

Fabio GhioniFabio Ghioni

Hacker

Details: Former head of information security at Telecom Italia, arrested in 2007 for leading a unit that illegally obtained data of 4,000 people, including politicians and journalists. In 2012 the Supreme Court of Cassation confirmed his 2010 plea bargain and his sentence of 3 years and 4 months in prison.

Offshore business: Owner of Constant Surge Investments Ltd (2006) in the British Virgin Islands.

Comment: Fabio Ghioni denied being the owner of Constant Surge Invesments Ltd. “The BVI? I don’t know where they are located!” he said on the phone. ICIJ verified Ghioni’s connection to the BVI firm through the address he used upon incorporation of the company which is that of his personal residence in Milan. The corporate files also include annotations describing Ghioni’s occupation at the time.

 

Brazil

Clarice, Leo and Fabio Steinbruch

Businessmen 

Details: Members of one of Brazil’s richest families, which owns large steel and textile companies and a bank.

Offshore business: Shareholders and directors of Peak Management Inc. (2007) in the British Virgin Islands.

Comment: Leo Steinbruch told ICIJ that “Peak Management exists, is active, it’s been declared on its owners’ tax forms and has been duly disclosed to the Brazilian Central Bank as a Brazilian investment abroad.”

India

Ravikant RuiaRavikant Ruia

Businessman

Details: In December 2011, he was accused of criminal conspiracy by India’s principal anti-corruption enforcement agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation. The accusation relates to a broader investigation of politicians, government officials and telecom executives in India for alleged irregularities in the award of cell phone frequencies to telephone companies.  Ruia’s firm is disputing the charges made against him and others.

Offshore business: Shareholder in one firm in the British Virgin Islands, Orion Worldwide Universal Corporation (2008). His daughter, Smiti, is a shareholder in two others. One of Ruia’s flagship companies, Essar Power, has further BVI entities that are named in the ICIJ documents.

Comment: A company spokesman said that of the eight companies registered in Ruia’s name as well as in the name of his flagship business Essar Power, five have since been liquidated. Three continue to be operational. “These companies were started as SPVs [Special Purpose Vehicles] to make investments and are in the knowledge of the authorities concerned,” the spokesman added.

 

Mexico

Dionisio Garza MedinaDionisio Garza Medina

Businessman

Details: His family co-owns Alfa, a conglomerate with interests in oil, food and telecommunications.

Offshore business: Shareholder of Vercors Private Limited (2005) in Singapore.

Comment: Garza Medina did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Alfa, of which Garza Medina was CEO until 2010, declined to answer questions saying this is a “private matter of Mr. Garza not related to Alfa.”

Greece

Apostolos VakakisApostolos Vakakis

Businessman

Details: CEO of the retail conglomerate Jumbo SA, one of Greece’s largest companies.

Offshore business: Shareholder of Karpathia Ltd. (2007) in the British Virgin Islands. Company transferred to another offshore service provider in 2009.

Comment: “I have declared officially all without exception my transactions that should be announced in public, as provided by relevant Greek legislation. … One does not use a legal entity in order to hide the identity of the beneficial owner by using shadow names but to be able to complete a transaction in a straightforward manner,” said Vakakis.

 

Jordan

The Shoman familySuha, Omar and Aysha Shoman            

Widow and children of one of Jordan’s richest families

Details: The family’s father, Khalid Shoman, was — until his death in 2001 — vice-chairman of the Arab Bank Group, one of the main banks in the Arab world, founded by his father. Omar sold their share of the bank for about $375 million in 2003.

Offshore business: Omar and Aysha are shareholders — jointly or on their own — of 12 companies in the British Virgin Islands, including OS Investments Inc. (2002), OAKS Inc. (2003), Fisch Investments Inc. (2005) and OS Tech Inc. (2006). Their mother is connected with two of the firms as a shareholder and one as a director. Most entities were transferred to another offshore service provider between 2007 and 2009.

Comment: Omar Shoman didn’t reply to requests to comment through his assistant and email. The ICIJ could not locate Aysha Shoman and could not reach Suha Shoman on the phone despite several attempts.

Tanzania

Mehbub Yusufali ManjiMehbub Yusufali Manji

Businessman

Details: The Manji family is one of the richest in Tanzania. It started Quality Group Limited, the country’s major conglomerate with interests ranging from automotive to food processing.

Offshore business: Director and shareholder of Intertrade Commercial Services Inc. (2007-2009) in the British Virgin Islands.

Comment: Yusuf Manji, chairman and CEO of the company, did not reply to ICIJ’s emailed request for comment. The contact address in the records is that of the company in Dar-Es-Salaam.

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Tax Haven Hole Opens up

Massive data leak exposes offshore financial secrets

Hundreds of Canadians named in tax-haven records shared exclusively in Canada with CBC News

By Zach Dubinsky, Harvey Cashore, Frédéric Zalac and Alex Shprintsen, CBC News
Posted: Apr 4, 2013 5:04 AM ET
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/04/03/offshore-data-leak.html

They sought the utmost secrecy in offshore tax havens. But now some of the world's wealthiest citizens are having their undisclosed financial records laid bare.

An unprecedented leak of documents is revealing the closely guarded investment information of more than 100,000 people around the world, including hundreds of Canadians.

• INTERACTIVE: How the rich hide their money
• MAP: Where Canada's offshore account-holders live
• READ: Why CBC News isn't publishing all the names

In what is believed to be one of the largest ever leaks of financial data, the Washington, D.C.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has received nearly 30 years of data entries, emails and other confidential details from 10 offshore havens around the world.

CBC News has partnered with the ICIJ over the last seven months to gain exclusive Canadian access to the information. Thirty-seven media outlets in 35 other countries are also involved.

"This secret world has finally been revealed," said lawyer and international tax expert Art Cockfield, a professor at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.

MAP Tax haven data leak reverberates around globe

"I find it absolutely fascinating to get a look at this data dump. I think this is the very first time where people like myself, and maybe even government officials, have had access to this information."

The files contain information on over 120,000 offshore entities — including shell corporations and legal structures known as trusts — involving people in over 170 countries. The leak amounts to 260 gigabytes of data, or 162 times larger than the U.S. State Department cables published by WikiLeaks in 2010.

"What we found as we started digging in the records is a pretty extensive collection of dodgy characters: Wall Street fraudsters, Ponzi schemers, figures connected to organized crime, to arms dealing, money launderers," said Michael Hudson, a senior editor at the ICIJ, who worked with a team for months to sort through the information.

"We just found a lot of folks involved in questionable or outright illegal activities."

There was also plenty of information related to legal offshore dealings. Offshore investments aren't illicit as long as they are not used to evade taxes or launder money.


As reported by CBC News yesterday, the files show that a Canadian senator and her husband, one of the country's most prominent class-action lawyers, were beneficiaries of a confidential offshore account in the Cook Islands that was used to make investments via Bermuda.

•  READ: Senator's husband put $1.7 million in offshore havens 

The leaked data also contains revelations about:

• Elite Russian scammers who stole $230 million from the country's treasury in a deadly heist that sparked a diplomatic row with the U.S.
• The fraudster hit with the second-biggest fine in history from Ontario's stock-market regulator.
• Top German, French and Swiss banks that set up thousands of secretive companies in offshore havens for such clients as Thai and Pakistani politicians.

In many cases, the leaked documents expose insider details of how agents would incorporate companies in Caribbean and South Pacific micro-states on behalf of wealthy clients, then assign front people called "nominees" to serve, on paper, as directors and shareholders for the corporations — disguising the companies' true owners.

Often the companies were set up through intermediary law and accounting firms, as well, adding a further layer of anonymity for investors.

BUYING SECRECY Interactive: How offshore havens attract the wealthy

"These people have no idea whatsoever about the activities of the companies that they are apparently responsible for. Now, this is a complete travesty," said John Christensen, director of the Tax Justice Network, an international coalition that campaigns against offshore finance.

"But it is actually crucial to this process of not revealing who the real person is behind the company."

Sometimes these methods were used by figures with known links to organized crime, arms dealers and ex-mercenaries. In other instances, documents reveal tax dodgers funnelling money offshore, beyond the eyes and arms of their nation's treasury.


Canadians at top

Many of the leaked records consist of emails between employees and customers of specialty firms that set up and administer tens of thousands of offshore companies.

One of those firms — Commonwealth Trust Ltd., based in the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean — was founded and, until 2009, run by a Toronto native, Tom Ward. The company's senior ranks included a number of other Canadians. It mainly sets up corporations in the BVI for the wealthy, charging around $2,000 a year per account for its services.

MAP Canada's offshore account-holders

Another agency, Portcullis TrustNet, has offices on tropical islands around the globe, including in the Cook Islands near New Zealand, as well as the BVI, the Caymans, Mauritius, Samoa, Singapore and Hong Kong. A former senior manager at the company is a Canadian lawyer.

Not all the firms' leaked emails are strictly business. There's also hundreds of intra-office missives about cricket, after-work drinking plans and the latest internet memes.


"I am getting some very funny looks as I sit here crying with laughter at that one," a TrustNet employee messages a co-worker after watching a YouTube video that was sent around.


Another colleague describes a recent Monday evening trip to the bar in an email to her mom: "What started out as being just one drink ended up being 3 double bourbons and hello?! Can I just get drunk?! Haha."


Up to $32 trillion stashed offshore

Offshore tax havens have existed for at least 100 years. While there's no firm definition, the International Monetary Fund says most of what it officially calls "offshore financial centres" are distinguished by:

• A banking sector that primarily serves non-residents.
• Low to no taxation on foreign firms and people.
• Tight financial secrecy.

By those terms, there are up to 80 tax havens in the world, including such countries as Panama, Liechtenstein and Switzerland but also tiny island territories like Jersey, Malaysia's Labuan, the Isle of Man and the Turks and Caicos.

Publishing decision

CBC Editor Jennifer McGuire explains why CBC News isn't publishing all 450 Canadian names.

Worldwide, the Tax Justice Network estimates that between $21 trillion and $32 trillion of private wealth is held offshore, out of reach of national treasuries (a more conservative estimate by the Boston Consulting Group puts the figure at $8 trillion). The international organization says that translates to up to $280 billion a year in lost taxes — twice what the world's richest countries spend combined on foreign aid.

• MAP: Tax haven investigations around the world

Canada's share of that, assuming it's the same as the country's proportion of global GDP, would be about $7 billion, or a quarter of the federal government's projected 2012 budget deficit.


Countries have discussed ways to stem the tax drain to offshore havens for years, but so far have been unable, or unwilling, to fully plug the leak.


In last month's federal budget, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty promised to set up a system for tipsters to report offshore tax cheats. Informants would get 15 per cent of the recouped tax in cases where the Canada Revenue Agency recovers more than $100,000. The government estimates it could recover hundreds of million in revenue. But the Tories also cut $47 million a year from the budget of the Canada Revenue Agency.


If you have more information on this story, or other investigative tips to pass on, please email investigations@cbc.ca. You can also send mail to: CBC Investigations Unit, 205 Wellington St. W., Toronto, Ontario, M5V 3G7

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