The Pandora Papers: Exposing Global Financial Corruption By James Reed

The Pandora Papers consists of a leak of an enormous number of documents, disclosing the wheeling and dealings of the global elite, political leaders to billionaires. The files have been examined and analysed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), with more than 650 reporters taking part, with the website linked below. Obviously enough I have not waded through all the material, which would literally take years, if not decades, as there are around 12 million documents and files. But some of the high points, or are it low points include: “They reveal the King of Jordan secretly amassed £70m of UK and US property.

They also show how ex-UK PM Tony Blair and his wife saved £312,000 in stamp duty when they bought a London office.

The couple bought an offshore firm that owned the building.

The leak also links Russian President Vladimir Putin to secret assets in Monaco, and shows the Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis - facing an election later this week - failed to declare an offshore investment company used to purchase two villas for £12m in the south of France.”

 

As covered in a recent Four Corners TV program, Australian property markets have been subjected to this tsunami of dark wealth, with buyers using multiple layers of offshore trusts and shell companies, to make ownership impossible to track. In essence, we do not know what global criminals own Australia. Even having the modest degree of self-respect, as most other nations have, of having a property register, may not have helped, given the way transactions are covered up.

https://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-58780465?utm_source=gnaa

“The secret wealth and dealings of world leaders, politicians and billionaires has been exposed in one of the biggest leaks of financial documents.

Some 35 current and former leaders and more than 300 public officials are featured in the files from offshore companies, dubbed the Pandora Papers.

They reveal the King of Jordan secretly amassed £70m of UK and US property.

They also show how ex-UK PM Tony Blair and his wife saved £312,000 in stamp duty when they bought a London office.

The couple bought an offshore firm that owned the building.

The leak also links Russian President Vladimir Putin to secret assets in Monaco, and shows the Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis - facing an election later this week - failed to declare an offshore investment company used to purchase two villas for £12m in the south of France.

It is the latest in a string of leaks over the past seven years, following the FinCen Files, the Paradise Papers, the Panama Papers and LuxLeaks.

• The examination of the files is the largest organised by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), with more than 650 reporters taking part.

BBC Panorama in a joint investigation with the Guardian and the other media partners have had access to nearly 12 million documents and files from 14 financial services companies in countries including the British Virgin Islands, Panama, Belize, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Switzerland.

ome figures are facing allegations of corruption, money laundering and global tax avoidance.

But one of the biggest revelations is how prominent and wealthy people have been legally setting up companies to secretly buy property in the UK.

The documents reveal the owners of some of the 95,000 offshore firms behind the purchases.

It highlights the UK government's failure to introduce a register of offshore property owners despite repeated promises to do so, amid concerns some property buyers could be hiding money-laundering activities.

The Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his family, who have been accused of looting their own country, are one example.

The investigation found the Aliyevs and their close associates have secretly been involved in property deals in the UK worth more than £400m.”

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-58780559

“BBC Panorama in a joint investigation with the Guardian and other media partners have had access to nearly 12 million documents and files.

Since leaving Downing Street in 2007, the Blairs have built up a significant property portfolio. Altogether they are reported to have spent more than £30m on 38 residential properties before they bought the office.

Documents show how the way the property in Harcourt Street, Marylebone, was acquired in July 2017 saved the Blairs a bill for stamp duty.

The four-floor building is now home to Mrs Blair's legal advisory firm, Omnia Strategy, and her foundation for women.”

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-05/pandora-papers-four-corners-australian-real-estate/100501062”

“Australian properties — including Tasmanian dairy farms, Sydney CBD apartments and even a Hilton hotel — have been secretly purchased by wealthy, sometimes controversial foreign figures, an ABC investigation has discovered.

The money came from a corrupt Chinese steel magnate, a political power couple in Sri Lanka and a former oil executive, via opaque corporate structures.

Each purchase involved multiple layers of offshore trusts and shell companies, making ownership almost impossible to track.

Unlike other countries, Australia lacks a register to show who ultimately owns property. 

However, the funds behind the purchases can be traced in the Pandora Papers, a leak of nearly 12 million financial documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and analysed by the ABC.

Tasmanian dairy farms

In the far north-west of Tasmania, farming has been a family tradition for generations.

However, in recent years, this tradition has come under threat as the area has become increasingly popular among foreign buyers.

Locals do not always know who the buyers are, nor where their money came from.

Files in the Pandora Papers, however, reveal the sources of foreign funds behind four large-scale farms totalling more than 1000 hectares.

Public land records show it was two Australian companies, Dairy Partners Pty Ltd and Redpa Dairy Partners Pty Ltd, that bought the farms between 2014 and 2019.

However, the Pandora Papers show the money originally came from Canadian Stephen Paul Douglas de Heinrich, a former non-executive director and shareholder of the international oil producer Addax Petroleum. De Heinrich also served on an advisory board to Addax's parent entity from 1991 to 2006.

Through the 1990s and 2000s, Addax did business in volatile places such as Iraq and Western Africa. It became the biggest independent producer of oil in Nigeria.

However, a French court was told in 2007 that two Addax Petroleum executives had paid millions of dollars of bribes in Nigeria in the late 1990s.

One was convicted of aiding and abetting aggravated money laundering for that nation's former oil minister, Dan Etete, from 1999 to 2000.

"Dan Etete was convicted of money laundering fraud [in] France, and that was Addax's money," said Barnaby Pace, an investigator from the human rights group Global Witness, who followed the case closely.

"The fossil fuel industry has helped create a massive corruption problem in Nigeria.

"That's why, despite having oil, gas and other natural resources, many Nigerians still live in poverty."

Mr de Heinrich was not implicated in the money laundering case nor convicted of any crime and he was not an operational executive of Addax.”

Here is, if one needs it, decisive prof of the corruption of the elites.