Tax Evasion: "Paradise Papers' documents touch Trump administration" - by Brent D.Griffiths

The group behind the release of last year’s Panama Papers has published a new collection of documents about offshore finance that touches the Trump administration.'

The so-called Paradise Papers show financial connections between wealthy Russians and two members of President Donald Trump's administration, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and White House adviser Jared Kushner, who is also the president's son-in-law.

The more than 13 million documents — most of them leaked from Appleby, one of the world’s largest offshore law firms — were obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, the outlet that also obtained the Panama Papers documents. The Washington, D.C.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and nearly 100 news organizations including the New York Times dug into the trove of documents.

The revelations so far do not relate directly to Russian interference in the 2016 election or to special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. But the New York Times reported that even after joining the administration, Ross has maintained investments in a shipping firm with close connections to a Russian oligarch subject to U.S. sanctions and to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law. 

Read more: Paradise Papers' documents touch Trump administration - POLITICO

Pakistan faces political turmoil as PM Nawaz Sharif ousted in wealth probe - A. Shahzad and S. Raza Hassan

Pakistan’s Supreme Court disqualified Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from office on Friday over undeclared assets, plunging the nuclear-armed South Asian nation into political turmoil after a period of relative stability.

Sharif swiftly resigned, but a member of his outgoing cabinet implied that elements of the powerful military had a hand in his ouster.

Pakistan was left with no government leader after Friday’s verdict, which also ordered a criminal probe into the Sharif family over allegations stemming from the “Panama Papers” leaks of international offshore companies.

Sharif’s ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, which holds a solid majority in parliament, is expected to name a new prime minister to hold office until elections due next year.

Read more: Pakistan faces political turmoil as PM Nawaz Sharif ousted in wealth probe - The Globe and Mail

France: Right Winger Marie le Pen - Panama Papers: Is France's National Front in trouble?

The revelations about the use of tax havens, also known as the Panama Papers, have ensnared the French far-right party, the National Front.

Close associates of party leader Marine Le Pen are suspected of setting up a system to siphon money out of France, while party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen is also accused of having hidden money abroad. Also this week, we look at French Prime Minister Manuel Valls’ controversial claim that salafism is winning the hearts of Muslims in the country.

 Read more: FACE-OFF - Panama Papers: Is France's National Front in trouble? - France 24

Offshore Banking Tax Evasion: Tax investigations launched over ′Panama Papers′ revelations

Panama Revelations : Tax Evasion

The 11.5 million documents from the files of Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca, the world's fourth biggest offshore law firm, revealed the details of hundreds of thousands of clients using tax havens.

The records, which were obtained from an anonymous source by German newspaper "Süddeutsche Zeitung," cover a period of almost 40 years, from 1977 until last December. They are alleged to show that some companies domiciled in tax havens were used for suspected money laundering, arms and drug deals, and tax avoidance.

Georg Mascolo led the research for the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" and two German broadcasters on the basis of the data from he law firm's files. They shared the information with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the international arm of the Center for Public Integrity, and a hundred other international news organizations. More than 370 journalists from 76 countries have spent a year going through the material.

ICIJ Director Gerard Ryle said: "I think the leak will prove to be probably the biggest blow the offshore world has ever taken because of the extent of the documents."

Mascolo said Sunday evening on German television that he expected the insight into the business of tax havens to be quite "explosive," adding that more revelations will come out. The news "is very remarkable because we have not had such insight into the business of these tax havens on this scale," Mascolo said.

The UK tax authority, HMRC director-general of enforcement and compliance Jennie Grainger said on Sunday they had approached the ICIJ for access to the material: "We will closely examine this data and will act on it swiftly and appropriately," she said. "Our message is clear: there are no safe havens for tax evaders and no-one should be in any doubt that the days of hiding money offshore are gone."

The Australian Tax Office said on Monday that it would investigate more than 800 Australian clients of Mossack Fonseca for possible tax evasion: "Currently we have identified over 800 individual taxpayers and we have now linked over 120 of them to an associate offshore service provider located in Hong Kong," the Australian tax office said in a statement. It did not name the Hong Kong company.

The law firm Mossack Fonseca has claimed the revelation of the data is a crime: "This is a crime, a felony," Ramon Fonseca, one of the firm's founders said on Sunday. "This is an attack on Panama because certain countries don't like it that we are so competitive in attracting companies," he said.

Juergen Mossack, the other lawyer who co-founded the firm more than three decades ago, was born in Germany in 1948 and moved to Panama with his family, where he obtained his law degree. Mossack's father served in Hitler's Waffen-SS during the Second World War, according to the ICIJ, citing US Army records. It said "old intelligence files" showed the father had offered to spy for the CIA.

The company has denied any wrongdoing, saying it has acted beyond reproach for 40 years and that it has carried out robust due-diligence procedures. The firm also operates in Switzerland, Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands.

The report listed twelve current and former national leaders - from Argentina, Georgia, Iceland, Iraq, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirate and Ukraine - among 143 politicians, their families and close associates known to use tax havens. Russian President Vladimir Putin's friend from childhood, the cellist Sergei Roldugin, was named as the linchpin in a scheme to hide money from Russian state banks offshore.

Among national leaders with offshore wealth listed in the papers were Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan's prime minister; Ayad Allawi, ex-interim prime minister and former vice-president of Iraq; Petro Poroshenko, president of Ukraine; Alaa Mubarak, son of Egypt's former president and the prime minister of Iceland, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson.

More than 500 banks registered nearly 15,600 shell companies with Mossack Fonseca, according to the ICIJ's analysis.

While the use of offshore companies is not illegal, action to avoid payment of taxes can be. It can also have political consequences. The families of eight current and former members of China's supreme ruling body, the politburo, have been found to have placed wealth offshore.

A member of Fifa's powerful ethics committee acted as a lawyer for individuals and companies recently charged with bribery and corruption, according to the documents. Footballer Lionel Messi is mentioned in the document.

 Read more: Tax investigations launched over ′Panama Papers′ revelations | News | DW.COM | 04.04.2016