The new survey by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which The world is a partner, on the secrets of offshore finance, is shaking the planet. From Tony Blair to the butcher of Vladimir Putin, from the famous Spanish singer Julio Iglesias to King Abdullah II of Jordan, the “Pandora Papers” scandal, which splashes onto hundreds of heads of state, public officials, and show business personalities, is causing unrest in many countries. Most of those questioned take refuge in silence and denial.
What are the “Pandora Papers”?
“Pandora Papers” is a collaborative investigation led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in partnership with 150 international media, including The world. It is based on the leak of nearly 12 million confidential documents, transmitted by an anonymous source to the ICIJ, from the archives of fourteen firms specializing in the creation of offshore companies in tax havens (British Virgin Islands, Dubai, Singapore, Panama, the Seychelles…).
Five years after the “Panama Papers”, the survey reveals the extent of the abuses of the offshore industry and its limited companies. She shows how this system benefits hundreds of policymakers, and how new tax havens are taking over as old ones convert to transparency.
In the Netherlands, one name stood out, and for good reason: Christian Democrat leader Wopke Hoekstra is… finance minister in the resigning government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and a key figure in the ongoing negotiations for the establishment of a new coalition. For eight years, this manager, adept at an intransigent fiscal policy, held shares in a company established in the Virgin Islands which organizes safaris in Africa, and sold a week before joining the government, in October 2017. The minister assured on a daily basis Trouw have always declared their income to the Dutch tax authorities. A former consultant, he also said he did not know where the company in question was located and believed he had entrusted his money to a start-up focusing on ecotourism. On Tuesday 5 October, however, the Dutch press revealed that Mr. Hoekstra also had shares in a pension fund based in Guernsey.
In Belgium, some 1,200 names have been identified. There are no politicians, but industrialists, members of the nobility, diamond dealers, traders, as well as a radio host and a rapper. According to the newspaper The evening, the previous revelations of the ICIJ allowed the tax services of the kingdom to recover 635 million euros.
Among the 600 or so names identified are, for the moment, mainly cultural and show biz personalities, such as the famous singer Julio Iglesias, aged 78, whose fortune is estimated at 800 million euros, with a around twenty companies attached to a trust company created in 1995 in the British Virgin Islands. Also mentioned are the singer and actor Miguel Bosé, as a shareholder of a company in Panama opened through a Swiss bank; the writer and Nobel Prize for Literature Mario Vargas Llosa, shareholder between 2015 and 2017 of a company domiciled in the Virgin Islands; or even Pep Guardiola, the former coach of Barça, who held, from 2003, an account in Andorra, closed in 2012 following the tax amnesty approved by the government of Mariano Rajoy. The tax authorities announced that they would open an investigation to examine possible “Fiscal and penal responsibilities” who as a result.
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