The Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, his predecessor Hassan Diab, the governor of the central bank, Riad Salamé, prominent bankers and businessmen: the list of the members of the Lebanese political-financial elite who appear in the ” Pandora Papers ”is long. With 346 listed companies, the country of Cedar is even the best client of the firm Trident Trust, a specialist in the domiciliation of offshore companies in tax havens from which some of the leaked documents come. The situation is hardly surprising in Lebanon, but it reinforces mistrust of an elite seen as corrupt and predatory, and held responsible for the country’s financial and economic collapse.
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.
“How do these oligarchs still make a profit by putting their fortune abroad to evade taxes?” When the rich evade taxes, it affects our health services, education, etc. Are we supposed to believe that these very ones are going to get us out of the hole now? “, denounces Diana Moukalled, editor-in-chief of the online investigative magazine Daraj. Its journalists investigated the Lebanese side of the scandal revealed on Sunday October 3 by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in collaboration with 150 international media, including The world.
” Keep a cool head “
In the 12 million confidential documents transmitted to the ICIJ, appear more than 330 politicians and public figures from 90 countries, who hide their fortunes behind shell companies in tax havens. In the Lebanese case, these revelations do not prove the existence of financial offenses. “We can be faced with tax avoidance situations that are based on laws in force, breaches and loopholes that lead to situations of non-taxation. We may have to deal with illicit financial flows. We must keep a cool head until investigations are carried out ”, says Karim Daher, tax lawyer and president of the Lebanese Association for Taxpayer Rights and Information (Aldic).
The telecoms magnate, Najib Mikati, at the head of the government formed in September, already appeared in the “Panama Papers” (2016) as the owner of the company Hessville Investment Inc. domiciled in the tax haven of Panama, and in the “Paradise Papers ”(2017). The businessman, whose fortune is estimated at 2.9 billion dollars (2.5 billion euros) in the latest ranking Forbes, according to the new revelations, would have bought through his company Hessville Investment Inc. a property worth 7 million euros in Monaco in 2008. His son Maher would also own two offshore companies domiciled in the Virgin Islands British companies (BVI), used by the Mikati family’s investment fund, the M1 Group, to purchase an office in London.
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