06 October 2021 - What are the Pandora Papers?
Pandora Papers: A simple guide to the Pandora Papers leak
Pandora Papers reporting team (BBC, 05/10/2021)
The Pandora Papers is a leak of almost 12 million documents that reveals hidden wealth, tax avoidance and, in some cases, money laundering by some of the world's rich and powerful.
More than 600 journalists in 117 countries have been trawling through the files from 14 sources for months, finding stories that are being published this week.
What are the Pandora papers?
(The Guardian, 03/10/2021)
The Pandora papers are the the latest – and largest in terms of data volume – in a series of major leaks of financial data, and reveal how some of the world's richest people are using hidden offshore tax havens. So, how does the offshore world actually work? Is it always illegal? And why is this all such a big deal? The Guardian's Luke Harding explains.
Biggest tax haven in U.S.? South Dakota, says Pandora Papers investigation
Irina Ivanova (CBS News, 05/10/2021)
Mention tax havens, and most people imagine small nations with balmy weather.
But South Dakota and a handful of other U.S. states are providing growing competition for places like the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands and Malta, as landing pads for global capital hidden from creditors, tax collectors and law enforcement, according to an investigation published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The sparsely populated state best known as the home of Mount Rushmore, now houses $360 billion in trusts, the ICIJ reported — an amount that has quadrupled over the past decade. One local company, the South Dakota Trust Company, has international clients from 54 nations. Another, Trident Trust, speaks of the "South Dakota Advantage."
Tony and Cherie Blair bought property via offshore firm and saved £300,000 in tax
Simon Goodley and Juliette Garside (The Guardian, 03/10/2021)
Tony and Cherie Blair saved hundreds of thousands of pounds in property taxes when acquiring a London office building from an offshore company partially owned by a prominent Bahraini minister.
The former British prime minister and his wife became the owners of a £6.5m office building in 2017 by acquiring a British Virgin Islands (BVI) company controlled by the family of HE Zayed bin Rashid Alzayani, the constitutional monarchy’s current minister for industry, commerce and tourism.