{"id":333738,"date":"2017-11-06T05:18:27","date_gmt":"2017-11-06T04:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/paradise-papers-reveal-tax-avoidance-shady-dealings-of-worlds-rich-and-powerful\/"},"modified":"2017-11-06T05:18:27","modified_gmt":"2017-11-06T04:18:27","slug":"paradise-papers-reveal-tax-avoidance-shady-dealings-of-worlds-rich-and-powerful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/paradise-papers-reveal-tax-avoidance-shady-dealings-of-worlds-rich-and-powerful\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Paradise Papers’ Reveal Tax Avoidance, Shady Dealings of World’s Rich and Powerful"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people will be waking up on Monday to discover that some of their best kept secrets\u2014how they hide their vast wealth and avoid paying taxes\u2014are now being read about in newspapers across the world after the release of a trove of offshore legal and banking documents were leaked to journalists and published Sunday as a joint project called the ‘Paradise Papers<\/a><\/strong>.’<\/p>\n

“In all, the offshore ties of more than a dozen Trump advisers, Cabinet members and major donors appear in the leaked data.<\/p>\n

First obtained by the German newspaper S\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung<\/em>, the documents were then shared with scores of journalists and researchers associated with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists<\/a> and other media organizations, including the New York Times<\/em>, BBC<\/em>, and the Guardian<\/em>.<\/p>\n

“There is this small group of people who are not equally subject to the laws as the rest of us, and that’s on purpose,” said<\/a> author and financial expert Brooke Harrington in response to the new insights about how these elites secretly manage their wealth.<\/p>\n

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#ParadisePapers<\/a> – 13.4 million documents, 94 media partners, more than 120 politicians and world leaders. https:\/\/t.co\/lHHyt9eLTS<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/mecTosLSxD<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 ICIJ (@ICIJorg) November 5, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As the ICIJ<\/em> reports, the “trove of 13.4 million records exposes ties between Russia and U.S. President Donald Trump’s billionaire commerce secretary, the secret dealings of the chief fundraiser for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau<\/a>\u00a0and the offshore interests of the Queen of England and more than 120 politicians around the world.” According to the ICIJ<\/em>, the documents\u00a0<\/p>\n

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show how deeply the offshore financial system is entangled with the overlapping worlds of political players, private wealth and corporate giants, including Apple, Nike, Uber and other global companies that avoid taxes through increasingly imaginative bookkeeping maneuvers.<\/p>\n

One offshore web leads to Trump\u2019s commerce secretary, private equity tycoon Wilbur Ross, who has a stake in a shipping company<\/a> that has received more than $68 million in revenue since 2014 from a Russian energy company co-owned by the son-in-law of Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n

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In all, the offshore ties of more than a dozen Trump advisers, Cabinet members and major donors<\/a> appear in the leaked data.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

At the center for the leak, explains<\/a> the Guardian<\/em>, is the law firm Appleby which has “outposts in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey. In contrast to Mossack Fonseca<\/a>, the discredited firm at the centre of last year’s Panama Papers investigation<\/a>, Appleby prides itself on being a leading member of the ‘magic circle’ of top-ranking offshore service providers.”<\/p>\n

But what exactly do the ‘Paradise Papers’ represent? This video explains:<\/p>\n

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