A detailed report unraveling the ways high society, the top 1%, maneuver through the global tax system was released yesterday after extensive research by over 600 journalists in over 117 countries across 150 media outlets.
The document, 3 terabytes worth of information have been tagged the Pandora Papers, released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) spotlights how hundreds of world leaders and elite businessmen take advantage of offshore accounts in an elaborate system that allows them to hide assets or evade taxes.
Over 330 politicians have been identified as beneficiaries of the covert system from across all the continents including but not limited to known names like former U.K Prime Minister, Tony Blair, Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, Jordanian King, Abdullah II, associates of both Russian President, Vladimir Putin and Pakistani Prime Minister, Imran Khan.
The billionaires hid their wealth under the auspices of creating shell companies, foundations, trusts and instead purchased humongous amounts of real estate, life insurance, and evaded taxes through complex financial schemes.
The records found date back to the 1970s and were initially leaked by Mossack Fonseca, a now-defunct law firm, and in it detailed the numerous tax havens that the rich use to hide their means such as the British Virgin Islands, Seychelles, Belize, and Hong Kong.
Many others were also scattered across trust funds in the United States. Records from 14 offshore financial services providers were all included in the report incriminating as many as 130 Forbes Billionaires, drug dealers fraudsters, celebrities, and even religious leaders.
The Pandora Papers have now taken over from the Panama Papers as the biggest data leak covered by the largest-ever journalistic collaboration in history. WIth 6.4 million text documents, over 4 million PDFs, and other related documents, the data ran up to 11.9 million-plus in records. Information was gathered from over 27,000 companies, 330 politicians, 35 current and former world leaders, and in over 90 countries and territories.