Revealed

WASHINGTON • An investigation based on one of the biggest ever leaks of financial documents has exposed a hidden world of shielded wealth belonging to hundreds of politicians and billionaires.

One of the largest ever global media investigations, the Pandora Papers involved more than 600 journalists who together analysed some 11.9 million documents from financial services companies around the world.

They found links between almost 1,000 companies in offshore havens and 336 high-level politicians and public officials, including more than a dozen serving heads of state and government. The findings were reported to the public on Sunday, and were are drawn from financial services companies in countries including the British Virgin Islands (BVI), Panama, Belize, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Switzerland.

Here are some key revelations:

The files show King Abdullah II created a network of offshore companies and tax havens to amass a US$100 million (S$136 million) property empire, including 15 homes from Malibu, California, to Washington and London.

"It is no secret that His Majesty owns a number of apartments and residences in the United States and the United Kingdom. This is not unusual or improper," Jordan's royal palace said in a statement. It said the King had personally purchased the properties and no funds from the state budget or treasury had been used.

Family and associates of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev are alleged to have been secretly involved in property deals in Britain worth hundreds of millions, including a roughly US$45 million office block in the name of the President's 11-year-old son, Heyder.

According to the documents, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis failed to declare an offshore investment company used to purchase a chateau worth US$22 million in the south of France.

The Premier is facing an election later this week and hit out at the revelations as "trying to tarnish my reputation and affect the Czech general election".

The investigation says Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta is accused along with six family members of secretly owning a network of 11 offshore companies, one of which was valued as holding assets of US$30 million.

Members of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's inner circle, including Cabinet ministers and their families, were found to secretly own companies and trusts holding millions of dollars.

Mr Khan himself welcomed the findings on Twitter, saying they exposed "the ill-gotten wealth of elites, accumulated through tax evasion and corruption and laundered out to financial 'havens'" and promised to investigate any wrongdoing.

While Russian President Vladimir Putin is not directly named in the files, he is linked via associates to secret assets in Monaco - notably a US$4 million waterfront home acquired by a Russian woman who is believed to have had a child with Mr Putin, The Washington Post reports.

"This is just a set of largely unsubstantiated claims," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in response to the allegations.

Previously an outspoken critic of tax loopholes, former British prime minister Tony Blair and his wife were found to have purchased a building in London for US$8.8 million in 2017 by buying the British Virgin Islands company that owned it.

As per British law, by doing so, they avoided paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes.

The BBC said there was no indication the Blairs were hiding their wealth, and Mrs Cherie Blair said the couple had brought the property back under British rules.

Meanwhile, British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak said the country's tax officials would look at the leak of financial documents that allegedly tie world leaders to concealed wealth.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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Prominent Asian faces identified in the papers

Here are some names mentioned in the Pandora Papers. Most of them have denied that what they did was legally wrong and/or were for tax avoidance purposes.

Two of his sons were alleged shareholders of British Virgin Islands (BVI) companies with assets of £10 million (S$18.5 at current value) in 2007 and £12 million in 2017.

He was named a director in a 1996 British Virgin Islands (BVI) company called Breedon.

He was said to have established shell companies - Buckley Development Corp and Smart Property Holdings - in the BVI as investment vehicles.

He was said to have attended several meetings held by a Panama-registered company known as Petrocapital SA between 2007 and 2010.

The longtime political donor to President Rodrigo Duterte was the beneficial owner of China Shipbuilding and Exports Corp, a BVI company registered in 2016. He is also listed as a director of Pacific Rider.

They appear as beneficial owners of Solart Holdings, a BVI company that appears to have been operating at least since 2007.

In 2013, Mr Yasuda sold the shares he held in Don Quijote to a Singapore-based company. But Pandora Papers said the Singapore company was an asset management firm owned by Mr Yasuda, who is alleged to have made the sale to benefit from the lower corporate tax in Singapore.

He was accused of tax avoidance in the use of a business jet he bought in 2014 through a company established in the Cayman Islands. The ownership of the aircraft was then transferred to a trust company in the United States.

Mr Anil Ambani declared bankruptcy in a United Kingdom case last year, but the findings showed he owned at least 18 offshore companies in Jersey, BVI and Cyprus that borrowed and invested US$1.3 billion (S$1.76 billion).

SOURCES: REGIONAL MEDIA