The Pandora Papers Illegal wealth of global elites exposed – Burning Issues – Free PDF

Pandora Papers

• Pandora Papers Leak:
•  The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists obtained 11.9 million confidential documents from 14 separate legal and financial services firms.

• An unprecedented leak of financial records known as the Pandora Papers has revealed the offshore financial assets of dozens of current and former world leaders and hundreds of politicians from Asia and the Middle East to Latin America.
• The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists obtained 11.9 million confidential documents from 14 separate legal and financial services firms, which the group said offered “a sweeping look at an industry that helps the world’s ultrawealthy, powerful government officials and other elites conceal trillions of dollars from tax authorities, prosecutors and others.”
• Moving money through offshore accounts, in mostly low-tax jurisdictions, is legal in most countries, and many of the people named in the data release aren’t accused of criminal wrongdoing.
•  But the journalist group said the 2.94 terabytes of financial and legal data — which makes this leak larger than the 2016 Panama papers release — shows the “offshore money machine operates in every corner of the planet, including the world’s largest democracies,” and involves some of the world’s most well-known banks and legal firms.
• The Panama Papers are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) that were published beginning on April 3, 2016.
• The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities.
• The documents contain personal financial information about wealthy individuals and public officials that had previously been kept private

• Big names who hold their money abroad, owe Indian banks crores, and refuse to pay taxes.
• These are the findings of Pandora Papers or investigations which reveal
• the names of those who owe Indian banks thousands of crores – some are
• even in jail – and have diverted their assets into a maze of  shore companies or trusts.
• An estimated US$32 trillion (excluding non-monetary valuables such as real estate, art, and jewelry) may be hidden from being taxed,
• Anil Ambani, the business magnate who is chairman of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) has also been mentioned. Indian Express says that Ambani and ADAG Group representatives own at least 18 offshore companies in Jersey, British Virgin Islands (BVI) and Cyprus.
• Interestingly, Anil Ambani declared bankruptcy in a court in UK and claimed that his net worth was zero. The claim was made in February 2020 during his dispute with three Chinese banks.

• Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar asked for liquidation of his entity in BVI just three months after Panama Papers, an earlier investigation.
• Sachin, with wife Anjali Tendulkar and father-in-law are named as BOs and Directors of a BVI-based company: Saas International Limited

• Nirav Modi’ sister had set up a trust just a month before he fled India

• The brother of billionaire Gautam Adani set up a company in the British Virgin Islands three years ago.
• . He now claims that the company has been “closed”

Biocon Founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

• The biotech entrepreneur has been mentioned in connection with her husband John McCallum Marshall Shaw who has come on radar. He is a British citizen and a key person associated with a trust he set up was barred by the Securities and Exchanges Board of India (Sebi) for insider trading in July 2021.

• Pandora papers reportedly mention Bollywood actor Jackie Shroff as being the prime beneficiary of a trust set up in New Zealand by his mother-in-law.
• The trust has a Swiss bank account.
• It also owned offshore company registered in British Virgin Islands

• exposing brazen examples of greed that deprived countries of tax revenue that could be used to finance programs and projects for the greater good’.
• “This is where our missing hospitals are. This is where the pay-packets sit of all the extra teachers and firefighters and public servants we need. Whenever a politician or business leader claims there is ‘no money’ to pay for climate damage and innovation, for more and better jobs, for a fair post-COVID recovery, for more overseas aid, they know where to look

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