The secret dealings and hidden wealth of 35 current and former world leaders, more than 330 politicians and about 130 billionaires were revealed yesterday in the biggest trove of leaked offshore data in history.
Branded the Pandora Papers, the cache includes 11.9 million files from companies hired by wealthy individuals to create offshore structures and trusts in tax havens such as Panama, Dubai, Monaco, Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.
They exposed the private financial records of King Abdullah II, the King of Jordan; the presidents of Ukraine, Kenya and Ecuador; the prime minister of the Czech Republic and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The 2.94 terabytes of data also detail the financial activities of Russian President Vladimir Putin's "unofficial minister of propaganda" as well as celebrities, rock stars, business leaders, fugitives, con artists and murderers.
In short, the 2.94 terabytes of data offer the most comprehensive look into the hidden operations of a global offshore economy that enables some of the world's richest people to hide their wealth and in some cases pay little or no tax.
The corrosive effects of this shadow financial world can span generations -- draining significant sums from government treasuries, worsening wealth disparities and shielding the riches of those who cheat and steal while impeding authorities and victims in their efforts to find or recover hidden assets.
At least $11.3 trillion in wealth is held offshore, according to a 2020 study by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The Pandora Papers were obtained by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) two years ago and since then, more than 650 journalists from ICIJ's 150 partner news outlets around the world trawled through the files.
The disclosure that raised the most eyebrows was that of King Abdullah II, who, the leaked documents reveal, has amassed a secret $100 million property empire spanning Malibu, Washington and London in the years after Jordanians filled the streets during Arab Spring to protest joblessness and corruption.
The king of Jordan declined to answer specific questions but said there would be nothing improper about him owning properties via offshore companies.
Jordan appeared to have blocked the ICIJ website yesterday, hours before the Pandora Papers were dropped.
Politicians and the wealthy from neighbouring India, Pakistan and Nepal were also named in the leaks, said to be a sequel to 2016's Panama Papers that had already exposed thousands of people around the world as well as revealed their secret e-mail correspondence with banks and investment partners to hide their wealth.
Six politicians from India were said to be in the leaks. Their identities are yet to be disclosed by The Indian Express, which investigated the data linked to the neighbouring country.
The documents show Indian sports icon Sachin Tendulkar had asked for the liquidation of his entity in the British Virgin Islands just three months after the Panama Papers expose.
Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, who declared bankruptcy in one UK court, has 18 asset holding offshore companies; fugitive Indian jeweller Nirav Modi's sister sets up a trust just one month before he fled India.
Key members of Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan's inner circle, including cabinet ministers, their families and major financial backers have been exposed too by the leaks. Military leaders have been implicated as well. The documents contain no suggestion that Khan himself owns offshore companies.
Among those whose holdings have been exposed are Khan's Finance Minister Shaukat Fayaz Ahmed Tarin and his family, and the son of Khan's former adviser for finance and revenue, Waqar Masood Khan.
The records also reveal the offshore dealings of a top Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf donor, Arif Naqvi, who is facing fraud charges in the US.
Nepal's richest man Binod Chaudhary as well as other prominent businessmen from the country were named in the leaks.
The Pandora Papers reveal that Chaudhary has companies in the British Virgin Islands and Singapore in the names of his wife and three sons, Nirvan, Varun, and Rahul.
The family has registered the companies Cinnovation Incorporated, CG Hotels and Resorts Limited, Sensei Capital Partners Inc. in the British Virgin Islands and CG Hospitality Holdings Global Pte Ltd in Singapore.
The Pandora Papers have minute details of company correspondence, shares and money transfers and other transactions between Chaudhary family members and partners. Some of the names mentioned are Pakistani, Singaporean, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi.
One of those involved in Cinnovation, Chaudhary's company registered in BVI is US national of Bangladeshi descent, Abdul Awal Mintoo, a former president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, reports the Centre for Investigative Journalism Nepal (CIJ), ICIJ's partner organisation in the country.
Officials at Nepal Rastra Bank told the CIJ that Chaudhary did not have permission to hold these investments abroad.
The documents also revealed a $22 million chateau in the French Riviera -- replete with a cinema and two swimming pools -- purchased through offshore companies by the Czech Republic's populist prime minister, Andrej Babiš -- a billionaire who has railed against the corruption of economic and political elites.
Babiš is up for election this week. He declined to comment on the leaks.
The Pandora papers are also threatening to cause a political upset in Cyprus, itself a controversial offshore centre: its president, Nicos Anastasiades, may be asked to explain why a law firm he founded was accused of hiding the assets of a controversial Russian billionaire behind fake company owners.
The firm denies any wrongdoing, while the Cypriot president says he ceased having an active role in its affairs after becoming leader of the opposition in 1997.
The files also show that Azerbaijan's ruling Aliyev family has traded close to £400 million of UK property in recent years.
One of their properties was sold to the Queen's crown estate, which is now looking into how it came to pay £67 million to a company that operated as a front for the family that runs a country routinely accused of corruption. The Aliyevs declined to comment.
Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who was elected in 2019 on a pledge to clean up his country's notoriously corrupt and oligarch-influenced economy, is also named in the leak.
During the campaign, Zelenskiy transferred his 25 percent stake in an offshore company to a close friend who now works as the president's top adviser, the files suggest.
Zelenskiy declined to comment and it is unclear if he remains a beneficiary.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, whom the US suspects of having a secret fortune, does not appear in the files by name.
But numerous close associates do, including his best friend from childhood -- the late Petr Kolbin -- whom critics have called a "wallet" for Putin's own wealth, and a woman the Russian leader was allegedly once romantically involved with. None responded to invitations to comment.
Not everyone named in the Pandora papers is accused of wrongdoing.
The leaked files reveal that Tony and Cherie Blair saved £312,000 in property taxes when they purchased a London building partially owned by the family of a prominent Bahraini minister.
The former prime minister and his wife bought the £6.5 million office in Marylebone by acquiring a British Virgin Islands offshore company.
While the move was not illegal, and there is no evidence the Blairs proactively sought to avoid property taxes, the deal highlights a loophole that has enabled wealthy property owners not to pay a tax that is commonplace for ordinary Britons.
