Panama Papers have leaked the significant documents about Mossack Fonseca firm in Panama which has helped investors around the world to evade tax, launder money, among others.
According to a report in the Indian Express, 500 Indians are on the list, including actor Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, real-estate developer DLF’s KP Singh, to politican Anurag Kejriwal.
Although, The International Consortium of Investigate Journalists, the team behind these Panama Papers said that many of these offshore companies are likely to be for legitimate uses.
Panama Papers is the largest international cooperation of its kind in the world. In the last one year, around 400 journalists from more than 100 media organisations in over 80 countries have taken part in researching the documents. Journalists from media organisations like BBC, Guardian, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Falter, among others have also worked on the project. The leak is considered to be the largest in the Journalism world. Süddeutsche Zeitung, Falter, among others have also worked on the project. The leak is considered to be the largest in the Journalism world.
The Papers have revealed names of people from Mossack Fonseca’s biggest clients named J P Damiani. It revealed names such as Juan Pedro Damiani, Member of FIFA Ethics Committee, Eugenio Figueredo,FiFA Vice-President, among others who evaded the tax and laundered money.
Here’s what you need to know:
What is Mossack Fonseca?
It’s a Panamanian law firm that sells anonymous offshore companies around the world. These shell companies allow their promoters to hide their business dealings. Mossack Fonseca has dozens of offices all over the world. It has founded, sold and managed thousands of companies.
The company sells its shell companies in cities such as Zurich, London, and Hong Kong, among others.
Whoever wants to buy an anonymous company can buy it through Mossack Fonseca for as little as $1,000 (nearly Rs 66,290). For an extra fee, it also provides a sham (fake) director and if the clients’ desire it conceals the company’s true shareholder. In short, the company is into the business of withholding the true identity of the offshore company’s owner.
Are there any Indians involved?
The papers show that there are nearly 500 Indians who have used the Central American country, Panama, to park their money. Reports suggest that some of these offshore accounts may be used for tax evasion purposes. Some of the noted Indians whose names have surfaced include Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, KP SIngh of DLF, erstwhile Loksatta Party politican Anurag Kejriwal, Adani Enterprises Chairman Gautam Adani’s brother Vinod Adani, Indiabulls’ Sameer Gehlaut.
How the leak took place?
An anonymous source contacted a German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) over a year ago period and submitted encrypted internal documents from Mossack Fonseca. In the following months, the newspaper found that the number of documents continued to grow far beyond the original leak and therefore, it acquired 2.6 terabytes of data, making the leak the biggest that journalists had ever worked on.
Any demands from source?
The source who leaked this information neither wanted any financial compensation nor anything else in return, apart from a few security measures.
What’s the data all about?
It reveals information on how an overseas industry led by major banks, legal firms, and asset management companies secretly manages the assets of the world’s rich and famous personalities from politicians, FIFA officials, fraudsters, drug smugglers, to celebrities and professional athletes.
It provided a clear picture of how Mossack Fonseca routinely accepts investments from world’s rich and famous to engage in business activities that potentially violate sanctions, besides helping and abetting tax evasion and money laundering.
How big is the data leak and what does it comprise of?
It includes approximately 11.5 million documents which are higher than the combined total of the Wikileaks Cablegate, Offshore Leaks, Lux Leaks, Swiss Leaks.
It mainly comprises of emails, pdf files, photo files, and excerpts of an internal Mossack Fonseca database. The data covers a period right from the 1970s to 2016.
What’s the scale of the leak?
The Panama Papers leak comprises of approximate 2.6 terabytes (TB) of data which is highest of all the leaks that have taken place in last few years.
In 2015, the Swiss Leaks/International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) had 3.3 gigabytes (GB) volume of data while the Luxemberg Leaks/ICIJ in 2014 had 4 GB.
In 2013, the Offshore Leaks/ICIJ had 260 GB of data.
In 2010, the Cablegate/ Wikileaks has 1.7 GB of data
(With inputs from Süddeutsche Zeitung’s (SZ) website- http://panamapapers.sueddeutsche.de/en/)
Source: dnaindia.com