Secrets of Panama files

World politicians, including autocrats and dictators, business masses, criminal figures and just celebrities use well-conspicuated offshore companies to hide the status, tax evasion and fraudulent operations. This is evidenced by the materials obtained as a result of the largest journalistic investigation in the history. About 140 people became his defendants, of which at least 33 are former or existing heads of state

Sergey Roldugin, Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev in the St. Petersburg House of Music. Photo of 2009

The name of the President of Russia Putin is not mentioned among them, but the names of people from his immediate environment are mentioned. All documents were received from the Law Firm Mossack Fonseca Paname, which provides services for registering and maintaining offshore companies. The documents were received by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and provided by the International Consortium of Journalistic Investigations (ICIJ) and the Center for Corruption and Organized Crime (OCCRP). After the first leakage of documents, 370 journalists from 76 countries studied “Panama files” in 25 languages - this is the largest journalistic investigation in history.

Mossack fonseca

The documents obtained by the investigation consortium show how the individuals from the Putin environment secretly withdrew $ 2 billion through banks and shadow companies from Russia.

The files that were published by ICIJ are also exposed by offshore companies that were controlled by the Prime Ministers of Iceland and Pakistan, the king of Saudi Arabia and the children of the President of Azerbaijan. They also have at least 33 people and companies that are on the “black list” of the United States because they had business with Mexican drug dealers, terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah or countries such as Iran and North Korea.

40 years, day after day ...

Documents are covered by almost 40 years of modern history, from 1977 to the end of 2015, the names of the Chinese leader of Xi Jinping, the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister of Iceland, Sigmündur Dadvid Gynnlegson and his wife, son of the head of Azerbaijan Aliyev, who died in 2010, the father of the present, is mentioned British Prime Minister David Cameron ... Materials show in detail how dirty money after day, decade after a decade penetrated the global financial system, supporting and encouraging world crime, stimulating tax evasion.

Despite the fact that most of the services of offshore companies are quite legal, according to the opened documents, you can trace, as banks, legal companies and other players in this market very often bypassed legal procedures that imply a thorough verification of customer money for their origin - whether there is crime or corruption schemes, including political ones.

Documents identify many previously hidden maneuvers committed by banks, companies and individual persons related to Vladimir Putin. According to these data, offshore companies of this network sometimes transferred $ 200 million per transaction. People associated with Putin conducted secretive transactions and accompanied them with false documents, is approved in the materials of the investigation.

So, the first leakage of the documents with which the team of journalists-investigators worked was allowed by an employee of the Mossack Fonseca registered company in Panam, who has departments in Hong Kong, Zurich, Miami and another 35 countries of the world, is the world's largest business structure to open and maintain offshore companies. The company's activities were studied by ICIJ and the daily German newspaper SueDdeutsche Zeitung. Mossack Fonseca customers were 29 billionaires from the Forbes list. Records indicate that the company went to everything to protect the interests of its customers, including the manufacture of documents retroactively. Such a practice has become so ordinary that the company even discussed the possibility of introducing a drawing dachshund for the manufacture of such documents.

The company always replied to the ICIJ and media representatives that there was nothing illegal in its activities and that “the accusations are that we create a structure for our shareholders, specially sharpened to protect real owners from identification, completely unprovable and false.”

Moving scheme of funds in offshore

Source: Theguardian.com

Meanwhile, Süddeutsche Zeitung journalists received millions of files for free, which they shared with colleagues in different countries. Many of them allow you to understand what the methodology is applied by a business in the field of creating offshores and how these schemes work, usually hidden from public attention. The history of Mossack Fonseca is in many ways the history of the offshore system itself.

The founders of the company are well known in Panama: Jürgen Mossack - an emigrant from Germany, whose father began a new life in Panama after service in the Hitler SS forces when the Second World War ended. Ramon Fonseca is a famous writer who worked as an adviser to Panama President. Their company collaborated with more than 500 banks and legal companies, including the largest, in the Netherlands, Mexico, the USA and Switzerland. Over the entire period of its activities since the 1970s, UBS opened 1100 offshores through this company, and the HSBC bank more than 2300.

Branches of "sandalwood"

February 10, 2011, having hitherto unknown company Sandalwood Continental Ltd. (“Sandalwood”), registered in the offshore zone on the British Virgin Islands, led $ 200 million of the same unknown company registered in offshore in Cyprus, named Horwich Trading Ltd. The next day, the “sandalwood tree” transferred the right to return this loan with interest to an unknown company called Ove Financial Corp., also registered in the British Virgin Islands. For this, Ove paid exactly $ 1 to the “sandalwood”. On the same day, OVE transferred all its rights to this loan and interest on it by the Panama company, which was called International Media Overseas ("International overseas media"). These same "media" also paid OVE for this joy $ 1. In other words, in one day, the loan on paper crossed three countries, passed through two banks and four companies, as a result of which it is a super -working business to track its route. It is clear that the one who is behind these transactions really does not want them to be traced. Reasons? There can be a lot of them. One of them is that meticulous proceedings with this loan bring us too close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The fact is that the Sandalo tree company, from where the winding path of strange money began, was established by the St. Petersburg Bank “Russia”, whose main owner and President Yuri Kovalchuk is considered one of Putin’s Cashiers, writes ICIJ. Kovalchuk and Putin together once created the country cooperative "Lake". Two years ago, Putin opened an invoice for his salary to the “Russia” bank - immediately after the bank itself fell under Western sanctions.

The company "Sandalum wood", from where the winding path of strange money began, was established by the St. Petersburg Bank "Russia", whose main owner and President Yuri Kovalchuk is considered one of Putin's Cashiers Putin

The company of the International Media Overseas (those very “international overseas media”), which ended the transfer of rights to return the loan of $ 200 million and percent of it, judging by the documents, is controlled by vinocoller musician Sergei Roldugin, the friend of Putin’s youth, and the godfather of the eldest daughter of the President of the Russian Federation.

This loan of $ 200 million is only one in a chain of dozens of transactions for a total amount of $ 2 billion, the traces of which are found in the Mossack Fonseca files and which lead to people closely related to Putin.

In some cases, suspicious payments of people from the near Putin’s close circle may be “gratitude” for receiving some contracts or other assistance from the authorities, ICIJ believes. Documents suggest that various debt obligations came from Cyprus, from the bank, the main stake in which at that time belonged to the VTB bank controlled by the Russian state.

A loan of $ 200 million is only one in a chain of dozens of transactions totaling $ 2 billion, traces of which were found in Mossack Fonseca and who lead to people closely related to Putin

Last week, Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov, having an ICIJ investigation, mentioned the “preparing stuffing” in order to discredit the President of the Russian Federation and “rock the situation in the country”. He told reporters that the Russian authorities are not going to answer the ICIJ “fir -shaped requests, because they contain questions“ which have already asked hundreds of times and which are answered hundreds of times ”. Russia will legally defend the honor and dignity of the President of the Russian Federation, said Peskov.

And customers - who?

According to international laws and contracts of the company such as Mossack Fonseca, helping to create offshore and open accounts in banks, should pay special attention to customers who may be involved in money laundering, tax evasion and other violations. Such companies need to show special attention to participants in political processes - government members, members of their families and people associated with them. And in the case of such a person addresses them-in English “Political Exposed Person” or on jargon-“PEP”-the origin of its money should be checked especially carefully for the subject of possible corruption mechanisms.

However, it is obvious that Mossack fonseca, despite the statements of her caution, sometimes did not understand who her clients were. In 2015, the international audit revealed that this legal company knew only 204 real owners of 14,086 offshore companies opened in the Seychelles. The authorities of the British Virgin Island fined the Mossack Fonseca at $ 375,000 for violating the law on laundering money because the company registered the company of the son of the former president of Egypt Hosni Mubarak, without establishing the connections between them, even after both, father and son, were charged with corruption in Egypt.

The International Consortium of Journalistic Investigations discovered 61 members of the families of prime ministers, presidents and kings and related people in the Mossack Fonseca files.

The documents indicate, in particular, that the family of the president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyeva used companies registered in Panama to secretly manage assets in gold mining and investments in London real estate. Children of Pakistan Prime Minister Navaz Sharif also invested funds in London real estate through her offshore discovered, judging by the documents. Family members of at least the eight of the current and former members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo Communist Party of China had offshore companies created through the mediation of Mossack Fonseca. According to ICIJ journalists, representatives of the governments of Azerbaijan, Pakistan and China refused to comment on this subject.

The international audit Mossack Fonseka, held in 2015, revealed that this law firm knew only 204 real owners out of 14,086 offshore companies opened in the Seychelles

The list of world leaders used by Mossack Fonseca to open offshore companies also includes Argentina President Maurisio Makri.

The current president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko opened the offshore company BVI in 2014 during bloody battles in the Donbass. His spokesman said that this was in no way connected with the political or military events in Ukraine. Advisers Poroshenko said that he did not include BVI in his declaration, because neither this holding company, nor its two subsidiaries in Cyprus and the Netherlands had any assets, but were created to help Poroshenko sell his business production business.

Photo: Dmitry Astakhov/Eyevine