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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Paradise papers)
Not to be confused with Panama Papers or Pandora Papers.
Countries with politicians, public officials, or close associates named in the leak
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The Paradise Papers are a set of over 13.4 million confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investments that were leaked to the German reporters Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer,[1][2] from the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.[3] The newspaper shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists,[4] and a network of more than 380 journalists. Some of the details were made public on 5 November 2017 and stories are still being released[as of?].
The documents originate from the legal firm Appleby, the corporate services providers Estera and Asiaciti Trust, and business registries in 19 tax jurisdictions.[5] They contain the names of more than 120,000 people and companies.[6] Among those whose financial affairs are mentioned are, separately, AIG,[7] then-Prince Charles[8] and Queen Elizabeth II,[9] President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos, and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross.[10]
The released information resulted in scandal, litigation, and loss of position for some of the named, as well as litigation against the media and journalists who published the papers.
Background
On 20 October 2017, an anonymous Reddit user hinted at the existence of the Paradise Papers.[11] Later that month, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) approached the offshore law firm Appleby with allegations of wrongdoing. Appleby said that some of its data had been stolen in a cyberattack in the previous year and denied the ICIJ's allegations.[12] After media outlets started reporting on the documents, the company said there was "no evidence of wrongdoing", and they "are a law firm which advises clients on legitimate and lawful ways to conduct their business", and they "do not tolerate illegal behaviour".[13]
Appleby stated the firm "was not the subject of a leak but of a serious criminal act", and "this was an illegal computer hack". The company added: "Our systems were accessed by an intruder who deployed the tactics of a professional hacker".[14][15]
The documents were acquired by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which had also obtained the Panama Papers in 2016. According to the BBC, the name "Paradise Papers" reflects "the idyllic profiles of many of the offshore jurisdictions whose workings are unveiled", so-called tax havens, or "tax paradises".[5]
The data breach comprises some 13.4 million documents—totaling about 1.4 terabytes—from two offshore service providers, Appleby and Asiaciti Trust, and from the company registers of 19 tax havens.[16] Süddeutsche Zeitung journalists contacted the ICIJ, which has been investigating the documents with 100 media partners. The consortium made the data available to these media partners using Neo4j,[17] a graph-database platform made for connected data, and Linkurious,[18] graph-visualization software. This allowed journalists across the globe to undertake collaborative investigative work. The documents were released by the consortium on 5 November 2017.[10][19]
Companies named
According to the papers, Allergan (the manufacturer of Botox), Allianz, Apple Inc., Facebook, Global Vantedge, McDonald's, Nike, Inc., Siemens, The Walt Disney Company, Twitter, Uber, Walmart, and Yahoo! are among the corporations that own offshore companies.[20][21] According to The Express Tribune, "Apple, Nike, and Facebook avoided billions of dollars in tax using offshore companies."[22]
Among the Indian companies listed in the papers are Apollo Tyres, the Essel Group,[23] D S Construction, Emaar MGF, GMR Group,[24] Havells,[25] Hinduja Group,[26] the Hiranandani Group,[27] Jindal Steel,[28] the Sun Group[29] and Videocon.[30]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Papers
An ICIJ Investigation
PARADISE PAPERS
Secrets of the Global Elite
A major global collaboration reveals secrets from one of the world’s most prestigious offshore law firms, a specialized trust company and 19 company registries in secrecy jurisdictions.
https://www.icij.org/investigations/paradise-papers/