Offshore-Leaks

Offshore leaks (also OffshoreLeaks ) is a leak of April, 2013, which relates to the company's internal data bases of the two world leader in the creation and administration of trusts in offshore financial centers. This is an excerpt of a larger data set, which came to various tax authorities and three years later, an anonymous person to the journalists of the International Consortium for Investigative Journalists ( ICIJ ) 2010. The amount of data is far greater than in any previous Leaks: The documents contain data on the customer relationships that affect approximately 130,000 people from various countries, including Germany, Austria and Switzerland. They also contain information on the participation of numerous major banks in this business.

Worldwide media reported on the revealed movements of capital. The journalists claim that the disclosed transactions tax evasion in tax havens served; but it was also noted that such constructs can make use of the foreign legal system in order to benefit from facilitations bureaucracy to international trade and tax policy choices.

Beginning of April was only a very small part of the material seen. The news magazine Focus, which was not involved in the original revelation, are in their own words before records on incoming and outgoing payments, after which 100,000 German assets in offshore financial centers hide.

Mid June were asked online searchable portions of the database to the public.

2.1 Affected individuals and banks
2.3 establishment of trusts and front companies by the German Bank
2.4 circumvent the property tax in Spain for works of art
2.5 Offshore Companies from Greece
2.6 Swiss intermediaries
2.7 arms deal the Congolese ex-president Pascal Lissouba
2.8 The ease of formation of offshore companies
2.9 China's power elite

Project "offshore leaks "

Origin of the data

The hard drive with the data collection from an anonymous source was offered in 2009, U.S., British and Australian tax authorities and in 2010 also passed. 2011 sent the same source disk by mail to Gerald Ryle, Director of the International Consortium for Investigative Journalists ( ICIJ ), who had previously worked only three years in researching the Australian Fire Power - fraud scandal. The data sent by the anonymous source concerning a total of nine tax havens: the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands ( British Overseas Territories ), Mauritius, Singapore, Cook Islands, Samoa, Seychelles, Hong Kong and Malaysia. Numerous other tax havens are not affected. Moreover, it is explicitly not all in these tax havens registered companies and bank accounts, but only to companies that were founded by the two trust companies " Portcullis TrustNet " and the " Commonwealth Trust Limited " (CTL ). In the case of the Focus this data is not yet clear which trust companies are affected.

Amount of data

Analysis of the data by journalists

"Offshore Leaks " is an extensive, months -ending research project involving the over 86 journalists from 38 newspapers, radio and television stations from 46 countries. The cooperation is historically unique and one of the largest cross-border investigative research in the history of journalism. For selection, the consortium has not commented. Involved in the analysis include employees of the BBC, The Guardian, Washington Post, Le Monde, the Swiss Sunday newspaper, and in Germany by Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR ) and the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ ). The amount of data was evaluated using computer forensics by the data were only made searchable, and then relations between companies, accounts and people were developed.

In a project-wide concerted action the unveiling of the major tax havens machinery began on Thursday, the 4th of April 2013. The data cover a period from the 1990s to 2011. At the time of the unveiling early April 2013 only a few percent of the material had been sighted, for example, Austrian cases had been scarcely studied. The evaluation of the data is continued.

NDR and SZ have committed themselves to pass the data material not by hand. The International Consortium Investigative Journalists ( ICIJ ) checks whether any part of the material may be made available to the public in compliance with the source protection.

Analysis of the data by tax authorities

In May 2013 it was announced that the American, Australian and UK tax authorities was a data packet with offshore tax data from about 400 gigabytes size offered already in 2009 and actually passed in 2010, which was later evaluated by journalists data packet is a part of inventory from this total package should be. Why the tax authorities passed in 2010 data package was first years not evaluated, is not yet known. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble confirmed that the Finance Ministry was informed of the existence of the data and promised him in May 2013 to obtain access to the data and be able to evaluate. Thus, take the U.S., UK, Australia and Germany, the evaluation of the data in an internationally coordinated campaign together before. According to the authorities, it is, inter alia, data on shell companies, foundations and trusts in the Cook Islands, the Cayman Islands, Singapore and the British Virgin Islands. Schäuble stated that the Finance Ministry will pass the data as soon as possible for evaluation and further use to the competent tax authorities of the federal states.

Search results

Affected individuals and banks

In the data become known dive numerous individuals and all the major banks like the German bank, JPMorgan Chase, UBS. Among the few known so far people are celebrities as Gunter Sachs (heir of Opel and ZF Sachs) and Denise Rich ( divorced wife of commodities trader Marc Rich), Russian oligarchs such as Mikhail Fridman and politicians children as Imee Marcos, daughter of Ferdinand Marcos, the daughters Leyla Əliyeva and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Arzu Əliyeva Əliyev and the two sons of Colombian ex-president Álvaro Uribe and Jerónimo Tomás, who have over 2000 mailbox companies.

The German cases after NDR search " self -employed persons are like a tax consultant from Stuttgart or a German winemakers residing Mallorca, a technology manufacturer from Kempten, a furniture entrepreneurs from North Rhine -Westphalia, wealthy Russians residing Hamburg or Pleitiers as the former owner of a hospital chain in Southern Germany. " in April 2013, links to Franz Wolf, the son of the former head of the foreign Intelligence Service of the Ministry of State Security of the GDR Markus Wolf were known.

According to data of the Focus leaked to disk in Germany far more, namely " at least 100 000 people from Germany (...) their assets in international tax havens " hide. The record shows " 260 million and withdrawals on tax havens accounts and inquiries about account balances or customer consultations ".

On April 25, 2013 it was announced that the Deputy Speaker of the State Great Khural, and former Finance Minister of Mongolia, Bayartsogt Sangajav (Democratic Party), by the Parliament by 56 votes to 8 was removed due to the revelations of his office. Bayartsogt should have deposited in Switzerland in a bank account at times over 1 million U.S. dollars and was also co-owner of a company in the British Virgin Islands.

The Süddeutsche Zeitung, the North German Radio and the Sunday paper researched in cooperation, the involvement of late 2011, German -Swiss industrialist heir Gunter Sachs in offshore financial centers. Numerous scanned documents, such as deeds and contracts, copied identity documents and handling billing, internal e -mails and faxes, as well as handwritten letters signed by Gunter Sachs and the companies, trusts and lawyers involved were seen in the data. Was supervised for tax Sachs thereby multiply by the Swiss law firm Lenz & Staehelin.

The control data from 2008 by Gunter Sachs were examined under the coverage of the tax administration of the canton of Bern, which found no such evidence, which would have given the introduction of a control method.

Establishment of trusts and front companies by the German Bank

After researching the SZ and the NDR, the German Bank is particularly active among the major banks to offer their customers tax evasion models. Alone, over their Singapore office she let found 309 companies and trusts. Portcullis TrustNet, service in Singapore, registered these companies and trusts for the German bank and sat in several cases, the regulators Limited, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank, as a director. The German bank has in its publications to its customers - in cooperation with their legal or tax advisors - the " establishment, the management and administration" of trusts, companies and foundations in various countries. The German Bank praises Mauritius to its customers as a " tax - neutral environment " to.

Circumvent the property tax in Spain for works of art

The Spanish daily El Confidencial reported on 4 April 1884 resulting from the acquisition of the Van Gogh work Water Mill at Gennep at the London auction house Sotheby's for 589,000 euros on 24 June 1996 through the Nautilus Trustees Limited. The end of 1996 the work was bequeathed by a loan from the Nautilus Trustees Limited, located on the offshore financial center Cook Islands, the Museo Thyssen -Bornemisza in Madrid. Through data research was noted that the company is owned by the art collector Carmen Cervera, heiress of Baron Thyssen ( Thyssen AG). The image has, according to the Boletín Oficial del Estado ( BOE) in 2004 amounted to EUR 2.7 million. Criticized here is the circumvention of the Spanish wealth tax on works of art. Would the numerous works of Carmen Cervera reported in Madrid, they would have to pay each year approximately 13.4 million euros in taxes.

Offshore companies in Greece

In the data sets are 107 offshore companies happen with connection to Greece, only four thereof to the State were known. In total there will be about 6,500 offshore companies with connection to Greece. This loses the state annually six billion euros in tax revenue. Offshore companies served different purposes here. They used property owners if they wished to avoid taxes, enterprises, if they wanted to hide profits and politicians, when they had amassed illegal wealth. The Greek newspaper Ta Nea, part of the journalist network, makes it clear that the publications " suggest illegal actions of the owners in any way ." Because " all said that they have not done anything illegal ."

Swiss intermediaries

The Süddeutsche Zeitung researched together with the Swiss Sunday newspaper that hundreds of Swiss lawyers and other financial intermediaries ( = Intermediate, mediator, mediators, meant lawyers, trustees, accountants and financial advisors are ) set up have helped their wealthy clients, shady shell companies and trusts in tax havens. Beat von Rechenberg, since 2011 President of the Swiss Bar Association, estimates that about 1000 of the approximately 9000 lawyers working in Switzerland as a financial intermediary.

The Switzerland was first assumed to be only marginally affected. The Federal Prosecutor Michael Lauber noted, however, that bribes were processed for arms deals through offshore companies. In organizing the accounts that Switzerland had taken a larger role. This resulted in the investigation against the former defense minister of Greece, Akis Tsochatzopoulos.

In connection with the affair Cahuzac the Geneva bank Reyl & Cie became the focus of reporting in France. In addition to deposits of Cahuzac they should have transferred accounts of prominent and wealthy clients from France and Belgium to financial centers overseas.

Arms deal the Congolese ex-president Pascal Lissouba

In April 2013, the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the South African Mail & Guardian Online reported on an arms deal by Pascal Lissouba, the President of the Republic of the Congo 1992 until 1997. Ahead of the planned for July 1997 presidential elections, tensions arose between Lissouba and supporters of the former president Denis Sassou Nguesso. As government forces surrounded Sassou's Lissouba house in Brazzaville on 5 June 1997, it ordered his militia to resist. In the fighting large parts of the capital Brazzaville were destroyed. The government troops attacked the militia of ex-president while also using helicopters. Beginning in October 1997 Angolan troops intervened on the side of the former president, in mid-October, the government was overthrown. Since then, Denis Sassou Nguesso 's re-elected president. As it became known from offshore leaks, the troops of Lissouba received shortly before the outbreak of fighting the helicopters held by the South African Air Force ( SAAF ) - apparently under the mediation of the German arms dealer Rudolph want to major in ( Ebar Management & Trading Ltd in Jersey. ) Johannesburg. In the following months, two helicopters Mil Mi -17 from former Soviet production, as well as four transport aircraft and at least 290 trucks were delivered to Lissouba or were already pre-ordered. Military goods have been paid by a company controlled by Lissouba account at a bank in Paris, were on the money from oil revenues. To conceal the deal were the payments through the letter box Exotek Management Services Ltd.. settled in the British Virgin Islands, it was demonstrably a signed statement of Lissouba of 19.9 million U.S. dollars for four helicopters discovered. As agents for Exotek Management Services Ltd.. acted the South African Esmond Myhill and the two U.S. citizen Richard Parker and Roy Segers and registered the letter box at the Commonwealth Trust Limited (CTL ). Since 2004 Lissouba lives in exile in the 17th arrondissement in Paris. According Jovial Rantao of the South African Independent Online South Africa from October 5, 2002 to the year 1997 Armaments Development and Production Corporation ( ARMSCOR ) appointed as an agent and officially paid refurbished four helicopters Puma 330L on behalf of Lissouba before his fall have been, but there was no delivery.

The simplicity of the establishment of offshore companies

Journalists of the SZ expressed surprised at how easy it is to set up offshore companies. Can trust or offshore companies are set up already by e -mail. Also requests ( for example directors to invent sham or even to remain anonymous ) are no problem for the exporting financial services. Such special requests cost about 300 to 400 U.S. dollars. A German businessman offered, for example, to the establishment of an offshore company within one week for 1427 euros. Reasons for starting an offshore company were concealment of assets ( useful in case of a bankruptcy or a divorce ) and the evasion of taxes, for example, Inheritance taxes.

China's power elite

On January 21, 2014 a second wave of Publications was started to research results of ICIJ to the more than 21,000 offshore companies from customers in China and Hong Kong - were not initially made aware Republic - belong. The documents show how China's political elite for years in secret and in a big way handles financial transactions through tax havens abroad and billions of dollars from China to move their assets to conceal. Even close relatives of important politicians control transactions through anonymous shell companies in the Caribbean:

Deng Xiaoping ( in fact ruled 1979-1997 ) - his son Wu Jianchang ( married to the second oldest daughter Deng Lin) is connected with 1994 to 2006 and "Join Truth Ltd.. " 1993-2000 both Cook Islands "China Nonferrous Metals Holdings Ltd. ".

Ye Jianying (one of the founders of People's Republic of China) - his nephew Yeh Shuen -ji is connected with 1997, " Qiao Xing Universal Telephone Inc." in 1994 and 1997, all British Virgin Islands " Qiao Xing Holdings Ltd.. " " Wu Holdings Ltd. ".

Peng Zhen ( "Eight Immortals " ) - ". Greenway Property Group Ltd ". " Hua Tian Enterprises Ltd. " his son Fu Liang is connected with 1997, 1998-2000 ". Powers Mix Group Ltd. " 1997-2000 " Southport Development Ltd.. " 1999 " Perfect Union Overseas Inc. " 2000, all the British Virgin Islands.

Xi Jinping (since 2013 President ) - his brother Deng Jiagui, married to his oldest sister Qi Qiaoqiao, founded 2008 British Virgin Islands " Excellence Effort Property Development Ltd ".. Deng, Qi and their daughter Zhang Yannan have a million fortune with luxury real estate in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Beijing.

Hu Jintao ( president 2003-2013 ) - ". Charter Best Investments Ltd " his nephew Yishis Hu is the CEO of 2002 ". Morich International Investments Ltd. " in 2007 and was there from 2007 to 2008 for the 2007 "Universal Yield Investments Ltd.. " all the British Virgin Islands.

Li Peng ( prime minister 1987-1998 ) - his daughter Li Xiaolin is the Managing Director from 2005 and " Tianwo Development Ltd.. " 2005, both British Virgin Islands " Tianwo Holdings Ltd. ".

Wen Jiabao ( premier of 2003-2013 ) - his only daughter Wen Ruchun ( worked for Credit Suisse), often called Lily Chang is with verhairatet Liu Chunhang ( works for China's banking regulator) founded in 2004 British Virgin Islands "Full Mark Consultants Ltd.. ". The son of Wen Yunsong, often called Winston Wen, founded "Trend Gold Consultants Ltd.. " 2006-2008 British Virgin Islands.

Dai Xianglong (former Governor of the Central Bank) - his son-in Che Feng is the CEO of 2000-2002 and 2002-2006, both shareholders of British Virgin Islands "Cyber Touch Ltd.. " " Word Hope Innovative Company Ltd "..

Yang Guoqing ( real estate developer, Country Garden Holdings) - his daughter Yang Huiyan ( was already with 26 years as the richest woman in China ) is the managing director and shareholder in 2006 British Virgin Islands " Joy House Enterprises Ltd. ".

Members of the National People's Congress will also highlight listed as some of the richest people in the country as well as managers of state companies that were involved in corruption scandals. None of the affected families politician commented on request.

The document records that Western banks - including the German and the Swiss Bank, UBS and Credit Suisse might help with that to build for Chinese customers clandestine structures ( within the meaning of geheimlich clandestine and forbidden) in tax havens and maintain. 107 billion U.S. dollars per year are made illegally from China to foreign countries, the estimate of the non-governmental organization Global Financial Integrity. " This dimension shows how far the Chinese elite has moved away from the normal population, suggesting that under these company accounts are few, obscure the assets or to hide bribes ," says Markus Meinzer the Tax Justice Network.

Internetaufsichtsbhörde in China, which employs two million people, blocked website ICIJ in Washington still on the night of January 22, 2014, the net versions of the media like, the British Guardian, the Spanish El Pais, the NDR and the Süddeutsche Zeitung were partially censored, as well as accounts of the short message service Weibo. The non-governmental organization GreatFire.org According have been rarely been blocked so many sites in China.

Background tax evasion

According to a study based on IMF data from the Tax Justice Network of the year 2012 super-rich hide the world from 16.4 to 25 trillion euros financial assets in tax havens, to avoid being taxed. The EU assumes that goes annually lost a huge sum in taxes due to tax havens in the EU, the figures vary between 836 billion and one trillion euros. This is significantly more than all EU countries spend on health care for their citizens. The chairman of the German tax - union estimates that more than 400 billion euros originating from Germany black money are invested abroad. Since the hidden assets belonging to the richest of society, hide also means that the concentration of wealth is much larger than publicly identify known data.

After the Financial Secrecy Index of TJN are the ten most important countries for tax evasion in descending order: Switzerland, Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, United States, Singapore, Jersey, Japan, Germany and Bahrain.

Reactions

Explains One of the journalists involved in the unveiling of the ICIJ: " The super-rich have many ways to manage their finances. The average person, however, has little choice. The average citizen is the one who will either have to pay more or have to do without more, because he is fleeced in his home country from the Treasury. "

The German government and the state government of North Rhine -Westphalia have announced plans to investigate possible cases of tax evasion. Also in other countries is determined on the basis of the data for tax evasion. Several politicians called for a common European approach to tax havens as well (from the EU ever this week have placed ) approach to the type of 2010 came into force in the U.S. FATCA law. To commit the United States, all banks to pass on the relevant data of all Americans to the U.S. tax authorities. The German trade union federation demanded to hire additional tax auditors. Each tax auditors bring in about a million euros a (about fifteen times his salary including social security contributions ), every single tax audit millionaires would lead to average payments in the amount of about 135,000 euros. The Bavarian Finance Minister Markus Söder has announced that the number of employees of a special commission severity of crime control from 50 to 100 to increase ( Söder: " Following the discovery of offshore leaks we need more staff ").

The request by the German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble of 4 April to the media to give the data in financial and investigative authorities, NDR and SZ rejected on the grounds that disclosure of data to law enforcement agencies jeopardize the protection of sources and make further research in question would. However, checks the consortium, whether part of the data is made available to the public.

The SPD Chancellor candidate Peer Steinbrück called for tougher penalties, including the withdrawal of the banking license, for participating banks. State Secretary Steffen Kampeter explained in the light of revelations about the involvement of the German bank in such activities that are already an institution that systematically participates in tax evasion, the license could be revoked.

The President of the Federal Financial Elke König looks at the banks a "special responsibility" regarding tax evasion and announced that it will give evidence " that an institution systematically violating tax law or helps, we will investigate this for prudential purposes ." For several contributors (among others the mirror) show the reaction of the financial service provider to the revelations that it is this responsibility is not exercised: "The industry steals from the responsibility - and the blame would rather their customers. " On April 22 2013 reports the Süddeutsche Zeitung that the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority will examine the business of German banks in tax havens. The responsible Executive Director Raimund Röseler reported that BaFin is interested in doing especially for the businesses that represent the banks as " asset management ". "You see then the very rich of this world. But what really lies behind them, we now want to know exactly, " said Röseler.

A spokesman for the International Monetary Fund expressed the thesis that legal tax optimization teach a greater damage than tax havens. Measures against this are " the key issue ".

The journalist Wolfgang Michal, co-editor of the blog Carta, asked if it (which has not apparently been the raw material to the journalists) may be a kind of pre-filtering by the bearer of the data by the ICIJ consortium itself or issued by the participating editors. Is also questionable, had any motive capable of About sender of the data packet, how he came to this data, why established media were not involved in investigative journalism such as the New York Times, Der Spiegel and El País and have been selected as the world involved 86 journalists.

The Austrian economists Karl Aiginger and since 2005 director of the Austrian Institute for Economic Research (WIFO ), called in an interview with the daily Kurier on 7 April 2013, the abolition of bank secrecy in its current form and practice. So far, the interest of small depositors will used in order to favor large tax avoidance and illegal money transfers.

614503