We’ve shared what the #PandoraPapers reveal about world leaders and the elite western institutions that benefit from and fuel the offshore economy.
But how does this system affect everyone else?🧵
(Spoiler: It’s not just tax revenue we’re missing out on.) bit.ly/3DhIsGP
The #PandoraPapers leads we investigated uncover the societal costs of letting the rich and powerful shield their wealth from view — and how the rule of law has been bent and broken around the world by a system of financial secrecy enabled by the U.S. and other wealthy nations.
The ICIJ team spent months reporting all over the world to understand how the offshore financial maneuvers we were seeing in the #PandoraPapers impact everyday people and communities. Here are some of those stories...
NEW: #PandoraPapers show how trusts devoted to the Legion of Christ, a Roman Catholic order caught in an international pedophilia scandal, were able to stash ~$300 million offshore and become a secret investor in a major corporate landlord in the U.S. bit.ly/3laj4MT
It provides an unprecedented view of global financial maneuvers that turn rent payments into big profits, and international investment in real estate ventures that use hardball tactics to maximize returns from the homes of low- and mid-income renters. bit.ly/3laj4MT
ICIJ visited Florida properties invested in by New Zealand trusts designed to hold money for the Legion and spoke to tenants, who told us about landlords slow to address poor conditions in their units but quick to hit them with fees and eviction notices. bit.ly/3laj4MT
NEW: ICIJ visited factory towns in Italy and N.J. to connect the dots between the offshore deals of Belgium chemical giant Solvay SA's founding family members and the human impact of the company's activities. #PandoraPapersbit.ly/3iTyGD5
As the Italian town of Spinetta Marengo sought justice from Solvay for contamination linked to a plant there, a top company executive moved assets worth millions into offshore tax havens, the #PandoraPapers reveal. bit.ly/3iTyGD5
ICIJ and @washingtonpost launched a global hunt for antiquities after #PandoraPapers revealed how a notorious art dealer and his family set up a trust in a tax haven shortly after U.S. investigators began linking him to looted Cambodian artifacts. bit.ly/3FlRLr2
Although some museums have returned Cambodian antiquities in years past, prominent museums — including the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art — are holding dozens of antiquities linked to an art collector that the U.S. says looted countless ancient relics. bit.ly/3FlRLr2
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
#CaspianCabals journalists from over a dozen countries probed the Kremlin’s control and Western interests in a critical Russia-Kazakhstan oil pipeline, and how its influence and impact spread to Europe, the U.S. and beyond.
Over the past two years, the Netherlands' oil imports from Kazakhstan have increased eightfold, ICIJ’s Dutch partner @nrc found, largely driven by sanctions on Russian oil. But the relationship between the countries' oil industries is “toxic and shaky.” buff.ly/3ZrXTbU
@nrc A small town in Germany is thriving thanks to a local refinery that plays a pivotal role in processing crude for the petrochemical industry, where at least some of the oil comes from Kazakhstan, ICIJ’s German media partners @derspiegel and @ZDFheute found. buff.ly/3OKrc4O
Since the 1950s, Israel Bonds, which sells bonds to fund Israel’s government, has evolved, increasingly courting banks and other institutional investors.
In recent years, U.S. states and municipalities have sunk billions into Israeli bonds. buff.ly/3SwnUUM
Thousands of records obtained by ICIJ reveal Israel Bonds’ tight relationship with U.S. institutional investors, and how some officials who buy Israeli bonds have had access to gala dinners, cocktail celebrations, and private meetings with Israeli leaders.buff.ly/3SwnUUM
A spokesperson for Israel Bonds told ICIJ that the bonds are safe investments with steady returns, and described the group’s sales strategy as “just like any other business.” But ethics experts say such dealings are not always so straightforward.
Interpol has asked governments worldwide to find and provisionally arrest Isabel dos Santos, yet the former Angolan billionaire isn't hiding. Instead, she often posts about her lavish lifestyle at a Dubai residence.
Newly leaked Dubai property data reviewed by ICIJ for #DubaiUnlocked reveal that dos Santos and her mother, Tatiana “Kukanova” Regan, co-own an apartment in a building called Sadaf, Arabic for “seashell,” overlooking Dubai Marina and the Persian Gulf. buff.ly/3ykHpIP
The eldest daughter of Angola’s former president, dos Santos came under scrutiny by authorities on three continents after ICIJ’s #LuandaLeaks revealed how lucrative deals obtained under her father’s rule helped her become Africa’s richest woman. buff.ly/3UY5DBE
Did you miss the launch of our #SwaziSecrets investigation?
Catch up with the stories our partners worked on in this thread!
@amaBhungane, @AJEnglish, @FinUncovered, @OpenSecretsZA, @jeune_afrique, @TheAfricaReport, @MakandayMedia, @PremiumTimesng buff.ly/4dBIMTK
A member of the Qatari royal family invested about $50 million in Newsmax, bolstering the conservative outlet at a time when Qatar was facing diplomatic pressure and seeking U.S. allies.
Sheikh Sultan bin Jassim Al Thani, a former Qatari government official and the owner of a London-based investment fund, Heritage Advisors, invested in Newsmax in 2019 and 2020.
The investment has not been previously reported. buff.ly/3ITH5mh
The documents were obtained by ICIJ from a trove of roughly 100,000 leaked files from Genesis Trust, a Cayman Islands-based financial services provider now called Highvern.
Newsmax and Heritage Advisors confirmed the investment. buff.ly/3ITH5mh
ICIJ's 2023 investigations stretched around the world, exposing greenwashing in the global sustainability industry, labor trafficking in the Middle East, and the sprawling financial networks that have powered the Putin regime.
ICIJ-led investigation #CyprusConfidential revealed how the EU member state has served as a hideaway for Russian wealth, with Cypriot firms moving vast sums for oligarchs, including after Russia’s 2022 Ukraine invasion.
Two wealthy Haitians sanctioned by Canada owned or had other links to almost 20 companies and trusts created in some of the world’s most secretive tax havens, according to documents from the #PandoraPapers.