Catching up on the #PandoraPapers? In the week since our 600+ journalism partners began publishing revelations from history's biggest offshore data leak, we’ve seen fallout all around the world.
The #PandoraPapers kick the door open on a secretive financial system that allows the wealthy and well-connected to set up covert companies across borders in tax havens, where the ownership of money and assets can be easily hidden.
🌴 In popular imagination, the offshore system is often seen as a far-flung cluster of palm-shaded islands.
The #PandoraPapers show that the offshore money machine operates in every corner of the planet, including the world’s largest democracies. bit.ly/3DhIsGP
#PandoraPapers is the most expansive leak of tax haven files ever, containing 2.94 TB of confidential information from 14 different offshore service firms. bit.ly/2YCSh33
What did we uncover in the #PandoraPapers? The secret financial activities of tycoons, billionaires, criminals, and celebrities, and perhaps most notably: hundreds of politicians — including 35 current and former world leaders.
Some of the top political figures featured in the #PandoraPapers include:
🇯🇴 King Abdullah II of Jordan: bit.ly/3lgu5w1
🇰🇪 Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta: bit.ly/3F9wIrD
🇷🇺 Members of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle: bit.ly/3BtwkBZ
#PandoraPapers also reveal the offshore activities of:
🇨🇿 Czech PM Andrej Babis, whose party lost re-election yesterday: bit.ly/2YyZuBB
🇵🇰 Key associates of Pakistani PM Imran Khan: bit.ly/3mI9ArA
🇱🇰 Sri Lankan ruling family members: bit.ly/3uCz2m2
We profiled more than 50 of the biggest political names to appear in the #PandoraPapers, and what the files show they did offshore, in the Power Players interactive: bit.ly/3aF6Dml
🇺🇸#PandoraPapers also expose more on the U.S. as a tax haven that fuels the offshore economy than any leak before. More about —
🔴 The trust industry: bit.ly/3B9TNYR
🔴 A key offshore destination for Americans: bit.ly/3FgxoeU
🔴 Big law: bit.ly/3FrEduf
This system's societal costs go beyond unpaid taxes, #PandoraPapers show. See how the offshore world is linked to
🔴 Contamination in factory towns: bit.ly/3iPsjQT
🔴 Low-income U.S. renters: bit.ly/2WHfgcq
🔴 Cambodia’s looted heritage: bit.ly/3lrZvQ8
And that’s just an overview of what we’ve exposed in the first week of #PandoraPapers revelations.
Sign up to ICIJ’s weekly newsletter to get all the latest news and scoops related to the investigation delivered straight to your inbox. 📧 bit.ly/3Bts9Go
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#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.