As the inclusion of former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in the ‘Paradise Papers’ hit headlines on Monday, the masses begin to show curiosity about it. Here is a brief exposé of the leaked papers.
The Paradise Papers are the second largest leak obtained by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and investigated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) reveals how two firms; Bermuda’s Appleby and Singapore’s Asiaciti Trust, help the global rich and powerful move their money abroad.
The leak comprises a cache of 13.4 million documents.
It reveals the names of businesses tycoons, heads of state, global figures in politics, entertainment and sport who have stashed their wealth in secretive tax havens.
The data represents people with respective to their nationalities. India ranks 19th in terms of the number of names among the 180 nations as 714 Indians are in the tally, Indian media reported.
The disclosures will put pressure on world leaders, including Trump and the British prime minister, Theresa May, who have both pledged to curb aggressive tax avoidance schemes.
The publication of this investigation, for which more than 380 journalists have spent a year combing through data that stretches back 70 years, comes at a time of growing global income inequality.
Meanwhile, multinational companies are shifting a growing share of profits offshore – €600bn in the last year alone – the leading economist Gabriel Zucman will reveal in a study to be published later this week.
Some of the other many world leaders and politicians of the world are as follows.
United States
Secretary of state, U.S. (2016-present) Rex Tillerson (who recently visited Pakistan)
Secretary of commerce, US (2016-present) Wilbur Louis Ross, Jr. (the Paradise Papers reveal that the US commerce secretary has Russian business ties)
Federal Reserve Board member and vice chair for bank supervision, US, Randal Quarles
Candidate for US Democratic Party presidential nomination (2004) Wesley K Clark
Former secretary of commerce, US (2013-2017) Penny Pritzker
US national former queen of Jordan (1978-1999) Noor al-Hussein
Apart from Tillerson, Louis Ross and Quarles, 10 more Trump’s allies have been named in the fresh documents.
India
Indian Parliamentarian (2014-present) Ravindra Kishore Sinha
Minister of civil aviation, India (2016-present) Jayant Sinha
UK
Queen, United Kingdom (1952-present) Queen Elizabeth II
Former treasury commercial secretary, UK (2010-2013) James Meyer Sassoon
Saudi Arabia
Former deputy minister of defense, Saudi Arabia (2011-2013) Prince Khaled bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz
Canada
Former prime minister, Canada (1993-2003) Jean Chrétien
Former prime minister, Canada (2003-2006) Paul Martin
Former prime minister, Canada (1984-1993) Brian Mulroney
