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Global shock as Panama Papers expose elites’ stash

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Global shock as Panama Papers expose elites’ stash

An anonymous source has released a vast trove of documents revealing the financial dealings of some well-known rich and powerful people across the world with several media outlets publishing the details of the documents published by the anonymous source.

A non-profit group in the US known as the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism (ICIJ) said the cache of 11.5 million records detailed the offshore holdings of a dozen current and former world leaders, as well as businessmen, criminals, celebrities and sport stars.

According to Charles Intriago, an offshore banking expert; “You’re talking about a massive number of people who are hiding money of one type or another.”

Among the sitting world leaders named in the leak are Argentine President Mauricio Macri, Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, and Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko.

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The documents link at least 12 current and former heads of state and 143 other politicians to illicit financial transactions.

Some 140 offshore companies named in the documents are connected to politicians or public officials and their families.

The documents also shows details of how several inner circle members of Russian President Vladimir Putin became wealthy. A close friend of Putin’s, Sergei Roldugin, is alleged to be at the centre of a scheme in which money from Russian state banks is hidden offshore.

“I think it raises further questions for the political class as a whole because European countries, the US, the OECD, have been talking about greater transparency and there’s been a series of scandals,” Luke Harding of Britain’s The Guardian newspaper, who published reports based on the leak, told Al Jazeera.

 

 

 

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