Paradise Papers leaked; investigation reveals trail of money in global tax havens

The Indian Express today came out with the first in a series of investigative reports titled what is being called as the 'Paradise Papers', based on a leak of millions of documents that reveal a global network used to funnel money abroad into secret tax havens.

The Express carried out the investigation in collaboration with International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which has partnered with 96 global news organisations.

Starting today, the newspaper will reveal a list of Indian companies and individuals -- 714 in all -- who have stashed money in tax havens through offshore entities.

The names of the companies or individuals are not known at the time of this filing.

Centrepiece in the investigation appears to be a 119-year-old company called Appleby, which the report says has lawyers, accountants and bankers who help individuals avoid or evade taxes, ship money to tax havens, manage real estate assets, even "purchase airplanes and yachts paying low tax rates".

Among the 180 countries whose names came up in the Paradise Papers, India ranks 19th in terms of the number of names, the report says. It adds that the names includes names of several companies that were subsequently investigated by the CBI and ED.

Big political names globally also find a mention in the report, with exposes over secret dealings of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's chief fund-raiser, reports of Queen Elizabeth's investments, and activities of former Pakistan PM Shaukat Aziz, among 120 politicians.

US President Donald Trump could also face scrutiny in the aftermath of the investigation, with ties between billionaire US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Russia, as well as Russian investments into Facebook and Twitter, coming up.

The Paradise Papers is the fourth of Express' investigations coming out of its collaboration with ICIJ, starting with April 2013's "offshore leaks", followed by HSBC's "Swiss leaks" and then the famous Panama Papers leak in 2016 -- the global investigation which had ramifications internationally.