The \r\ninformation includes e-mails, financial forms, passports and corporate records \r\nthat reveal the secret owners of bank accounts and companies in 21 offshore \r\njurisdictions. The filtered internal files of MF (Mossack Fonseca law firm) \r\ncontain information on 214,488 offshore entities connected to people in over 200 \r\ncountries and territories.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
The \r\nincredible amount of information led the newspaper to resort to ICIJ, based in \r\nWashington DC, and with previous experience in this type of project, which \r\ndeveloped an ad hoc<\/I> team to organize and process the information. The \r\ndatabase was shared with a network of more than 370 journalists and 100 media \r\naround the world.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
In \r\nthe case of Venezuela, the investigation began in June 2015 and involved 11 \r\njournalists from different electronic media. Although a large part of the \r\nhundreds of thousands of documents related to Venezuela do not include relevant \r\ninformation, the mere review, analysis and processing of the information \r\nentailed months of work.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
It \r\nis clear that organizing an offshore company itself is not a crime and it is \r\neven natural for certain commercial transactions.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Most \r\nservices provided by the offshore industry are legal if used by those who abide \r\nto the law. But the documents show that banks, law firms and other offshore \r\nplayers often did not meet the law requirements to make sure that their clients \r\nare not involved in criminal activities, tax evasion or political corruption. In \r\nsome cases - as evident in the files - offshore intermediaries protected \r\nthemselves and their clients by concealing suspicious transactions or altering \r\nofficial records.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Sometimes \r\nthe provider did verify through due diligence that a prospect was a Politically \r\nExposed Person (PEP) or someone suspected of criminal activities, but decided to \r\nignore the finding.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
This \r\nunusual journalistic access to the internal management of Mossack Fonseca and \r\nits relationship with its clients made it possible to verify that provider and \r\nclient regularly scheme to mislead the regulatory authorities of their countries \r\nof origin on the ownership of companies, and subsequently arrange the \r\nregistration of companies previously registered, among other practices aimed to \r\ncover up the circulation of money that is concealed or legitimized.<\/p>\n\n\n
The \r\ninformation obtained from MF, for the Venezuelan case, offers significant \r\nexamples of what happened during the last 15 years with the destiny of the vast \r\nflows of oil revenues that the State managed in the framework of a policy of \r\nmassive imports and the maintenance of differential rates. There were traces of \r\nformer public officials, whose regular income - limited by definition - was no \r\nobjection to ordering MF to open and manage shell companies in tax \r\nhavens.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
It \r\nis also evident that the Panamanian company put together tailored-made corporate \r\nstructures for some Venezuelan clients who wanted either to dissipate their \r\npresence in companies organized with directors of MF itself or generate external \r\ndebt through transactions with empty shells
that could be presented later on \r\nto the administrative entity in a Venezuela under the exchange control \r\nregime.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
They \r\nare part of the financial, legal and fiscal maneuvers that were plotted in MF, \r\nsometimes at the suggestion of the provider, sometimes at the request of the \r\nclient or at the request of an intermediary such as banks or law \r\nfirms.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
The \r\nleakage of information sheds light on a corner of submerged finance that \r\njournalistic investigations cannot normally reach.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
In \r\nthe texts comprising the special emerge names as those of the former Chief of \r\nEscorts of Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, Adri\u00e1n Vel\u00e1squez, and the former Head of the program of \r\nsocial assistance Plan Bol\u00edvar 2000, V\u00edctor Cruz Weffer, with companies under \r\ntheir control in tax havens. Several authorities of the state oil company PDVSA \r\nalso did the same.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Entrepreneurs \r\n\u2014some linked to the revolutionary government of Venezuela, although they later \r\nappeared under asylum in other nations\u2014 also used Mossack Fonseca to cover up \r\ntheir financial operations. Their names will come out from today. There are also \r\ncases of businesspersons who opened corporate facades in tax havens such as Hong \r\nKong, Panama, the Virgin Islands or Belize to take advantage of the \r\nopportunities opened by the eagerness to import of the \r\nGovernment.<\/p>\n\n\n
Heads \r\nof State, social and sports celebrities, organized mafia leaders, swindlers\u2026 On \r\na global scale, the massive leak of documents has allowed to reveal the face of \r\ndifferent celebrities never known by the people. In fact, it allowed discovering \r\npreviously unknown characters that people should know.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
The \r\nfiles show offshore companies controlled by the prime ministers of Iceland and \r\nPakistan, the king of Saudi Arabia and the sons of the president of Azerbaijan. \r\nThey also include at least 33 people and companies blacklisted by the US \r\ngovernment based on evidence that they have done business with Mexican drug \r\nlords, terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and renegade nations like North \r\nKorea.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
One \r\nof these companies provided fuel for the aircraft that the Syrian government \r\nused to bomb and kill thousands of its own citizens, as accused by US \r\nauthorities. It became clear how associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin \r\nsurreptitiously moved up to $ 2,000 million through banks and secret \r\ncompanies.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
The \r\nlist of world leaders who used Mossack Fonseca to organized offshore companies \r\nincludes the current president of Argentina, Mauricio Macri, who was the \r\ndirector and vice president of a company in the Bahamas run by Mossack Fonseca \r\nwhen he was an entrepreneur and the mayor of the Argentine capital. A spokesman \r\nfor Macri said the president was never personally owned shares in the firm, that \r\nit was part of his family's businesses.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
The \r\nfiles also highlight the contradictions of some champions in the fight against \r\ncorruption.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
They \r\ndetected offshore companies linked to the family of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, \r\nwho has sworn to fight against \"armies of corruption\", as well as eight other \r\nmembers of the Politburo of the ruling Communist Party of \r\nChina.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Also \r\ncompanies linked to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who has positioned \r\nhimself as a reformer in a country shaken by corruption scandals. The files \r\ncontain new details of the offshore businesses of the late father of British \r\nPrime Minister David Cameron, a leader seeking a reform of tax \r\nhavens.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
The \r\ntraces of Mossack Fonseca are in the African diamond trade, the international \r\nart market and other businesses that benefit from secrecy. The firm has provided \r\nservice to so many members of the Middle Eastern royalty as to fill a palace. It \r\nhas helped two kings, Mohammed VI of Morocco and the Salman of Saudi Arabia, to \r\ngo out to sea in luxurious yachts.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
The \r\nleaked documents reveal that the law firm of Juan Pedro Damiani, a member of \r\nFIFA's ethics committee, had business relationships with three men who have been \r\nindicted in the FIFA scandal: former FIFA vice president Eugenio Figueredo and \r\nHugo and Mariano Jinkis, the father and son duo accused of paying bribes to win \r\nthe rights to broadcast football events for Latin America. The records show that \r\nDamiani's legal signature in Uruguay represented an offshore company linked to \r\nthe Jinkis and seven companies linked to Figueredo. The best soccer player in \r\nthe world, the Argentine Lionel Messi, also appears in the documents. A company \r\nin Panama established for him by Mossack Fonseca in 2012, Mega Star Enterprises \r\nInc., adds a new name to the list of shell companies that are known to be linked \r\nto Messi. His offshore businesses are currently the target of a tax evasion case \r\nin Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n
Until \r\nrecently, Mossack Fonseca operated mainly in the shadows. But it has been under \r\nincreasing scrutiny as governments have obtained partial leaks from the firm's \r\nfiles, and authorities in Germany and Brazil have begun to investigate their \r\npractices.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
In \r\nFebruary 2015, S\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung reported that law enforcement agencies in \r\nGermany had launched a series of raids targeting one of the country's major \r\nbanks, Commerzbank, in a tax evasion investigation that authorities said could \r\nlead to criminal charges against employees of Mossack \r\nFonseca.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
In \r\nBrazil, the firm has become a target in an investigation of bribery and money \r\nlaundering called \"Operation Car Wash\" (Lava Jato<\/I>, in Portuguese), which \r\nhas led to criminal charges against prominent politicians and an investigation \r\nto the popular former president Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva. The scandal threatens \r\nto remove current president Dilma Rousseff from office.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
In \r\nJanuary, Brazilian prosecutors called Mossack Fonseca a \"great money launderer\" \r\nand announced that they would file criminal charges against five employees of \r\nthe firm's office in Brazil for their roles in the \r\nscandal.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Mossack \r\nFonseca denies having broken the law in Brazil. One of its owners, the \r\nPanamanian Ram\u00f3n Fonseca Mora, insisted in recent weeks in his innocence. But at \r\nthe same time he had to resign office as an Advising Minister of the Government \r\nof Panama and as head of the Paname\u00f1ista party, which led Juan Carlos Varela to \r\nthe Presidency.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
\"We \r\nare totally innocent of the charges against us,\" he told the media last month. \r\n\"I ask for this license to defend my honor, my firm and my \r\ncountry.\"<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
(*) \r\nThe Venezuelan team is made up of Ahiana Figueroa, Alfredo Meza, C\u00e9sar Batiz, \r\nEwald Scharfenberg, Fabiola Zerpa, Joseph Poliszuk, Katherine Pennacchio, Laura \r\nWeffer, Lisseth Boon, Roberto Deniz, and Ronna \r\nR\u00edsquez.<\/I><\/p>\n\n
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