Huge 'Pandora Papers' leak Exposes Secret Offshore Accounts Of Politicians, Celebrities And Billionaires. Alberta Content.

Huge 'Pandora Papers' leak exposes secret offshore accounts of politicians, celebrities and billionaires.

Huge 'Pandora Papers' leak exposes secret offshore accounts of politicians, celebrities and billionaires

Canadians named in confidential files include former auto-racing and figure-skating champions
Zach Dubinsky and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists · CBC News · Posted: Oct 03, 2021 12:30 PM ET | Last Updated: 2 hours ago

The equivalent of at least $14.3 trillion is held in offshore jurisdictions worldwide, according to a study last year from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. (CBC)
The offshore fortunes of prime ministers, royalty, billionaires, athletes and celebrities are being laid bare in a giant new leak of tax-haven financial records, even bigger than the Panama Papers, revealed today by a global consortium of media outlets.

The leaked files, dubbed the Pandora Papers, show 35 current or former world leaders and more than 300 other public officials around the globe who have held assets in or through tax havens. Former British prime minister Tony Blair, the current prime ministers of the Czech Republic and Kenya, and the king of Jordan have all benefited from the anonymity or tax advantages of their offshore holdings, the records reveal.

The 11.9 million files — consisting of everything from emails to bank statements, incorporation documents and shareholder registries — are from 14 firms that provide offshore services, and were leaked by a confidential source to the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The ICIJ has provided access to the files to 150 of its partner news organizations around the world, including CBC/Radio-Canada and the Toronto Star in Canada.

So far, the CBC and the Star have identified the names of at least 500 Canadian citizens or residents in the records.

A massive new leak of documents dubbed 'The Pandora Papers' is shedding light on how the rich and famous are hiding their money, and how a world of off-shore tax havens is still thriving. The documents were obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which includes the CBC. Among the Canadians named in the documents are figure skater Elvis Stojko and race-car driver Jacques Villeneuve. 2:33
Much like the Panama Papers leak in 2016 or the Paradise Papers the following year, the secret files provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse at how certain global elites — or in other cases, high-profile criminals — take advantage of financial wizardry or opaque corporate structures to either shield assets, wriggle out of their tax obligations, or hide wealth entirely.

After the Panama Papers came to light five years ago, world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron, repeatedly pledged to crack down on such tax abuses and to clean up the murky world of offshore finance. But the new Pandora Papers show that the global offshore world, while chastened, continued to thrive in recent years.

Read more about the Pandora Papers from the ICIJ
"When we published the Panama Papers a few years ago, there was a lot of outcry around the world saying that this was a system that needed to end," said Gerard Ryle, the ICIJ's director. "But we're now seeing the very people who could end the system … themselves benefiting from it."

There is nothing inherently illegal about having an offshore bank account or company, as long as it is properly declared to tax authorities, and plenty of major businesses operate overtly and legally in and through tax havens. However, the anonymity provided in offshore jurisdictions, coupled with their minimal or non-existent tax on income, also makes them a magnet for money launderers, tax evaders, corrupt politicians and other criminals.

Canadians
The leaked files contain details on hundreds of offshore companies and accounts set up by or for Canadians. Here are some of the most prominent names.

Jacques Villeneuve had offshore companies set up in zero-tax jurisdictions from the start of his career. (Jonathan Ferry/Getty Images)
Jacques Villeneuve

The only Canadian to ever win a Formula 1 championship, Villeneuve lived a life of luxury in Monaco and Switzerland during most of his racing career, but lived in Quebec for a period in the 1990s and from 2007 to 2013. The Pandora Papers show he had offshore companies set up in zero-tax jurisdictions from the start of his career, back in 1992. They were set up to receive racing and endorsement income.

Elvis Stojko, seen in the men's short program during the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002, says he didn't even know which country his offshore trust was in until CBC mentioned it. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Elvis Stojko

The karate-chopping figure skater won hearts with his edgy Olympic performances and world championship wins, but the money from his success wasn't bad, either. The leaked files show Stojko transferred Canadian assets worth up to $6.5 million into an offshore trust in the Caribbean in 2007, while he was living in Mexico. Skate Canada, an organization that receives public funding, signed off on the transaction. Stojko told CBC News that he relied on his lawyer to handle his finances, and had "no real involvement or interest" in any of it. "When my longtime lawyer recommended that I set up a trust ... I did not question his advice, and I trusted him to act in a manner which was both in my best interests and in compliance with the law." Skate Canada declined to comment.

Montrealer Firoz Patel pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to launder money, but says the case against him was overblown. (Firoz_Patel_/Twitter)
Firoz Patel

The Quebecer is currently serving a three-year sentence in a Connecticut prison after pleading guilty last year in the U.S. to conspiring to launder money, via his and his brother's unlicensed online payment platforms Payza and AlertPay. The Pandora Papers show that just as the investigation into the Patel brothers was hitting its full stride, Firoz Patel flew to the United Arab Emirates where he acquired an offshore company. From prison, Patel said the corporation was set up legitimately to do business in Asia and had nothing to do with Payza.

Alexandre Cazes

The alleged criminal mastermind behind the dark web marketplace AlphaBay — an online bazaar for buying and selling drugs, guns and stolen credit card info — amassed a fortune worth about $29 million, according to U.S. authorities. The Pandora Papers show for the first time how he used a network of shell companies to obscure his ownership of various assets, including luxury homes.

The Pandora Papers show some of the ways Alexandre Cazes was able to shift his money around with some degree of anonymity. (Kathy Gauthier/Facebook)
Cazes died in 2017, a week after he was arrested. It's believed the Trois-Rivières, Que., native took his own life while in custody.

Fred Sharp

Sharp's Vancouver firm, Corporate House, was known as the go-to investment outfit for wealthy Canadians wanting to keep assets hidden and use offshore havens to minimize their taxes, sources in the wealth management industry told the CBC in 2016. Not surprisingly, Sharp was revealed that year as the most frequently named Canadian in the Panama Papers leak.

West Vancouver ex-lawyer and investment 'middleman' Fred Sharp is facing charges from the U.S. Justice Department as the alleged 'mastermind' of a pump-and-dump investment scheme. (Sharp Art Pictures/YouTube)
The Canada Revenue Agency began auditing him and a number of his associates right after. Nothing much has come of it yet — at least in Canada — as Sharp and co. filed dozens of lawsuits to block the CRA's efforts. South of the border, however, Sharp's machinations caught the eye of the FBI, and he and a couple of clients were charged with securities fraud in August. He's less prominent in the new Pandora Papers leak, which mainly shows his firm doing routine administration of offshore companies. Sharp did not comment in response to questions from CBC News and the Toronto Star.

CBC News will report in depth on some of these cases, and other Canadian names, in the weeks ahead.

Global names
Outside of Canada, the prominent names in the leak include eight sitting presidents and three current prime ministers. Some of them had already declared their offshore assets, while for others, such as Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, their holdings were previously a secret.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta told an interviewer in 2018 that 'every public servant’s assets must be declared publicly.' He himself, however, seems to have been an exception. (Yasuyoshi CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images)
"Every public servant's assets must be declared publicly so that people can question and ask — what is legitimate?" Kenyatta had told a BBC interviewer in 2018. The leaked records show he and his mother were beneficiaries of a secretive foundation in Panama, while other family members own five offshore companies with assets worth more than $38 million. Kenyatta and his family did not reply to ICIJ partner journalists' requests for comment.

Among the other prominent global names:

Czech PM Andrej Babis

Listed in Forbes magazine's tally of global billionaires, Babis rose to power promising to crack down on corruption and tax evasion. The Pandora Papers reveal he used a string of shell companies to purchase a sprawling estate, Chateau Bigaud, in southern France and seven other nearby properties before he entered public office. He did not disclose the shell companies in the public declarations he's required to file by law, according to Czech state records obtained by an ICIJ media partner. Within three weeks, a Czech prosecutor will decide whether to lay fraud charges against him in an unrelated case. Babis didn't respond to the ICIJ's requests for comment.

Pop singer Shakira

The Colombian-born pop music sensation is already well known for her tax troubles. Though she declared herself a resident of the Bahamas, authorities in Spain determined she was actually living in Barcelona from 2011 to 2014 but not paying taxes, and in July a Spanish magistrate cleared the way for her to go to trial on criminal charges laid in 2019. The Pandora Papers reveal that even as that investigation in Spain was underway, she was incorporating new offshore entities in the British Virgin Islands, one of which, Titania Management Inc., has never previously been publicly revealed. A copy of her Spanish ID is among the leaked files.


Jordan's King Abdullah II is connected with several offshore companies registered in tax havens, including the British Virgin Islands. (Tobias Schwarz/AFP via Getty Images)
King Abdullah II

Jordan's ruler, the leak reveals, secretly owns 14 luxury homes in Britain and the U.S., purchased between 2003 and 2017 through companies registered in tax havens. The total value is more than $134 million. Writing to ICIJ on the king's behalf, attorneys denied anything improper about owning homes through offshore companies and said the king doesn't have to pay taxes under Jordanian law. But had the purchases been public, the timing could have alienated many Jordanians. Most of the real estate deals took place since 2011, after Arab Spring protests posed the first serious threat to the Jordanian monarchy in generations. Lately, protests against the royal family have intensified amid allegations that nepotism and corruption are choking the country. Jordan is also one of the poorest countries in the region and depends on foreign aid, including $800 million from Canada in the past 10 years.


Former British prime minister Tony Blair, seen last month, purchased shares in a company registered in the British Virgin Islands in order to acquire a building in London that became the offices of his wife's law firm. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
Former U.K. PM Tony Blair

Britain's longest-serving Labour prime minister and his wife, lawyer Cherie Blair, purchased an $11-million Victorian building in London in 2017 for her law firm. But it wasn't an ordinary real estate transaction. Instead of buying the property, they acquired the shares of the British Virgin Islands company that owned it, from the family of Bahrain's industry and tourism minister. By purchasing the company shares instead of the building, the Blairs benefited from a legal arrangement that saved them from having to pay more than $580,000 in property transfer taxes. Cherie Blair said in replies to questions from the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper that her husband was not involved in the transaction and that the "seller for their own purposes only wanted to sell the company" and not the property. Blair said she and her husband took immediate steps after acquiring the property to merge it back into a U.K.-based holding company, making it fully taxable in Britain.

The consequences for countries of wealth moving offshore, out of the reach of tax authorities, are particularly devastating this year, as national treasuries struggle against the whipsaw of a COVID-induced economic slowdown and sharply higher costs for health care, protective equipment and social programs.

The equivalent of at least $14.3 trillion is held offshore, according to a 2020 study by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. However, the complexity and secrecy of the offshore system make it impossible to know how much of that is tied to tax evasion and other crimes and how much has been reported to authorities.

"These are loopholes that are available to wealthy people but not available to others," Robert Palmer, executive director of the advocacy group Tax Justice UK, told ICIJ partner the Guardian. "Politicians need to fix the tax system so that everyone pays their fair share."

-With files from CBC/Radio-Canada's Frédéric Zalac, Paul Emile d'Entremont, Charles Rusnell, Alex Shprintsen, Terence McKenna, Jeff Yates, Nicholas De Rosa, Benoit Michaud, Jonathon Gatehouse and Dexter McMillan

Follow Zach Dubinsky on Twitter @DubinskyZach

https://www.cbc.ca/news/pandora-papers-offshore-tax-avoidance-1.6197303 When are the RCMP, CRA and Minister of Justice going to do anything? The media has done its job.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/03/pandora-papers-biggest-ever-leak-of-offshore-data-exposes-financial-secrets-of-rich-and-powerful they mention billions of dollars stashed in South Dakota possibly because the state is so low population their state website is lamer than that of any CDN province and local authorities and law enforcement can't deal with international financial crimes. I was scammed by the Easynews aka USENET SERVER aka Stackpath aka Highwinds ppl who fake an address in Brookings, SD http://www.truth-or-consequences.com/badder_business_bureau/easynews_steals/index.html and https://groups.google.com/g/alt.free.newsservers/c/zJO0ARfR_Bc as of Feb 21 2021 https://usenetreviews.org/providers/usenetserver/ had UNS Holdings, Inc.
120 22nd Ave S. #146
Brookings, SD 57006 USA
Tel No: (602) 715-1636 (billing issues only)
[email protected] formerly same address as USENET SERVER

The UPS Store
3.7
24 Google reviews
Shipping and mailing service in Brookings, South Dakota
Store offering shipping, packaging, printing & other services, plus office supplies.
Address: 120 22nd Ave S, Brookings, SD 57006, United States
Hours:
Closed ⋅ Opens 7:30 a.m.
Phone: +1 605-692-5441

The Winter Park, Florida Police Dept. has opened a file against these white collar criminals who claim addresses there.

https://groups.google.com/g/can.politics/c/-hToSmnG9t8/m/nLEg_XAHAAAJ Regarding Fred Sharp Eric and I posted about him Aug. 9 2021.

https://groups.google.com/g/can.politics/c/WW9JPxORQIA/m/Z84Z2ha9MgAJ brewnoser amazingly posted accurately about Fred Sharp in this 2016 post. She called for the laws to be changed and Trudeau had 5 years to do so bit didn't. Not one of the scofflaws named as a CDN in the Panama Papers was publicly named or shamed or prosecuted by lawful CDN authorities. The media has done its job what about the Crown and courts?
F L Sharp
5080 Keith Rd, West Vancouver BC, V7W2N1 (604) 921-5995 https://www.canada411.ca/res/6049215995/F+L-Sharp/469626430.html

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/sec-freezes-assets-british-columbians-investment-scheme-1.6148981 Fred Sharp and some of his scam buddies face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of securities fraud and conspiracy. Just tattoo ATM on your forehead before you go through those lockup gates you will do fine. Sharp says what he did was legal.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/fred-sharp-1b217343/?originalSubdomain=ca

https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/comments/4il14a/panama_papers_reveal_canadas_top_offshore/

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'You are receivers of stolen information. If you publish stories using this stolen information, you are stating that you have no respect for the rule of law,' Fred Sharp told CBC News and the Toronto Star."

Oh the irony

https://www.offshorealert.com/sec-v-frederick-sharp-et-al-complaint/

https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=122516699 Check out this Mike Ritter guy Ritter became a self-proclaimed offshore financial guru in the 1990s after spending six years as the chief parliamentary counsel to the Alberta legislature — despite never having received a law degree, as he claimed. He pleaded guilty in October 2006 to theft for stealing from a client and to fraud for his role in a $270-million US pyramid scheme. He says that he served his time and has moved on with his life, and that never acted for, or had been a director in, any offshore company.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-fraudster-michael-ritter-s-company-surfaces-in-leaked-panama-papers-1.3571613 Mike Ritter only served 18 months in full custody another year on day parole and was released despite a ten year sentence. While on parole he legally changed his name to Adam Michael Philipp Rohan.

Valerie Atkinson is astonished by the gall of the man she knew as Michael Ritter.

During his involvement with the American Ponzi scheme, Ritter, now Rohan, personally persuaded Atkinson and her husband, Peter Kjellberg, of Rancho Palos Verdes, a Los Angeles suburb, to keep their life savings in what he told them was a legitimate business enterprise.

They lost it all, and now well past retirement age, they are both still working.

In a 2013 interview at her Los Angeles home, Atkinson laughed bitterly when told how Ritter had changed his name while he was still on parole, and moved on with his life.

"I am sorry I am laughing; it is not funny but it is just astounding to me that the authorities even allow that," she said.

"And that he can stay in the same place and do it. I mean, I could believe it more if he went to another country and had a new identity.

"But he's in the same community. And people know that he has lied. And they will still believe in him. That's astonishing."

To avoid extradition to the United States, Ritter aka plead guilty to stealing $10.5 million US from a client, a New York whiz-kid, energy trader who had himself stolen the money from his employer, Merrill Lynch.

The court case also revealed Ritter had participated in, and helped perpetuate, a Ponzi scheme in Los Angeles that bilked 6,500 investors out of more than $270 million US.

But perhaps his biggest con was perpetrated on the Alberta legislature. Because as the court heard, Ritter had never, as he claimed, graduated from law at the London School of Economics and was not a lawyer.

Yup steal 10.5 million outright be involved in a $270 million dollar U.S. ponzi scam and only serve less than 2 years in stir I guess that passes his cost benefit analysis. We need tougher and longer sentences for convicted white collar scammers and grifters and shysters.

https://www.pressreader.com/canada/edmonton-journal/20121222/281651072434722 he was also convicted for trying to obtain a phony passport shows a picture of the punching bag around 9 years ago when he was in his mid 50's.

https://www.facebook.com/cbccalgary/posts/heres-one-alberta-connection-to-the-panama-papers-which-is-the-largest-ever-leak/10154185745858000/

https://www.scc-csc.ca/case-dossier/info/counsel-procureurs-eng.aspx?cas=30799 one of the cases against him and his Newport Pacific company made it to the Supreme Court Of Canada.

http://darrylraymaker.blogspot.com/2009/10/parole-justice-and-ballad-of-michael.html the fraudster criminal had powerful Albertan politico friends including some Anglican git David Carter who was speaker of the Alberta legislature and who employed the unqualified liar Mr. Ritter. Mr. Carter was photographed with Mr. Ritter in a kitchen with stacks of $20 bills. Mr. Carter provided a character reference to the serial liar Mr. Ritter when he was before the courts.
Then there is the curious case of David Carter. In most circles Carter was and is a well-respected Anglican clergyman. However as a speaker, his tenure was not applauded by the opposition. Too often he appeared to be pedantic, condescending and unduly critical of the opposition’s attempts at keeping the government honest. The fact that he worked with Ritter for so long without suspecting his mendacity is astonishing; that he would submit a character reference for the scoundrel after he more than others were lied to and misled by Ritter is even more strange.
But that’s not all. In 2001 Carter had his picture taken together with Ritter and a kitchen counter full of $20 bills. The money is thought to be all or part of $400,000 fraudulently scooped by one of Ritter’s clients and then given to Ritter for deposit into a Swiss bank account. Carter acknowledges that he helped Ritter take the money to Switzerland but was not suspicious about the trip because, “Wasn’t my business.” When he was asked what his reaction would be if he knew that the goal of the Swiss deposit was to evade taxes, the ordained Anglican priest said, “Hey, . . . that’s been going on for decades.”

That Carter exercised poor judgment in his dealings with Ritter is obvious. His blithe and reckless attitude towards what Ritter was doing with the money is either fabulously naïve, profoundly stupid, staggeringly arrogant, or stunningly and abominably amoral. Perhaps it is all of those things.

https://sfu.academia.edu/AdamRohan listed as a political science graduate student at S.F.U. yes a convicted fraudster and a serial liar with friends from 1980's Alberta politics.

https://twitter.com/adamrohan?lang=en

Adam Rohan formerly Mike Ritter had two jet airplanes, a nice house and a Jaguar and apparently the financial crimes specialist paid not a sou in restitution. One couple in Calif. that he fleeced personally lost $300k their life savings.

Mr. Ritter and Mr. Carter were in a lawsuit against Alberta politico Stockwell Day who I met once I don't know how that turned out.