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For most of its history, a study that gathered 600 journalists from around the world revealed the financial secrets of 35 current and former world leaders, more than 330 politicians and government officials in 91 countries and territories.
The people the secret documents associate with the offshore services industry aren’t just financial criminals playing in the shadows: presidents, ministers, and even world-famous stars like pop diva Shakira, supermodel Claudia Schiffer, or Indian cricket superstar. Sachin Tendulkar.
The leaked documents also describe the financial activities of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “unofficial minister of propaganda” and more than 130 billionaires from Russia, the United States, Turkey and other countries.
The International Center for Investigative Journalism (ICIJ) has collected more than 11.9 million documents in various leaked formats from fourteen offshore service companies with the primary goal of serving clients seeking to keep their financial activities secret. ICIJ has shared these documents with partners around the world. Pandora Papers is the largest international journalistic investigation in history, both in terms of the size of the leaked data and the size of the team.
ICIJ has assembled and led a team of more than 600 journalists from 150 media organizations who have been following hard-to-find sources for two years, examining court records and other public documents from dozens of countries.
The Pandora Papers study provides insight into how money and power work in the 21st century, and how the rule of law has been mentioned around the world in secret financial machinations powered by superpowers like the United States and other wealthy nations.
Cyprus Legal Services Office, “Nice Chr. Anastasiadas and Partners” appears in Pandora Papers documents as a great intermediary serving wealthy and influential clients from Russia. The company is named after its founder, the President of Cyprus, Nice Anastasiades, and the president’s two daughters are partners in the company.
Records show that the law firm has helped Russian billionaire and former senator Leonid Lebedev hide properties from four companies, citing the law firm’s employees as owners of Lebedev’s businesses.
Lebedev, an oil magnate and film producer with Hollywood connections, fled Russia in 2016 after being accused of embezzling $ 220 million from an energy company. Lebedev did not respond to requests for comment. The stage of the Lebedev case in Russia is unclear.
The firm also served Russian steel magnate Alexander Abramov. A related document was written a few days after the United States added the name of a billionaire to the list of sanctions against Russia. Abramov also did not respond to requests for comment.
Another Russian client mentioned by Pandora Papers, associated with Vladimir Putin, is Konstantin Ernst, director of state television Pervyj Kanal. He is one of the people who helped create the image of Putin as “the savior of Russia.”
Pandora Papers documents show that Ernst was an invisible partner hidden behind offshore companies and therefore participated in a privatization agreement for the acquisition of dozens of cinemas and other real estate from the Moscow municipality.
Leaked records show that in 2019. The value of Ernst’s assets exceeded 140 million. Dollars. The director of Russia’s state television did not respond to questions from journalists.
Among the facts revealed in the Pandora Papers documents are:
The Czech Prime Minister, billionaire Andrei Babiss, acquired a $ 22 million residence on the French Riviera through an offshore company, with a cinema and two swimming pools.
Andrejus Babišas
The King of Jordan acquired three seaside residences in Malibu for $ 68 million through three offshore companies. The documents show that the property was acquired in the year of the Arab Spring, and the Jordanian people flooded the streets in protest against unemployment and corruption.
Based on 2020 According to a study by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, at least $ 11.3 trillion is kept abroad. Due to the complexity and secrecy of this system, it is not possible to know to what extent these assets are linked to tax evasion and other crimes and the amount of funds obtained from legitimate sources that have been reported to the competent authorities.
Siena is the only Pandora Papers partner in Lithuania.
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