“Pandora Papers”: How Politicians Hide Their Money

A huge data leak reveals the dealings of hundreds of politicians and officials with mailbox companies worldwide. In addition to government representatives, oligarchs, criminals and celebrities can be found in the 11.9 million confidential documents.

Numerous ministers as well as heads of state and government from all over the world hide their money in tax havens. This emerges from a huge data leak that journalists all over the world have been evaluating for months. The data sheds light on the offshore business of more than 330 politicians and officials from 91 countries, including 35 current and former heads of state and government.

The data set is called “Pandora Papers” and comprises around 11.9 million confidential documents. It was leaked to the International Consortium for Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) from an anonymous source and evaluated by more than 600 journalists around the world.

The Blair family bought millions of dollars in real estate

The data show how politicians and the super-rich use offshore structures, probably also to hide their property from the public. Among them is the incumbent Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Andrej Babis, who has acquired a mansion in France through a complex network of companies. Babis did not want to comment on the process.

The King of Jordan, Abdullah II, is said to have acquired 14 properties in Great Britain and the USA through tax havens. When asked, a lawyer said that most of the letterbox companies no longer existed, and that not all properties belonged to the king.

In addition to the incumbent presidents of Ukraine, Kenya and Ecuador, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife also appear in the data. Accordingly, the Blairs acquired a property in London worth 7.5 million euros in 2017 through the purchase of a letterbox company. The data suggest that the Blairs saved more than 300,000 euros in real estate transfer tax through the special legal structure of the deal. When asked, Cherie Blair stated that her husband was not involved in the purchase. The aim of the transaction was to bring the property back under British tax administration through the purchase.

Biggest data leak on shadow financial centers

The data set in the “Pandora Papers” is around 2.94 terabytes in size. The documents come from a total of 14 offshore service providers, mostly from the years 1996 to 2021. The “Pandora Papers” are thus the largest data leak on transactions in shadow financial centers.

In the confidential documents there are prominent top athletes and company executives as well as serious criminals. The data shows how mafiosi use letterbox companies to conceal their property and remain anonymous. Organized fraud networks build widely ramified company networks in order to deprive customers of their assets.

Putin’s trusted in the documents

The “Pandora Papers” also list more than 130 billionaires, including more than 40 Russian oligarchs. The documents also show how many alleged confidants of Russian President Vladimir Putin have invested their assets in tax havens and using opaque company structures to hide them. While Putin has repeatedly castigated the offshore system as “unpatriotic” since 2011, many of his confidants have invested precisely there.

Journalists from 150 media organizations in 117 countries took part in the “Pandora Papers” research. The partner media include the “Washington Post”, the “Guardian”, the “Indian Express”, “Le Monde” and “Aftenposten”. In Germany there were reporters from NDR, WDR and “Süddeutscher Zeitung” involved. The results of the research have been published worldwide since Sunday evening.