Meanwhile, Ukraine, which has had strained relations with a Washington frustrated with the pace of anti-corruption efforts in the country, featured prominently in the leaks: thirty-eight of its politicians were named, the most of any country, including president Volodymyr Zelensky and his and his allies’ secret network of offshore companies. One of the major revelations of the leak is that a woman alleged to have been Putin’s mistress and the mother of his third child, then working as a cleaner, suddenly got hold of a range of assets worth roughly $100 million around the beginning of the new millennium. This includes not just Konstantin Ernst, Vladimir Putin’s “unofficial minister of propaganda,” and other Russian officials and figures connected to the Russian president, but, most embarrassingly, Putin himself. At the top of the list is Russia: the country has the dubious honor of having the highest number of nationals named in the leak, according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) that received the tranche of papers, including fifty-two Russian billionaires (Brazil is a distant second with fifteen), and nineteen politicians - the second-highest number of politicians named for any country. Then consider that Washington’s political adversaries haven’t gotten off so lightly. Experts and observers have speculated this could be a result of already-low US tax rates and widespread tax evasion within the country, or that the enormous leak didn’t include the offshore services that US nationals tend to use - a definite possibility, but a highly convenient one, too. For one, there’s the curious and almost total absence of US politicians, corporations, and superrich in the nearly twelve million records from fourteen different offshore firms. This week’s massive Pandora Papers leak has laid bare stunning details about the tax-dodging and wealth-hoarding habits of the global elite, including former and sitting world leaders, and it has already prompted legislative action and investigations around the world.īefore we get into exactly how you should feel about this possibility, take a moment to consider the case in favor.
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