Paradise Papers Leak

Overview

The Paradise Papers Leak refers to the release of more than 13.4 million files that expose some of the world's biggest businesses, politicians, public figures, entertainers and sports stars as sheltering vast amounts of wealth in secret tax havens in offshore islands. The information spans a time period between 1950 and 2016. Similar to the Panama Papers Leak, the files reveal a massive attempt to evade taxes by storing money in an intricate series of businessed, properties and other high-priced assets.

Background

On November 5th, 2017, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, in collaboration with more than 380 journalists from over 90 media organizations in 67 countries, reported on the Paradise Papers, a 13.4 million document leak that exposed the trillions of dollars moved through offshore tax havens.^[1] The documents were obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsch Zeitung, who has not revealed how they received the information.

The Paradise Papers is comprised of 21 leaks of confidential documents from offshore law firms, Appleby, the Singaporean corporate services company Asiaciti Trust, the offshore trust management services company Estera Trust and 19 official corporate registries maintined by governments in Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Cook Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Labuan, Lebanon, Malta, the Marshall Islands, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, and Vanuatu.^[3] Appleby, a more than century-old company, is at the center of the controversy as the documents show that the law firm helped clients "reduce their tax burden; obscure their ownership of assets like companies, private aircraft, real estate and yachts; and set up huge offshore trusts that in some cases hold billions of dollars," according to the New York Times.^[2]

Some of the names of corporations and people's outed in the leak include Apple, Nike, Facebook , McDonald's, Yahoo, Queen Elizabeth, Bono, Nicole Kidman, Madonna, WIlbur Ross, Steven Mnuchin and more.

The day of the leak, the Guardian^[4] released a video on YouTube explaining the leak. Within a three days, it had been viewed more than 279,000 times.

Development

Online Reaction

Following the release of the Paradise Papers, news of the leak reached the front page of several subreddits, including /r/worldnews twice, garnering more than 100,000 points in both instances.^[5][6] Additionally, discussion of the leak could be seen on /r/politics,^[8] /r/news^[9] and more.

The following day, on November 6th, Redditor^[7] SmokeyBare posted on the /r/AdviceAnimals subreddit an image macro of Conspiracy Keanu with the caption "Maybe if rich people actually paid their taxes people wouldn't ask them to pay more." The post (shown below) received more tahn 62,000 points (78% upvoted) and 3,500 comments.

The following day, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders tweeted,^[10] "Before Congress considers a tax bill it must investigate the Paradise Papers. We must end the rapid movement toward international oligarchy." The post (shown below) received more than 4,800 retweets and 11,200 likes in two days.

Impact

As of November 5th, the leaked documents have implicated dozens of current or former heads of state, including several members of the Trump administration, such as Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.^[12] In addition to political figures, movie stars, film executives, singers and more were named, including Madonna, Bono, Shakira, "Martha Stewart":memes/people/martha-stewart, Justin Timberlake and Harvey Weinstein.

Entertainment Industry

Government Officials and Heads of State

Public Officials

Associates of Officials

Business People

Miscellaneous

• Marcial Maciel, Catholic priest and founder of the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi
• Lewis Hamilton, Formula One driver

Companies

Search Interest

External References