Namrata Sharma

The Washington DC based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) is a network of investigative journalists all over the world. They have been exposing cases of corruption via a series of exposes over the past seven years through the Panama Papers, the Paradise Papers, the Implant Files, Luxembourg Leaks, and FinCEN Files. This week The Pandora Papers has leaked almost 12 million documents that reveals hidden wealth, tax avoidance and, in some cases, money laundering by some of the world's rich and powerful. More than 600 journalists in 117 countries have been going through files from 14 sources for months. ICIJ has been working with more than 140 media organisations, including BBC, The Guardian, The Washington Post and ABC, on its biggest ever global investigation.

This exposed one of the biggest financial leaks of the secret wealth and dealings of world leaders, politicians and billionaires. According to the Pandora Papers leaks, about 35 current and former leaders and more than 300 public officials are featured in the files. The expose has revealed King of Jordan secretly amassed £70m of UK and US property. They also show how ex- UK PM Tony Blair and his wife saved £312,000 in stamp duty when they bought a London office. The leak links Russian President Vladimir Putin to secret assets in Monaco, and shows the Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis - facing an election later this week - failed to declare an offshore investment company used to purchase two villas for £12m in the south of France.

Offshore accounts
There have been several exposes of how the rich and powerful stack away wealth they want to hide and avoid paying taxes on. The transfer of funds through offshore accounts, in mostly low-tax jurisdiction is legal in the so called tax-haven countries. The people named in the expose are not accused of criminal wrongdoings. ICIJ claims that 2.94 terabytes of financial and legal data shows that the “offshore money machine operates in every corner of the planet, including the world’s largest democracies.” It involves some of the world’s most well-known banks and legal firms too. The current Pandora’s papers expose is bigger than the Panama papers released in 2016.

Former prime minister of Pakistan Nawaj Sharif was ousted by Pakistan’s Supreme Court in 2017 based on the allegation of corruption in the Panama Papers to the delight of the current Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan. However, the Pandora Papers now exposed that several members of Khan’s inner circle including current and former Cabinet ministers “secretly own an array of companies and trusts holding millions of dollars of hidden wealth.” After this expose Prime Minister Imran Khan was quoted by the news agency AFP as being committed to make sure those who have been involved in the scam will be taken action against. He is also quoted as accusing the wealthy countries for not being “interested in preventing this large-scale plunder nor in repatriating this looted money.”

The Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIJ) Nepal is one of the network partners of ICIJ and has been part of major exposes related to Nepal via Nepaleaks and FinCEN Files. They are also the partners in the latest Pandora Papers leaks. According to CIJ they investigated the documents provided to them by ICIJ and have exposed that Binod Chaudhary, Nepal’s only billionaire and currently a member of the federal parliament, has established companies in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) which a tax haven country under his wife and three sons’ names. Similarly, Lokman Golcha, Chairman of Golcha Organisation, and his two brothers and cousins have companies in the BVI. CIJ also exposed via Nepal Leaks earlier that names of Ajeya Sumargi Parajuli, Arjun Prasad Sharma, and Kishore Rana have surfaced for having their companies in tax haven countries.
Tax haven countries offer minimal financial liabilities, low effective tax rates, and a high degree of secrecy. Many rich and famous make investments in these countries to avoid hassles and store their illicit earnings and money saved from avoiding tax. In Nepal the Act Restricting Investment Abroad 1964 prohibits Nepali citizens from investing in any company abroad or even opening an account in a foreign bank. Also non-resident Nepalis are not allowed to invest abroad by taking money from Nepal under any conditions.

Offshore investments
Gerard Ryle, the director of ICIJ, has been a leader in leading his team of investigative journalists in exposing such corruption over several years now. Ryle is an internationally known investigative journalist himself. Before the Pandora Papers were released Ryle was interviewed by ABC Australia where he is quoted to say that businessmen, leaders, politicians, criminals, and intermediary law firms who open offshore companies are taking advantage of such transactions. According to Ryle, such transactions reduce taxes but increase inequality and poverty.

“The offshore world exacerbates poverty. It leads to inequality. When countries are robbed of their riches, it leads to all sorts of things like the refugee crisis. This system invites all of the evils of the world, and there doesn’t seem to be a purpose to this system except to enrich some people,” Ryle said in an interview with ABC’s Elise Worthington. Exposes by journalists need to be addressed in each country. However, those who invest in the tax haven countries have connections in such a way that they are protected from their crimes. The reason poverty is escalating all over the country could be because of this protection and lack of transparency from politicians and the business community together with celebrities in the sports and entertainment industries.

(Sharma is a senior journalist and women rights activist. namrata1964@yahoo.com Twitter handle: @NamrataSharmaP)