The Panama Papers constitute one of the biggest-ever leaks of confidential information, surpassing even the Wikileaks of Edward Snowden. The papers, recovered from a Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, is a trove of information revealing how the world’s dirty rich have concealed their money in off-shore companies. The leaked Panama Papers, which contain information on 214,488 off-shore entities connected to people in more than 200 countries and territories, were reviewed by more than 370 journalists hailing from 76 nations. In the largest media networking in history, journalists working in more than 25 languages dug into Mossack Fonseca’s working patterns and traced the secret dealings of the law firm’s customers around the world.
The secret files of the Panamanian law firm which specialises in off-shore tax havens have put the spotlight on the shadowy financial wheelings and dealings of some of the world’s most powerful political leaders, including the king of Saudi Arabia, Iceland’s prime minister and the presidents of Argentina, Russia, China, Ukraine, and Syria, besides the former Iraqi premier and the son of former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. The incriminating records from the Panamanian legal firm were obtained from an anonymous source by German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and shared with more than 100 media groups by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The network of journalists published their first findings after a thorough probe stretched over a year.
Off-shore financial dealings are not illegal in themselves, but they are mostly used to hide assets from tax authorities, launder the proceeds of criminal activities or conceal misappropriated or politically tainted wealth. Above all, the Panama Papers have revealed how the global elite are using secretive tax regimes and widening the gap between the rich and the poor. The fact that billions of dollars continue to flow into small islands in the Caribbean Sea, has been a matter of much public anger and acrimony for many years now. For, the transfer of wealth from the poor countries into off-shore banks directly affects the populations of these countries in the form of declining expenditures on health and social services as well as rising prices. The cost of illicit financial outflows from developing countries is estimated to be a staggering $1 trillion a year.
The leaked files mention around 200 persons of Pakistan origin, including former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto, her aide Rehman Malik and nephew Hassan Ali Jaffery Bhutto who set up a company, Petroline International Inc, in the British Virgin Islands in 2001. It may be recalled here that during the Swiss money-laundering case it was disclosed that Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Zardari were the beneficiaries of an off-shore company registered in the British Virgin Islands, through which alleged kickbacks on government contracts were channelled.
The leaked documents have named PM Nawaz Sharif’s children as beneficiaries of several off-shore accounts in Panama. It is pertinent to mention here that Nawaz Sharif was also accused and investigated for money laundering in the 1990s. A major defence of Pakistani leaders has been that the cases were politically motivated. There is no denying that anti-corruption campaigns have often been used by successive governments to browbeat their political opponents. But there is little dispute that most of the corruption cases against political leaders were found to be valid, though they were never convicted by a court of law.
The documents available on the ICIJ website reveal that the PM’s children Mariam, Hasan and Hussain are “owners or had the right to authorise transactions for several companies”. Mariam is described as the owner of British Virgin Islands-based firms Nielsen Enterprises Limited and Nescoll Limited, incorporated in 1994 and 1993. According to ICIJ, “Hussain and Mariam signed a document dated June 2007, that was part of a series of transactions in which Deutsche Bank, Geneva, lent up to $13.8 million to Nescoll, Nielsen and another company, with their London properties as collateral.” Hasan Nawaz Sharif is described as “the sole director of Hangon Property Holdings Limited incorporated in the British Virgin Islands in February 2007”, which acquired Liberia-based firm Cascon Holdings Establishment Limited for about $11.2 million in August 2007.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has responded by announcing the formation of a judicial commission to probe the allegations contained in the Panama Papers. But the opposition has rejected the offer saying that such commissions in the past never produced any results. Instead, the opposition’s demand is for investigations by a forensic audit firm. Imran Khan and other political leaders have also threatened to launch a mass movement if the PM does not get his name cleared through an independent inquiry. It remains to be seen how PM Nawaz Sharif grapples with the new challenge to his political and moral authority.
Post a Comment