Paradise Papers: Prince Charles has invested money in his friend's offshore company

Фото: Depositphotos

5 October at the same time 400 journalists in 67 countries published their material on the financial secrets of politicians and officials. New global investigative journalism called Paradise Papers or “Documents from the paradise islands”, as the journalists analyzed data on the owners of offshore companies located mainly on small exotic islands.

From the documents it turned out that the managing company of the royal duchy of Cornwall, owned by Prince Charles, invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in offshore companies, writes The Guardian.

The prince’s asset management company has invested in offshore funds and companies, including the Bermuda business structure, which has been managed by one of Charles’s best friends, breeder Hugh van Katzsem since his study in Cambridge.

According to the documents, the decision to invest $ 100 thousand in the company of Van Catem, which is engaged in the acquisition of land to protect them from deforestation, was made in an atmosphere of strict secrecy. Given the fact that the duchy does not have any tax benefits, the question of why it was decided to transfer funds to the company headed by such a close friend of the prince looks very delicate.

The management company explained that Prince Charles had long been busy resolving issues related to environmental issues, and recalled that the heir to the British throne had written books and made speeches on environmental issues back in the 1980s. In addition, according to company representatives, the prince himself was not directly involved in making decisions related to investments.

Earlier from Paradise Papers it became known that the Queen of Great Britain Elizabeth II invested in offshore about 10 million pounds ($ 13 million).

“Paradise Island Documents” contains 13,4 of a million documents telling about connections between Russia and the billion-dollar trade minister from the office of US President Donald Trump, about the secret activities of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s donation collector, and about the British Queen’s offshore interests and more than 120 politicians from all over the world, writes Center for the Investigation of Corruption and Organized Crime (OCCRP)who was one of the participants in the journalistic investigation.

From the leaked documents it is clear how closely the offshore financial system is connected with the multi-layered world of political games, private capital and giant companies, including Apple, Nike, Uber and other international corporations that evade taxes through increasingly sophisticated methods.

Documents obtained from business registries in 19 jurisdictions contain company names and information about them, as well as the names of directors and ultimate owners of firms registered in many of the most active offshore zones in the world.

The materials relate to the more or less prestigious strongholds of world shadow finance, including the Marshall Islands, Lebanon and Saint Kitts and Nevis. In some jurisdictions, these data are publicly available, but they cannot be searched by name. Other departments, such as the Cayman Islands, require more than 30 dollars for a one-page document containing only the most basic information. Another six registries data is not posted on the network.

The leaked files contain over a thousand documents from the Caribbean state of Antigua and Barbuda, which does not provide information online, and more than 600 thousands of documents from the Barbados online registry, which does not provide information about directors and shareholders.

Over the past decade or even longer, the European Union and other international organizations have been putting pressure on "offshore harbors" in an attempt to force them to carry out legislative reforms and have demanded that intermediary companies carefully check their clients. According to experts, progress is still insignificant for two reasons: it is not easy to change the working methods in such an extensive international structure, and besides it serves the interests of influential people and large companies.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Paradise Papers: Where Apple Keeps Earnings

Who was exposed in the “Paradise File”: from Abramovich and Poroshenko to the US Secretary of State

Paradise Papers: President of Ukraine created offshore companies for “tax purposes”

Paradise Papers: Journalists Found a Link of the Head of the US Commerce Department with Russia

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.