The revelations will be deeply embarrassing the China's leaders. Photo: AP
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists say that nearly one third of business conducted by Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca came from its offices in Hong Kong and the mainland. And more details have emerged of how relatives of at least eight members of the Politburo Standing Committee have offshore holdings.
The ICIJ said the documents reveal that a brother-in-law of President Xi Jinping has had companies in tax havens. Other prominent figures named as having made use of offshore companies include the daughter of Li Peng, premier from 1987 to 1998.
Li infamously oversaw the bloody 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. The ICIJ said his daughter Li Xiaolin and her husband own a company registered in the British Virgin Islands. The files show that ownership was cloaked for many years by use of bearer shares, which are registered without names. Although perfectly legal, bearer shares are often a vehicle for money laundering.
The other relatives of current Standing Committee members named by the ICIJ as having used Mossack Fonseca to gain access to overseas accounts are: Lee Shing Put, son in law of Zhang Gaoli; Jia Liqing, daughter-in-law of Liu Yunshan and Zeng Qinghua, brother of Zeng Qinghong.
The relatives of former members are Hu Dehua, son of former Communist Party head Hu Yaobang and Chen Dongsheng, grandson-in-law of Mao Zedong. There is no indication that any of the dealings are illegal, but it is against mainland law for relatives of senior officials to use their connections for profit. The revelations also come amid Xi’s much-publicised crackdown on corruption.
The ICIJ said an analysis of the leaked records showed that by the end of last year, Mossack Fonseca was collecting fees for more than 16,300 offshore companies via offices in Hong Kong and mainland China, representing 29 percent of its business - the law firm’s single leading market. The journalists said Hong Kong is Mossack Fonseca's busiest office.
http://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1252949-20160407.htm
