Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan is identified in an unprecedented tax haven leak. File photo: AFP
Hong Kong movie star Jackie Chan, the family of President Xi Jinping, and close aides of Russian president Vladimir Putin are among those whose assets feature in a vast expose of tax havens published after a year-long investigation into millions of leaked documents.
The assets of around 140 political figures – including current or former heads of states – are mentioned in the revelations, according to the probe by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
The investigation yielded 11.5 million documents from around 214,000 offshore entities, the ICIJ said on its website. The leaked data from 1975 to the end of last year provides what the ICIJ described as a "never-before-seen view inside the offshore world."
Although Putin's name is not mentioned in the documents, his close associates "secretly shuffled as much as US$2 billion through banks and shadow companies," the ICIJ said.
The ICIJ did not reveal any evidence of wrongdoing by relatives of President Xi and while it said Chan has at least six offshore companies, there is nothing to show he used them for improper purposes.
The leaked documents came from Mossack Fonseca, a law firm with offices in more than 35 locations around the world, including Hong Kong. They were reviewed by a team of more than 370 reporters from over 70 countries, according to the ICIJ.
The BBC cited Panama-based Mossack Fonseca as saying it had operated "beyond reproach" for 40 years and had never been charged with any criminal wrongdoing.
“These findings show how deeply ingrained harmful practices and criminality are in the offshore world," said Gabriel Zucman, an economist at the US-based University of California, Berkeley, cited by the consortium.
It wasn't clear who was the original source of the leaked documents.
http://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1252378-20160404.htm
