Macrism in the Pandora Papers

The new global collaborative work, in which several of the world’s leading media have worked, includes the financial secrets of 35 world leaders, more than 330 officials from some 90 countries, entrepreneurs in Forbes rankings and a long list of ‘escapees who operated in the shadows.

To get an idea of ​​the extent of the leak, it should be remembered that in 2016 the Panama Papers covered over 11.5 million corporate documents Mossack Fonseca -equivalent to 2.6 terabytes of information-, and generated a global earthquake. Now, the Pandora Papers, more than 11.9 million records (2.94 terabytes of confidential data) linked to 14 offshore service providers who offer paper makers to move – or hide – money in the main havens. fiscal policies of the planet.

Like what happened with the Panama Papers, the surname Macri reappears in the Pandora Papers. As it has become known, one of the names mentioned is that of Mariano Macri, facing his brother, ex-president and protagonist of an explosive book on family inmates.

This Sunday, about 12 million documents were known, in which there is mention of 2,521 Argentinian final beneficiaries. The country is only below Russia (4437) and the United Kingdom (3501). Given the volume of information, the details are not yet fully known. Was it Gianfranco Macri, Mauricio’s other brother, who laundered a $ 25 million trust in the name of his mother Alicia Blanco Villegas despite being prevented by law? It was a ball of Scope that justice is already investigating.

The leaked documents also include the Ecuadorian publicist, Jaime Duran Barba, for years the main image advisor to Mauricio Macri and the PRO. Main Zulemite and Humberto Grondona, son of “Don Julio”, are other resonant names that seem to be mentioned.

The late former private secretary of Néstor Kirchner, Daniel Munoz and the star financier and confessed the cause of the “corruption notebooks”, Ernesto Clarens they are also mentioned. And football stars like Angel Di Maria and Javier Mascherano, in addition to the coach of Paris Saint-Germain, Mauricio Pochettino.

Among the Argentines who are mentioned in the papers, but whom the ICIJ has corroborated with documents which declared their financial structures and their offshore assets before the corresponding tax authorities, there are, for example, the two businessmen the more related to the development of vaccines against Covid-19, Hugo sigman (Insud) and Marcelo Figueiras (Richmond).

According to the information released, the Argentinians also opted to relocate with the help of Trident Trust, a trust services company that was already facing investigations into moving dozens of accounts from Switzerland and the Cayman Islands to the state. of South Dakota, United States. United. The explanation the company was offering at the time was that people with a lot of money felt more secure when depositing their funds in the United States than in other countries. Results? South Dakota has become the preferred tax haven for the wealthy.

The main protagonists of the Pandora Papers that the ICIJ will unveil from today are the current presidents of Chile, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic, the King of Jordan, the presidents of Ukraine and Kenya, the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic and the former British Prime Minister. Minister Tony Blair. And, also, to the “unofficial minister of propaganda” of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

While there are many legal uses for offshore companies, tax havens are in the public interest due to the frequent use of these jurisdictions to commit financial or “white collar” crimes. In this sense, a recent World Bank report determined that “in the vast majority of cases of corruption, terrorist financing, money laundering and fraud, corporate vehicles (whether they are companies, trusts or any other type of structure) are used to hide the identity of those involved in corruption.