What are “Pandora Papers” and why is everyone talking about it?

The presidents of Russia and Chile, Vladimir Poutine and Sebastián Piñera; the Minister of Economy of Brazil, Paulo Guedès, and the singers Julio Iglesias and Shakira, among so many other personalities of the world, hidden assets in offshore companies, which in some cases could have tax evasion purposes, according to an international journalistic investigation released today.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which involved around 600 journalists from 117 countries and dozens of media, including The Washington Post and The Guardian, revealed the survey baptized Pandora Papers (Pandora Papers) on secret accounts in tax havens.

The work was based on the leak of 11.9 million documents of 14 financial services companies from the British Virgin Islands, Panama, Belize, Cyprus, United Arab Emirates, Singapore or Switzerland.

In the registers there are more than 330 senior officials or former officials from 91 countries. Among them, 35 are heads or former heads of state, including 14 from Latin America, among which, besides Piñera, are the current presidents of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, and the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader.

Among the Argentines mentioned are Mariano Macri, brother of the former president; the deceased Daniel Muñoz, who was the president’s private secretary Nestor Kirchner; Zulema Menem, daughter of former president Carlos Menem; footballer ngel Di Maria; the ex-footballer Javier Mascherano, and pharmaceutical entrepreneurs Hugo Sigman and Marcelo Figueiras.

The former British prime minister also appears to be involved Tony blair, the former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the king Abdullah II of Jordan; the model Claudia schiffer, and the football coach Josep guardiola, reported the Madrid newspaper The country and press agencies AFP, Europa Press and Sputnik.

In total, the ICIJ has established links between offshore assets and 336 senior and political executives, which has created nearly 1,000 companies, more than two-thirds of which are located in the British Virgin Islands.

The disclosed documents could promote the causes of corruption crimes, money laundering or tax evasion, although most of them are proof of legal operations to create real estate buying companies.

The Pandora Papers follow the route of leaked documents such as FinCen Archives, Paradise Papers, Panama Papers and LuxLeaksBut the ICIJ says the latter is the biggest leak, with 14 sources, nearly 12 million files and nearly three terabytes of data.

– WITH INFORMATION FROM THE TELAM AGENCY.