The Paradise Papers is a set of 13.4 million confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investment, which in some cases might have been used to conceal income from taxation, was leaked to the public on 5 November 2017. The documents originate from the offshore law firm Appleby, the corporate services providers Estera and Asiaciti Trust, and business registries in 19 tax jurisdictions. They contain the names of more than 120,000 people and companies.Among those whose financial affairs are mentioned are Queen Elizabeth II, the President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos and theU.S. Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross. According to the Boston Consulting Group, the amount of money involved is around $10 trillion.
On October 20, 2017, an anonymous Reddit user hinted at the existence of the Paradise Papers. Later that month, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists(ICIJ) approached the offshore law firm Appleby with allegations of wrongdoing. Appleby said that some of its data had been stolen in a cyberattack the previous year, and denied ICIJ’s allegations. After the documents were published, the company stated there was “no evidence of wrongdoing” and that they “…are a law firm which advises clients on legitimate and lawful ways to conduct their business”. “We do not tolerate illegal behaviour,” they stated.
The documents were acquired by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which also obtained the Panama Papers in 2016. The name “Paradise Papers” reflects the so-called tax havens, or “tax paradises” involved. The data comprises some 13.4 million documents—at about 1.4 terabytes in size—from two offshore service providers, Appleby and Asiaciti Trust, and from the company registers of 19 tax havens. In contrast to the Panama Papers, which involved only a single country, many countries were involved in this data leak. Süddeutsche Zeitung journalists contacted the ICIJ, which has been investigating the documents with 100 media partners. The consortium made the data available to said partners on a platform created specifically for the project, allowing journalists across the globe to do collaborative investigative work. The documents were released by the consortium on 5 November 2017.
Government officials
Current or former heads of state or government of their country as defined by their political position at the time of announcement, not whether the documents in the Papers relating to them coincided with their period of office.
Heads of state
- Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms
- Juan Manuel Santos, President of Colombia
- Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia
- Former heads of state
Heads of government
- Former heads of government
- Shaukat Aziz, former Prime Minister of Pakistan
- Jean Chrétien, former Prime Minister of Canada
- Alfred Gusenbauer, former Chancellor of Austria
- Yukio Hatoyama, former Prime Minister of Japan
- Paul Martin, former Prime Minister of Canada
- Brian Mulroney, former Prime Minister of Canada
- Gerhard Schröder, former Chancellor of Germany
- Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, former Prime Minister of Qatar
Other government officials
- El Salvador
- Carlos Quintanilla Schmidt, former Vice President of El Salvador
- India
- Ashok Gehlot, former Chief Minister of Rajasthan
- Indonesia
- Prabowo Subianto, chairman of the Great Indonesia Movement Party
- Saudi Arabia
- Khalid bin Sultan, former Deputy Minister of Defense
- Spain
- Xavier Trias, former Mayor of Barcelona
- Ukraine
- Valeriy Voshchevsky, former Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine
- United States
- Wesley Clark, former presidential candidate and Supreme Allied Commander Europe
- Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council
- Jon Huntsman Jr., Ambassador to Russia
- Randal Quarles, Vice Chairman for Supervision of the Federal Reserve
Cabinet officials
- Argentina
- Luis Caputo, Minister of Finance
- Brazil
- Blairo Maggi, Minister of Agriculture
- Henrique Meirelles, Minister of Finance
- Kazakhstan
- Mukhtar Ablyazov, former Minister of Energy and Trade
- Beibut Atamkulov, Minister of Defence
- Sauat Mynbayev, Minister of Oil and Gas
- Kenya
- Sally Kosgei, former Minister of Agriculture
- Mexico
- Alejandro Gertz Manero, former Secretary of Public Security
- Uganda
- Sam Kutesa, Minister of Foreign Affair
- United States
- Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of the Treasury
- Penny Pritzker, former Secretary of Commerce
- Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Commerce
- Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State
Members of legislatures
- Canada
- Leo Kolber, former member of the Senate
- European Union
- India
- Sachin Pilot, former member of Lok Sabha and former Minister of Corporate Affairs
- Jayant Sinha, member of the Lok Sabha and Minister of State for Civil Aviation
- Ravindra Kishore Sinha, member of the Rajya Sabha
- Iraq
- Mudhar Shawkat, former member of the Council of Representatives
- Japan
- Masamitsu Naito, member of the House of Councillors
- Taro Yamada, former member of the House of Councillors
- Nigeria
- Bukola Saraki, President of the Senate of Nigeria
- Ukraine
- Anton Pryhodsky, former member of the Verkhovna Rada
- United Kingdom
- Michael Ashcroft, former member of the House of Lords
- James Sassoon, member of the House of Lords and former Commercial Secretary to the Treasury
Relatives and associates of government officials
- Canada
- Stephen Bronfman, close friend of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
- Ghana
- Ibrahim Mahama, brother of former President John Mahama
- Indonesia
- Tommy and Mamiek Suharto, children of former President Suharto
- Jordan
- Noor Al-Hussein, former Queen consort of Jordan
- Montenegro
- Ana Kolarević, sister of former Prime Minister and President Milo Đukanović
- Turkey
- Erkam and Bulent Yildirim, sons of Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım
Non-government officials/organizations
Businesspeople
- Australia
- Richard Goyder, chairman of AFL Commission and former CEO of Wesfarmers
- Nicholas Moore, CEO of Macquarie Group
- Croatia
- Danko Končar, the majority shareholder of the Afarak Group.
- Germany
- Curt Engelhorn, former owner of Roche Diagnostics and DePuy
- Paul Gauselmann, founder and CEO of Gauselmann
- India
- Vijay Mallya, chairman of United Breweries Group
- Bandi Parthasaradhi Reddy, founder of Hetero Drugs
- Niira Radia, former corporate lobbyist
- Ashok Seth, chairman of Fortis-Escort
- Israel
- Dan Gertler, founder and president of Dan Gertler International Group
- Idan Ofer, founder of Tanker Pacific and principal of Quantum Pacific Group
- Mexico
- Alberto Baillères, chairman of Grupo BAL and ITAM
- Carlos Slim, owner of Grupo Carso
- Pakistan
- Alauddin Feerasta, chairman of Soneri Bank
- Sadruddin Hashwani, founder and chairman of Hashoo Group
- Mian Muhammad Mansha, chairman of Nishat Group
- Russia
- Alisher Usmanov, oligarch
- Yuri Milner, Silicon Valley investor
- Saudi Arabia
- Bakr bin Laden, chairman of the Saudi Binladen Group
- Spain
- Daniel Maté, co-owner of Glencore
- Sweden
- Leif Östling, former CEO of Scania AB and chairman of Confederation of Swedish Enterprise
- Syria
- Rami Makhlouf, owner of Syriatel
- United States
- Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft
- Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay
- Zambia
- Hakainde Hichilema, businessman and politician
Entertainment personalities
- Australia
- Michael Hutchence, singer
- Nicole Kidman, actress
- Keith Urban, singer
- India
- Amitabh Bachchan, Bollywood actor
- Manyata Dutt, actress
- Ireland
- Bono, singer
- Spain
- José María Cano, painter and former member of Mecano
- United Kingdom
- Fiona Delany, actress in Mrs. Brown’s Boys
- Martin Delany, actor in Mrs. Brown’s Boys
- Patrick Houlihan, actor in Mrs. Brown’s Boys
- United States
- Madonna, singer
Other
- Mexico
- Marcial Maciel, Catholic priest and founder of the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi
Companies
- Finland
- Finnfund
- Germany
- Allianz
- Bayer
- Deutsche Bank
- Deutsche Post
- Meininger
- Siemens
- Sixt
- India
- Apollo Tyres
- Emaar India
- GMR Group
- Havells
- Hindujas
- Hiranandani Group
- Jindal Steel and Power
- Sun Group
- United Spirit
- Videocon
- South Africa
- Illovo Sugar
- Shanduka Group
- Standard Bank
- Switzerland
- Glencore
- United Kingdom
- Barclays
- United States
- Amazon
- Apple Inc.
- Goldman Sachs
- McDonald’s
- Nike, Inc.
- Uber
- Walmart
- Yahoo!