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Journalism of Courage
Over the last decade, a series of investigations based on data leaks of service providers and banks operating in tax haven jurisdictions have helped governments go after tax evaders. Here is a list of the key investigations The Indian Express has carried out in collaboration with ICIJ and other media partners.
OFFSHORE LEAKS (2013): In this first offshore collaboration, data from 10 jurisdictions, including the British Virgin Islands and the Cook Islands, were leaked. It comprised 2.5 million documents — and 86 journalists, including a reporter from The Indian Express, worked on the investigation. The data yielded names and offshore investments of 612 Indians.
SWISS LEAKS (2015): This was based on leaked files of HSBC’s Swiss private banking arm. It revealed 1,195 Indians as clients of the bank — roughly double the number of names (628) that French authorities gave to the government in 2011.
PANAMA PAPERS (2016): The investigation was based on offshore documents of companies set up by Panama-based law firm and corporate services provider Mossack Fonseca. The leak involved around 11.5 million files, including leaked emails between Mossack Fonseca and its customers, as well as other data formats.
The documents revealed the setting up of shell entities that acted as a front for fraud, tax evasion, and money laundering. The documents showed the real owners hid behind nominees and other individuals, who simply lent their signature with no stake whatsoever.
PARADISE PAPERS (2017): This investigation was based on records from the Bermuda firm Appleby, as well as from Singapore-based Asiaciti Trust.
The leak involved 13.4 million files that revealed the many ways in which companies and individuals avoided and evaded tax using artificial structures — incorporating shell overseas entities — to various ends. Internal communications showed that the majority of the companies with offshore residency were wholly controlled from India. The leaks initiated a debate around whether the tax haven structures should be banned.
MAURITIUS LEAKS (2019): This was based on data from Conyers Dill & Pearman, an offshore specialist law firm with several Fortune 500 companies as clients. The documents revealed how multinational companies around the world use the tax haven of Mauritius to avoid paying taxes to countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and even the United States.
FINCEN FILES (2020) : Buzzfeed News revealed the suspicious activity reports (SARs) filed by global banks to the US Treasury Department’s intelligence unit, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCEN.
The FinCEN Files reflected views by watchdogs within banks, known as compliance officers, reporting past transactions that bore hallmarks of financial crime, or involved clients with high-risk profiles or past run-ins with the law. In effect, they were crucial red flags raised by banks for law-enforcement agencies.
PANDORA PAPERS (2021): Documents revealed that banks around the world helped their customers set up offshore companies with the assistance of Alemán, Cordero, Galindo & Lee (Alcogal), a Panamanian law firm. The leaked papers revealed how powerful people, including heads of state, and many who were already on the radar of investigative agencies, set up complex multi-layered trust structures for estate planning in jurisdictions that are loosely regulated for tax purposes, but characterised by air-tight secrecy laws.
The documents showed the ultimate ownership of assets ‘settled’ (or placed) in private offshore trusts, and investments including cash, shareholding, and real estate properties held by the offshore entities.
CYPRUS CONFIDENTIAL (2023): A trove of 3.6 million documents from six offshore services providers in Cyprus, including DJC Accountants, ConnectedSky and Cypcodirect.
