![]() ![]() This is not unusual nor improper,” the court said in its statement. “It is no secret that His Majesty owns a number of apartments and residences in the United States and the United Kingdom. ![]() Jordan’s Royal Hashemite Court said in a statement that the report “included inaccuracies and distorted and exaggerated the facts.” Jordan's King Abdullah II speaks during a conference in Iraq on Aug. “If the Jordanian monarch were to display his wealth more publicly, it wouldn’t only antagonize his people, it would piss off Western donors who have given him money,” Annelle Sheline, a Middle East expert at the Quincy Institute, told the ICIJ. Most of the deals took place after the Arab Spring in 2011, the ICIJ reported. Though owning offshore accounts is not illegal, Jordan is one of the poorest Arab countries and relies heavily on international aid. ![]() The properties include apartments in central London and Washington, D.C., according to the group.Īccountants and lawyers in Switzerland and the British Virgin Islands formed shell companies on the king’s behalf and made plans to shield his name from public view, according to the ICIJ. King Abdullah II purchased 14 homes worth more than $106 million in the United Kingdom and United States through front companies registered in tax havens, the ICIJ said. Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan, center. I call on the international community to treat this grave injustice as similar to the climate change crisis,” Khan tweeted. “My will investigate all our citizens mentioned in the Pandora Papers if any wrongdoing is established we will take appropriate action. Khan responded to the investigation on Twitter Sunday. The Washington Post reports the Pandora Papers reveal no offshore accounts from Khan - but they do include people in his inner circle, from one of his ministers to a top donor who has funded his party, according to the ICIJ. Former cricket star Imran Khan staged protests against Sharif and was elected prime minister in 2018 on a platform of equity and anti-corruption. The Panama Papers brought an end to former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s term. Here are five of the biggest takeaways from the series. The names mentioned in the articles are a who’s who of heads of state, billionaires and public officials from all corners of the world. “Many of the power players who could help bring an end to the offshore system instead benefit from it - stashing assets in covert companies and trusts while their governments do little to slow a global stream of illicit money that enriches criminals and impoverishes nations,” the ICIJ said in its introduction to the series, which is being published by the Washington Post in the United States and the BBC and The Guardian in the United Kingdom. Some of the people named in the papers are major political leaders in developing or impoverished countries, such as Jordan and Kenya. The Pandora Papers reveal how unusual offshore finances and secretive wealth have infiltrated global politics. ![]() More than 600 journalists from 150 outlets spent two years investigating nearly 12 million confidential files - a bigger cache of documents than 2016’s Panama Papers. "But they've put a great big invitation out there with an RSVP on it.The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on Sunday released the “Pandora Papers,” an exposé of the financial secrets and offshore dealings of dozens of heads of state, public officials and politicians from 91 countries and territories. " "There are plenty of vectors," Dresner said when presented with a list of potential holes in Mossack Fonseca's systems. "I knew one law firm who, as part of their so-called governance, walked around the building in the summer to make sure papers hadn't blown out. These guys still take large bundles of papers around tied up with ribbons," he said. "Look at the back seat of the car of the average partner's BMW and I think you'd be quite shocked. When you think about the size of stuff that they're negotiating, who they're negotiating for and the number of different parties involved, the motivation is there for people who want a bit of insider information."ĭresner added that the poor data protection practices of some law firms offline had clearly been duplicated online. "People are now starting to realise that legal companies are a great target. "There's always a feeling in the legal fraternity that whatever happens they'll be able to get off the wrap because they're clever legal people," he said. Dr Daniel Dresner, a lecturer in cyber security at Manchester University's school of computer science, told WIRED that Mossack Fonseca's seemingly lax security protocols were not unusual amongst law firms. ![]()
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