The Paradise Papers reveal offshore dealings of top Trump officials
A new batch of leaked documents reviewed and released by a group of news organizations show that multiple Trump associates have been stashing money overseas in tax havens for themselves and their clients.
“The Paradise Papers,” which contain more than 13 million documents, were first reported by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. They then shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which counts more than 90 news organizations around the world among it’s members. They are the same group that previously released the Panama Papers.
Both leaks center around Appleby, a Bermuda-based law firm that set up many offshore entities for the wealthy elite. The Paradise Papers reportedly contain the names of more than 120 politicians and global leaders, including a handful of Trump administration officials.
Perhaps the most damning revelation so far is that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross continued business dealings with many in Vladimir Putin’s inner-circle after joining the Trump administration. Ross currently owns a shipping company that has taken more than $68 million from a Russian energy company that is partly owned by Putin himself. He also used companies in the Cayman Islands to continue minority ownership in a shipping group named Navigator Holdings, who transport gas for the partially state-owned Russian energy company Sibur.
Sibur’s private ownership group of wealthy Russians includes Putin’s son-in-law Kirill Shamalov.
The Paradise Papers also show Trump’s Chief Economic Adviser Gary Cohn’s name attached to 22 Goldman Sachs entities based in Bermuda, and map out how Secretary of State Rex Tillerson channeled funds offshore through a business entity listed as Marib Upstream Services Company.
The leaked “Paradise Papers” also expose business dealings of global elites including a campaign fundraiser Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau , Queen Elizabeth II, U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman, and a biotech company formerly run by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.