Paradise Papers Cast Light On Offshore Investments of the Wealthy

Controversy has erupted following the first batch of revelations from the ‘Paradise Papers’, a collection of 13.4 million leaked documents obtained by the German newspaper, Suddeutsche Zeitung, and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which comprises of more than 380 journalists in 67 countries, including reporters from the Irish Times – who’ve broken many of the stories arising from the cache of papers domestically.

Irish newspaper front-pages and radio bulletins are dominated today by allegations concerning offshore dealings by members of Donald Trump’s cabinet, advisers and donors; investment in Facebook and Twitter; the actions of Canadian PM Justin Trudeau’s chief fundraiser; the acquisition of stakes in Arsenal and Everton football clubs by two overseas billionaires; Queen Elizabeth II’s investment in a Cayman Islands fund and U2 frontman Bono who’s confirmed via-a spokesperson to The Guardian that he was an investor in the Maltese company, Nude Estates, which bought a Lithuanian shopping mall in 2007 for €5.8 million.

In 2012, ownership was transferred to Nude Estates 1, which is incorporated in Guernsey. The other major investor is the property developer Paddy McKillen, who also co-owns the Clarence Hotel in Dublin with Bono and Edge.

Malta is a low-tax jurisdiction where foreign companies pay 5% tax on profits. There’s no corporation tax rate on most companies in Guernsey.

“Bono was a passive, minority investor in Nude Estates Malta Ltd, a company that was legally registered in Malta until it was voluntarily wound up in 2015,” the spokesperson says. “Malta is a well-established holding company jurisdiction within the EU.”

The Paradise Papers also reveal fresh information about the tax strategies of a number of multi-national companies, including the controversial Uber taxi company, Nike and Apple. There is also an Irish dimension in the revelations that the offshore arm of AIB – now a State-owned bank – declined to provide information to its parent company that had been requested by the Revenue Commissioners here in Ireland.

With millions of documents still being examined by journalists, this is a story that’s likely to run and run…