Pandora Papers: Another can of worms

Five years ago it was the Panama papers, an undercover investigation that exposed how highly influential politicians, business moguls and other high ranking personalities were secretly  and fraudulently hiding their riches offshore in order to avoid being taxed by the countries where those fortunes were made. This investigation led to the indictment of an Panama based law firm Massock Fonseca and the subsequent downfall of oresidents of Pakistan and Iceland, respectively.


Five years ago it was the Panama papers, an undercover investigation that exposed how highly influential politicians, business moguls and other high ranking personalities were secretly  and fraudulently hiding their riches offshore in order to avoid being taxed by the countries where those fortunes were made. This investigation led to the indictment of an Panama based law firm Massock Fonseca and the subsequent downfall of oresidents of Pakistan and Iceland, respectively.
The Pandora Papers This is a collaborative investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) which obtained the trove of more than 11.9 million confidential files and led a team of more than 600 journalists from 150 news outlets that spent two years sifting through them, tracking down hard-to-find sources and digging into court records and other public documents from dozens of countries. This is the  largest journalists collaboration in history. (Premiumtimesng)
The leaked records come from 14 offshore services firms from around the world that set up shell companies and other offshore nooks for clients often seeking to keep their financial activities in the shadows. The records include information about the dealings of nearly three times as many current and former country leaders as any previous leak of documents from offshore havens.
In an era of widening authoritarianism and inequality, the Pandora Papers investigation provides an unequaled perspective on how money and power operate in the 21st Century – and how the rule of law has been bent and broken around the world by a system of financial secrecy enabled by the United States and other wealthy nations.
The findings by ICIJ and its media partners spotlight how deeply secretive finance has infiltrated global politics – and offer insights into why governments

and global organisations have made little headway in ending offshore financial abuses.
An ICIJ analysis of the secret documents identified 956 companies in offshore havens tied to 336 high-level politicians and public officials, including country leaders, cabinet ministers, ambassadors and others. More than two-thirds of those companies were set up in the British Virgin Islands, a jurisdiction long known as a key cog in the offshore system.
At least $11.3 trillion is held “offshore,” according to a 2020 study by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. 

Because of the complexity and secrecy of the offshore system, it’s not possible to know how much of that wealth is tied to tax evasion and other crimes and how much of it involves funds that come from legitimate sources and have been reported to proper authorities.
This is to say a large number of persons from Europe to Africa, Asia, to the Americas, to the Midlde East and Eastern Europe and some Caribbean nations were involved in this large scale fraud. 
What made the matter worst was the fact that most beneficiaries of this act were to some extent people charged with the responsibility of ending the practise, its a case of the rich getting richer while the poor keeps getting poorer. 
Another worrying thing about this practice is that those exposed by the Pandora Papers will still look elsewhere with their wealth like some of them did after the Panama papers five years ago, same with potential clients.
As things stand other tax havens will see this as an opportunity they cannot afford to miss. They will surely device other means to lure run away clients.

Whether this could be the end of this unethical practice or it will give a practical example of Machiavelli’s infamous “The end justifies the means” only time will tell. 

But now is the right time to act, especially in my country Nigeria, where a lot of former and serving public officials were directly or indirectly involved in these shoddy deals, including so-called men of God who are preaching against unethical accumulation of wealth and lifestyle.
Every now and then the present President Muhammadu Buhari administration has kept reminding Nigerians that there will never be a sacred cow in its anti-corruption crusade. Now is the time to act.
Saidu, a public affairs analyst, writes from Tudun Wada, Kaduna.