Leaked files reveal offshore holdings of rich, politically connected

[unhappycamper]

http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-china-offshore-accounts-20140122,0,1874223.story



President Xi Jinping's brother-in-law was among members of the Chinese elite outed as having secret offshore holdings.

Leaked files reveal offshore holdings of rich, politically connected
By Barbara Demick
January 22, 2014, 11:22 a.m.

BEIJING -- From the brother-in-law of Chinese President Xi Jinping to a daughter of the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, thousands of the rich and politically connected have been outed as having secret offshore holdings.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists on Wednesday said it had obtained a cache of about 2.5 million files with information from two financial firms, Singapore-based Portcullis TrustNet and Commonwealth Trust Ltd. of the British Virgin Islands, that helped wealthy customers set up offshore accounts.

When measured in gigabytes, the data is more than 160 times larger than the State Department documents released in 2010 by Wikileaks, the Washington-based nonprofit wrote. It did not disclose who leaked the data or the motives behind the disclosure.

The names published are a veritable who’s who of political elites from all corners of the globe: the wife of Russia’s deputy prime minister, Igor Shuvalov, and top executives of Russian energy giant Gazprom. From Mongolia, the deputy speaker of parliament; from Azerbaijan, the daughters of President Ilham Aliyev; and from the Philippines, Imee Marcos, a provincial governor and the late leader's eldest daughter.

[Berlum]

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