By Sean Perez-Gonzalez
On Oct. 3, 2021, a large amount of information was published, 2.9 terabytes worth of documents were released for people to see. These are called the Pandora Papers; they expose the world’s strongest and richest of their overseas schemes. It shows them using financial businesses to purchase homes and properties without paying taxes or paying the bare minimum.
Overseas, there is about $11.3 trillion that is being held. Most of the business is held “offshore” which depletes taxes drastically. This helps the people purchasing properties and businesses overseas get away with not paying their taxes. They find loopholes and hide their money in different places so it’s hard to trace.
There are many world leaders and celebrities that were mentioned in the Pandora Papers like Shakira, the King of Jordan and even the drummer from The Beatles, Ringo Starr. Shakira has been in this line of work since approximately 2012. She used offshore companies to manage her music business to avoid taxes, so tax evasion was committed then and even in recent years. She owed around $16.4 million in back taxes and almost had to go to court for it but paid it off as soon as she found out about the amount.
King Abdullah II was said to own around $100 million of properties across the U.S. and U.K. Again, he was not paying taxes and left his poor country in the dirt as he spent his money on fancy beach houses. The leader of Russia, even though he denied the allegations, was said to have a private home for a mystery woman who is not his wife.
There are so many people who have been mentioned in the papers. They are still investigating and coming out with more information to expose these activities and bring those individuals to court to make them pay their dues.
