An ICIJ Investigation

Secrecy for Sale: Inside the Global Offshore Money Maze

Millions of leaked files from two financial service providers, a private bank in Jersey and the Bahamas corporate registry reveal how tax havens around the world are used to hide riches.

The Bahamas have been on the radar of tax officials around the world for nearly a century

Bahamas Leaks

Former EU Official Among Politicians Named in New Leak of Offshore Files from The Bahamas

Former top EU official among the politicians and others named in leak revealing 175,000 offshore companies registered in the Bahamas.

By Will Fitzgibbon

Sep 20, 2016

Overview

Secret Files Expose Offshore’s Global Impact

By Gerard Ryle

Apr 02, 2013

Offshore clients

Leaked Records Reveal Offshore Holdings of China’s Elite

By Marina Walker Guevara

Jan 21, 2014

Millions of leaked files from two financial service providers, a private bank in Jersey and the Bahamas corporate registry reveal how tax havens around the world are used to hide riches.
Government officials and their families and associates in China, Azerbaijan, Russia, Canada, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, Mongolia and other countries have embraced the use of covert companies and bank accounts.
The mega-rich use complex offshore structures to own mansions, yachts, art masterpieces and other assets, gaining tax advantages and anonymity not available to average people.
Many of the world’s top’s banks – including UBS, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank – have aggressively worked to provide their customers with secrecy-cloaked companies in the British Virgin Islands and other offshore hideaways.
A well-paid industry of accountants, middlemen and other operatives has helped offshore patrons shroud their identities and business interests, providing shelter in many cases to money laundering or other misconduct.
Ponzi schemers and other large-scale fraudsters routinely use offshore havens to pull off their shell games and move their ill-gotten gains.