Thursday, July 28, 2016

Panama Papers: offshore firm helped billionaires plunder Africa...

Mossack Fonseca, the offshore law firm at the heart of the Panama Papers leak, helped politicians, their families and businessmen rob Africa of billions of dollars, according to a new investigation.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which published the leak along with dozens of international media, found that 44 of 54 African countries have a total of at least 37 mining, oil and mineral companies connected to offshore accounts.

Their research, published Sunday, focuses on a case in Algeria, where Farid Bedjaoui, nephew of a former Algerian foreign minister, arranged US$275 million in bribes through offshore companies to award US$10 billion oil contracts.

Twelve of the 17 companies he used were created by Mossack Fonseca in a “crossroads of illicit financial flows,” according to Italian investigators. Algeria lost an estimated US$1.5 billion annually to tax dodging, bribery, corruption and criminality between 2004 and 2013, according to Global Financial Integrity.

Tax avoidance also deprives Africa of more than US$50 billion yearly, estimates the United Nations. Full story...

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