‘Biggest ever’ leak shows how 12 world leaders hide millions

WAYS that the rich and powerful use tax havens to hide their cash have been revealed by an unprecedented data leak from one of the world’s most secretive companies.

More than 11million documents from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca going back 40 years illustrate how the wealthy are dodging sanctions and laundering money.

The leak – thought to be the biggest ever – contains more data than the amount stolen by former CIA contractor Edward Snowden in 2013, and could inflame the debate about offshore tax havens.

Among the disclosures are that six members of the House of Lords and three former Conservative MPs had offshore accounts, although none were named last night. Dozens of donors to UK political parties had similar arrangements, the leak reveals.

Campaigners said David Cameron now faces a ‘credibility test’, having promised to end tax secrecy four years ago.

While using offshore companies is not illegal, the morally dubious practice is under the spotlight amid a wider examination of tax avoidance by firms such as Google.

The BBC and The Guardian last night set out details from the ‘Panama Papers’ – 11.5million files from the database of Mossack Fonseca. The leak also reveals:

A network of secret offshore deals and loans worth £1.4billion that leads to Vladimir Putin;

Twelve national leaders were among 143 politicians revealed to have offshore accounts;

Dozens of people with sanctions imposed on them for supporting regimes such as North Korea also had offshore arrangements;

A member of Fifa’s ethics committee worked as a lawyer for people charged with corruption.

Mr Cameron said four years ago that some offshore schemes were ‘not fair and not right’. He added: ‘Some of these schemes where people are parking huge amounts of money offshore and taking loans back just to minimise their tax rates, it is not morally acceptable.’

But critics say little has been done – with the PM due to hold his latest summit on the issue next month.

The Prime Minister will now come under intense pressure to abolish all the UK’s tax havens, including the crown dependencies Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.

In 2012, it emerged that the Prime Minister’s father Ian ran a network of legal offshore investment funds.

The leaked records were obtained from an anonymous source by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, and shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists with The Guardian and the BBC.

The data covers nearly 40 years, from 1977 to the end of 2015, and lists nearly 15,600 paper companies set up for clients who wanted to keep their financial affairs secret.

Thousands were created by UBS and HSBC, the latter of which was fined by the US government for laundering money from Iran.

Mossack Fonseca is Panamanian but runs a worldwide operation.

Among national leaders with offshore wealth are Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s prime minister, and Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, prime minister of Iceland – who now faces calls for a snap election.

Others were Ayad Allawi, exinterim prime minister and former vice-president of Iraq, Petro Poroshenko, the current president of Ukraine, and Alaa Mubarak, the son of Egypt’s former president.

The leaks also reveal a suspected billion- dollar money laundering ring that was run by a Russian bank and involved close associates of President Putin.

Mossack Fonseca said in a statement: ‘Our firm has never been accused or charged in connection with criminal wrongdoing.

‘If we detect suspicious activity or misconduct, we are quick to report it to the authorities.’

The £26million stolen during the Brink’s-Mat robbery in 1983 may have been channelled into a Panama firm, the leaks reveal.

Sixteen months after the theft from the Heathrow International Trading Estate in London, Mossack Fonseca set up a Panama shell company called Feberion Inc linked to Gordon Parry, who laundered money for the Brink’s-Mat plotters.

‘Not fair and

not right’ ‘Suspicious

activity’