Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Journalist group uncovers Chinese millions in overseas trusts...

The close relatives of some of China’s most powerful men and women including President Xi Jinping and former Premier Wen Jiabao have maintained secretive accounts in offshore tax havens, with the connivance of some of the west’s biggest accounting firms and banks, according to an explosive study by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

The account details appear in a vast trove of 2.5 million leaked documents made available to the consortium, a network of 160 journalists in more than 60 countries. The report, which is too comprehensive for Asia Sentinel to print all the details, can be found online here. It shows that Xi’s campaign to clean out corruption, which so far has netted hundreds of relatively low-ranking cadres with a few important figures, hardly begins to scratch the surface of illegal wealth fleeing the country.

The records show that relatives of at least five current or former Politburo members have incorporated companies in the Cook Islands or British Virgin Islands. Nearly 22,000 offshore clients were found to have addresses on the mainland or in Hong Kong. The records also include incorporations by relatives of Deng Xiaoping, former Premier Li Peng, and former President Hu Jintao.

More than 50 reporting partners from Europe, North American and Asia have been sifting through the documents since last April. They put names and faces to reports that an estimated IS$1 trillion to US$3 trillion has leaked out of China in illegal capital flight over the past decade. Full story...

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