Posted on 01/22/2014 9:03:28 AM PST by mojito
Close relatives of China’s top leaders have held secretive offshore companies in tax havens that helped shroud the Communist elite’s wealth, a leaked cache of documents reveals.
The confidential files include details of a real estate company co-owned by current President Xi Jinping’s brother-in-law and British Virgin Islands companies set up by former Premier Wen Jiabao’s son and also by his son-in-law.
Nearly 22,000 offshore clients with addresses in mainland China and Hong Kong appear in the files obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Among them are some of China’s most powerful men and women — including at least 15 of China’s richest, members of the National People’s Congress and executives from state-owned companies entangled in corruption scandals.
PricewaterhouseCoopers, UBS and other Western banks and accounting firms play a key role as middlemen in helping Chinese clients set up trusts and companies in the British Virgin Islands, Samoa and other offshore centers usually associated with hidden wealth, the records show. For instance, Swiss financial giant Credit Suisse helped Wen Jiabao’s son create his BVI company while his father was leading the country.
The files come from two offshore firms — Singapore-based Portcullis TrustNet and BVI-based Commonwealth Trust Limited — that help clients create offshore companies, trusts and bank accounts.
[....]
Chinese officials aren’t required to disclose their assets publicly and until now citizens have remained largely in the dark about the parallel economy that can allow the powerful and well-connected to avoid taxes and keep their dealings secret. By some estimates, between $1 trillion and $4 trillion in untraced assets have left the country since 2000.
(Excerpt) Read more at icij.org ...
Somebody snitched...............
Global Business Tip
O:-)
I guess the financal elite is the same everywhere. :-$
“Some animals are more equal than others”
George Orwell
I have been watching the Australian Open Tennis Matches this week and one of the top players is Chinese. The commentators said if she won, the Chinese government would take 60% of her winnings! No wonder they hide their wealth!...............
A pittance compared to the ‘legal’ plunder and dealings of the U.S. Congress.
Isn’t that neat - that the elite top command of the socialist regime is holding capitalists funds offshore - goes to show anyone believing that Communism works - IT DOES NOT!
very funny...
For reference the only countries in the world with a GDP over 4 trillion are the US (16), China (12), India (4.7) and Japan (4.6).
Let's see, if an American living in NYC wins, he can look forward to 42.5% Federal, and a combined state and city tax of 12.7%. That's 55%, before all of the deduction phaseouts that up the actual rate.
Of course, what I just posted were maximum marginal rates. If that’s the only tournament someone wins, the average bill would be lower in the US. I suspect that’s also true in China.
Another link to this data of China’s leaders and their stash.
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