The Paradise Papers' Data Dump

A new set of data taken from an offshore law firm again threatens to expose the hidden wealth of individuals and show how corporations, hedge funds and others may have skirted taxes. A year after the Panama Papers, a massive leak of confidential information from the Bermuda law firm Appleby Group Services has shone another light on the use of offshore accounts. Here is a look:

• US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross faces questions about his financial disclosures after a report that he didn’t disclose business ties to the son-in-law of Russian President Vladimir Putin and an oligarch under US sanctions
• House Republicans should slow down their consideration of a tax-overhaul Bill after the investigative reports alleged offshore tax-avoidance by US multinational companies including Apple and Nike
• Canadian tax authorities are reviewing reports linking a key fundraiser for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to offshore trusts in the Caribbean. Montreal-based businessman Stephen Bronfman, son of billionaire Charles Bronfman, was among the individuals cited by news organisations, including the Canadian Broadcasting, Radio-Canada,in Sunday’s leak of bank documents
• Commodities trader Glencore was one of the top clients of Appleby, which even had a “Glencore Room” at its Bermuda office that kept information on the trader’s 107 offshore companies, according to the ICIJ investigation
• Prominent Silicon Valley investor Yuri Milner, who was an early backer of Facebook, partnered in two investments with the Russian state-controlled bank VTB Bank PJSC before it was sanctioned
• Queen Elizabeth II of the UK made a series of investments in a Cayman Islands fund through the British Royal Family’s private estate, the Duchy of Lancaster, according to The Guardian