Opening the Pandora Papers and what they reveal

Guests: Robert Cribb & Marco Chown Oved, investigative reporters at the Star

In what is being called the largest collaborative journalism project in history, hundreds of journalists around the world have released their findings from The Pandora Papers, which detail the financial details of how the ultra-rich move and hide money around the world in tax havens and through other mechanisms. The findings include some well-known world leaders as well as other wealthy and famous people. There were several revelations about prominent Canadians, and by shining a light on these dealings it opens up questions about what can and should be done about it.

NOTE: The following people are discussed in this episode and, when reached for comment, provided these statements.

David Tassillo’s wrote a statement saying the offshore structure the Star “was the first and only I have ever set up on behalf of MindGeek, and the transactions and structure were entirely appropriate.” Elvis Stojko told Pandora Papers partner the CBC he did this on advice of his longtime lawyer and he was that the trust was closed in 2012. Lawrence Stroll’s personal financial adviser, Jonathan Dudman, responded to the Star saying Superwit Profits was a “small business” originated by Stroll’s friend Tang in 1998. The King’s of Jordan’s lawyers, in written correspondence, said there is nothing improper in the king’s ownership of properties through offshore companies and that he has not misused public money or aid.

[alannamarohnic]

Do we know if all the names of the people who use offshore accounts are on these lists? I am wondering if some names have been omitted for political reasons.

[VT-tzbm]

This is nothing new and nothing will be done about it, this is pure divisive theatrics.

[truetech]

Homelessness and starvation never produces afterlives even if billionaire Oprah got rich by moreless saying that it does and refuses to talk about it.

[gorduhlich]

This is mildly informative. It's mainly a funny fear mongering and enragement article. It will get tons of enraged comments. Simply put Canadians by average already rate as being super rich. when compared to other countries globally. But it's a funny article too because we all as Canadians already have legal tax avoidance tools like TFSAs LIRA and RRSPs that sadly most Canadians are too ignorant, financially, to even use. The wealthy do have the distinct advantage of having a bigger cushion and to being able to compare and explore (eventually) other countries investment offerings. So, I would say in summary it's better to promote the tools we have but don't use rather than create an environment that hates the much richer smart people who just do smart things.