The Panama Papers put under the public eye some Argentineans faces but this time the research carried out by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists uncovered millions of documents that show how a wide variety of personalities avoid taxation using offshore accounts.
Argentina is on top of the list in Latin America, behind Rusia ( 4437) and United Kingdom (3501) The Macri family name appears among the 2,521 Argentineans beneficial owners mentioned in the investigation, together with Zulema Menem, daughter of former President Carlos Menem; the Ecuadorian publicist Jaime Durán Barba, Macri’s image advisor; and the soccer players Ángel Di María and Javier Mascherano, among others.
According to a note of the portal https://www.eldiarioar.com/, it is also among documents of two law firms the records of Reata Pacific Limited (British Virgin Islands) and Wanama Capital Inc. (Panama), two offshore companies included in the complaint filed by the Federal Administration of Public Revenues against Gianfranco Macri, for alleged irregularities in the laundering of assets or tax compliance promoted by his brother’s presidency.
In another article, this media underlined that Pandora Papers ‘allowed to go deeper in the roll of the Argentineans in the use of tax havens: they resort to these jurisdictions to open bank accounts, acquire properties and fund businesses in Argentina or abroad’.
They used companies based in the British Virgin Islands and Belize to invest in real estate in Miami or to keep millions in New York banks, it adds.
On its part, the newspaper El Destape echoed the news by stating that ‘once again offshore companies appeared on the radar. Argentina became the third country in the world with more beneficiaries who hid assets in this type of companies, even for tax evasion purposes’, while Página 12 published an article with the headline ‘Pandora is also Argentina’.
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