Wiki Leaks Juliena Assangea so ‘peanuts’ v primerjavi s projektom “Offshore Leaks“: ICIJ, mednarodni konzorcij raziskovalnih novinarjev 86-ih novinarjev iz 46 držav, 15 mesecev dela, 2.5 milijona dokumentov v obsegu 260 gigabajtov podatkov za 120,000 poštnih nabiralnikov, offshore bančnih računov in dubioznih poslov, v katere je bilo vpletenih 140,000 oseb iz več kot 170 držav. V davčnih oazah širom sveta naj bi se po študiji Jamesa S. Henryja (2012) skrivalo med 21,000 in 32,000 milijard dolarjev utajenih prihodkov, kar je enako letnemu BDP ZDA in Japonske skupaj.

Po Spieglu navajam zgolj nekaj dejstev:

“A well-paid industry of accountants, middlemen and other operatives has helped offshore patrons shroud their identities and business interests, providing shelter in many cases to money laundering or other misconduct,” ICIJ writes. This involves “many of the world’s top banks — including UBS, Clariden and Deutsche Bank,” which it accuses of having “aggressively worked to provide their customers with secrecy-cloaked companies in the British Virgin Islands and other offshore hideaways.” A spokesperson for UBS told the journalists investigating the accounts that the bank applies “the highest international standards” to fighting money laundering.

The documents investigated cover a period of close to 30 years. They expose numbers and facts, money transfers, the dates letterbox companies were founded and connections between companies and individuals. The total mass of data is reported to be 160 times larger than the trove of State Department cables published by WikiLeaks in 2010.

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The list of alleged tax evaders is as long as it is diverse. ICIJ claims it includes government officials and their families in places like Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Thailand and Canada. It also includes, “American doctors and dentists and middle-class Greek villagers as well as families and associates of long-time despots, Wall Street swindlers, Eastern European and Indonesian billionaires, Russian corporate executives, international arms dealers and a sham-director-fronted company that the European Union has labelled as a cog in Iran’s nuclear-development program.”

In seveda nekaj bolj žgečkljivih imen, najdenih v globalnih davčnih utajah (Spiegel):

German public broadcaster NDR has reported that another prominent offshore client on the British Virgin Islands was top Russian oligarch and multibillionaire Mikhail Fridman. It claimed the most important man behind his construct of firms was Franz Wolf, the 60-year-old son of former East German spy chief Markus Wolf. NDR reported the Wolf refused to answer any questions from journalists with the broadcaster about the allegations.

The wife of Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, as well as two top executives of Gazprom, are also included on the list of alleged tax evaders, according to the ICIJ reporting. They, too, are alleged to hold stakes in companies based in the British Virgin Islands. All declined to comment to the consortium.

Meanwhile, Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva, the daughters of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, appear several times in the records. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has reported that they have three holdings on the British Virgin Islands.

Pomembno je, kaj bo temu razkritju sledilo. Bo sledila globalna akcija proti davčnim utajam? Bodo države zahtevale razkritje informacij o premoženju njihovih državljanov v davčnih oazah in to premoženje – po ciprskem vzorcu – obdavčile? To bi bila seveda tista prava pot. Tudi davčna amnestija v zameno za plačilo davka po določeni znižani davčni stopnji bi bila primerna pot, kako davčne utajevalce spraviti nazaj v nacionalni okvir. To bi seveda zahtevalo globalni dogovor na ravni skupine G8 in G20. Toda vprašanje je, ali niso premožni posamezniki v ozadju, ki so bodisi del politične elite bodisi politične elite tudi v najbolj razvitih državah sponzorirajo, premočni za takšno globalno akcijo proti davčnim utajam.