TheCable

Assets belonging to wealthy and powerful individuals such as Lionel Messi, world’s best footballer; Ian Cameron, late father of incumbent British prime minister; Salman bin Abdulaziz, king of Saudi Arabia, have been uncovered in the biggest financial data leak in history.

Associates of President Vladimir Putin of Russia, President Khalifa bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Lybya’s Muammar Gaddafi and some top British politicians were also exposed in the secret deals.

A host of celebrities and the global rich were implicated in the documents leaked from one of the world’s most secretive companies, Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

The firm boasts of a global network with 600 people working in 42 countries. The services it offers include incorporating companies in offshore jurisdictions such as the British Virgin Islands, as well as wealth management and administering offshore firms for a yearly fee.

The company operates in tax havens such as Switzerland, Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands, as well as British crown dependencies Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man.

The company has allegedly helped clients launder money, dodge sanctions and evade tax.

German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung obtained the files and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICJ) but the identity of the source who leaked them and how it was done is unknown.

Families and associates of Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak, Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad are among 12 world leaders who are said to have benefited from tax havens.

The leaders are President of Argentina Mauricio Macri; Salman bin Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Saud, King of Saudi Arabia; president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko; prime minister of Iceland, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson and UAE president, Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

Others are former prime minister of Georgia, Bidzina Ivanishvili; Ex-prime minister of Iraq, Ayad Allawi; former prime minister of Jordan, Ali Abu al-Ragheb; former prime minister of Qatar, Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani; former emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani; former president of Sudan, Ahmad Ali al-Mirghani; and convicted former Ukraine prime minister, Pavlo Lazarenko

Lord Ashcroft, Baroness Pamela Sharples and former Tory MP Michael Mates are among the British politicians named in the data release.

The document revealed how a member of FIFA’s ethics committee, which is supposed to be reforming the organisation, worked as a lawyer for people charged with bribery and corruption.

Putin’s name is not included in the records but his friends and associates appear to have earned millions of pounds from deals that would have been difficult to secure without his patronage.

Among the disclosures are that six members of the House of Lords and three former Conservative MPs had offshore accounts, although the only British politicians so far named are Lord Ashcroft, Tory peer Baroness Pamela Sharples and former Conservative MP Michael Mates.

Dozens of donors to UK political parties had similar arrangements, according to the leak.

UAE president in the middle

Campaigners said David Cameron now faces a “credibility test”, having promised to end tax secrecy four years ago.

The Prime Minister will now come under intense pressure to abolish all the UK’s tax havens, including the crown dependencies Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.

In 2012, it emerged that the prime minister’s father ran a network of entirely legal offshore investment funds to grow the family fortune.

The data covers nearly 40 years, from 1977 to the end of 2015, and lists nearly 15,600 paper companies set up for clients who wanted to keep their financial affairs secret.

Thousands were created by UBS and HSBC, the latter of which was fined by the US government for laundering money from Iran.

The leaks also reveal a suspected billion-dollar money laundering ring that was run by a Russian bank and involved close associates of President Putin.

Commenting on the leak: Fonseca said: “Our firm has never been accused or charged in connection with criminal wrongdoing.

“If we detect suspicious activity or misconduct, we are quick to report it to the authorities.”

Gerard Ryle, director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, said the documents covered the day-to-day business at Mossack Fonseca for the past 40 years.

“I think the leak will prove to be probably the biggest blow the offshore world has ever taken because of the extent of the documents,” he said.