The Paradise Papers, a Massive Document Dump, Show Where the Superrich, and Obviously Trump Leeches, Put Their Money
PoliticsIn the second-largest data leak of all time, a great Something Burger, 96 media organizations from 67 countries have been working together to sort through 13.4 million papers–dubbed the “Paradise Papers”–documenting where the world’s elite store their money. The documents, originally obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, have been heroically organized by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) into a surfable database with illustrations. The “donate” button is at the bottom of their page.
Yes, the Trump Administration is implicated. First it shows that many administration officials store their money in offshore tax havens. Though the activities are not illegal, it seems that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross (profile link) and Jared Kushner did not disclose business ties to the Kremlin.
According to the Paradise Papers, Ross previously served on the board of a company called Navigator, one of whose largest clients is a petrochemicals company with “close ties to the Kremlin.” A spokesperson says that Ross “recuses himself from any matters focused of transoceanic shipping vessels, but has been generally supportive of the administration’s sanctions of Russian and Venezuelan entities.” A federal statue bars executive branch employees, including Cabinet members, from participating in decision-making which affects a personal financial interest.
For Jared Kushner, Jared News is always hard to believe because it’s evidence that despite appearances, he’s alive–his Russia connection is tech magnate Yuri Milner. Milner both owns a stake in Jared Kushner’s tech real estate company Cadre and also made “substantial investments” in Twitter and Facebook with money from two Russian state institutions, the Guardian reports. The New York Times reports that with all of his companies combined, Milner owns 8 percent of Facebook and 5 percent of Twitter.