Starting on October 4, 2021, KCIJ-Newstapa reports the findings of the project “The Pandora Papers: Koreans who Fled to Tax Havens 2021.” It is a collaborative project coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists(ICIJ) which was joined by more than 600 journalists from all over the world. This global team of journalists has been investigating over 11.9 million documents leaked from 14 offshore service providers, including Trident Trust, Alcogal and IL SHIN CPA and IL SHIN Corporate Consulting.    

– Editor’s Note - 

The Pandora Papers is the largest client information leak from offshore service providers. The leaked files reveal a pile of names of influential people including kings, presidents, prime ministers, politicians and public officials who have been the clients of offshore service providers. Based on the leaked tax haven files, 150 media outlets around the world, including Korea’s Newstapa, have led a global investigation project for the past year. We call the project the Pandora Papers. 

The Pandora Paper data consists of 11.9 million documents leaked from 14 offshore service providers: 3,3753,31 files from Trident Trust, one of the largest offshore service providers; 2,185,783 files from Alcogal, a Panamanian law firm; 1,800,650 files from Asiaciti Trust; and 1,575,840 files from IL SHIN CPA and IL SHIN Corporate Consulting. The documents span five decades from 1970 to 2021. The size is 2.94 terabytes. 

The number of files per offshore service provider is as follows:

By October 4, 2021, the global journalists who have been working on the Pandora Papers have identified 300 names of political leaders and public officials. They include Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Brazil’s Economy Minister, Paulo Guedes and a Russian television executive Konstantin Ernst.

The investigation exposes that King Abdullah II purchased three mansions in Malibu, California, through offshore companies for $ 38 million, and Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis has a $22 million chateau in France. 

Clients of offshore service providers also include top celebrities like Shakira and Claudia Schiffer, and an Italian mobster, Raffaele Amato. 

What makes the Pandora Papers meaningful to Korea is that it contains internal documents of a Korean accounting firm set up in Hong Kong, IL SHIN CPA and IL SHIN Corporate Consulting. There are 15 million files from IL SHIN. 

Newstapa’s data team is currently analyzing 88,353 documents containing Korean names. 80,274 of them came from IL SHIN. 

Particularly, Newstapa is reviewing 465 Korean names that have been identified as beneficial owners. They include 275 individuals and 184 corporates. 

Newstapa will start with the cases that have high public values.