In the biggest leak of offshore data in history, hidden assets of some of the world’s richest and most powerful people have been laid bare for the world to see. Aptly named the Pandora Papers, 11.9 million files equating to almost a colossal 3 terabytes of data, have exposed the secret offshore affairs of 35 world leaders, including current and former presidents, prime ministers and heads of state.
In the files, disclosures about major contributors to the Conservative party have been raising difficult questions for Boris Johnsons party and is legal legitimacy. The leak did not just focus on politicians but also celebrities and business magnates. Singer Elton John and Formula Ones Bernie Ecclestone were both highlighted for hiding their wealth and assets in offshore accounts.
The Pandora Papers achieves its goal in allowing the general public, a peer through a window into a usually shrouded financial world. Providing a rare view into the hidden operations of a global offshore economy that enables some of the world’s richest people to hide their wealth and in some cases pay little or no tax.
More than 600 journalists have sifted through the files as part of a massive global investigation. Publications from Nepal’s, Kantipur Daily, to the UK’s Private Eye, are all digesting the massive bulk of information from their respective corner of the world and methodically working their way in.
Setting up or benefiting from offshore entities is not itself illegal. Avoiding tax, in short, refusing to pay tax outright for example, is illegal. However, evading tax, by paying into a pension fund or benefitting from low tax countries isn’t. The secrecy offered by tax havens has at times proven attractive to tax evaders, fraudsters and money launderers, some of whom are exposed in the files.
An estimated £170 Billion worth of UK property is owned offshore. A mixture of high-rise new builds, historic and listed properties and city centre acreage mainly situated in London have all been swallowed by shark like billionaires over the past 15-10 years. Azerbaijani family of president Ilham Aliyev bought an 8-story office building in central London in 2009 for £33.5m, with ownership comically being noted as Aliyev’s 11-year-old son. In 2018 the Crown Estate bought 56-60 Conduit Street, for an estimated £66.5m.
Its moves such as these that exacerbate the already poor quantity of affordable housing in London and its boroughs. The effect trickled its way beyond the M25 and it’s making it mark in the commuter areas of Kent. Gillingham itself has seen rapid gentrification of the past 10 years, in its own attempt to supply housing for commuters looking for more affordable housing with links back into London.
This in turn puts stress on Gillingham locals, with rents skyrocketing. Land and property being gobbled up by property developers, has seen residents who have lived in the area for 1 or more generations moving to more undesirable areas were rent is more affordable, or taking advantage of the higher sale prices and cashing in now, with cases more often than not having to downsize in their next property.
Lee Bailey, estate agent at Gillingham’s Wright and Co said, “I would say in the past ten years, there has been a stark change in the architecture of Gillingham. People are taking advantage of affordable riverside properties and the development of St Marys Island has done a lot to change the general clientele we would be dealing with.”
There is definitely a connection between demand, people wanting to get into London but want somewhere more affordable than London and it becoming less affordable in Gillingham. “
By Alex Gibbons