Most of us agree that paying taxes are unpleasant, but few of us will ever make enough money to walk in the footsteps of the following multi-millionaires, who went to great lengths to avoid taxes or hide their wealth. Those that do, however, turn to tax havens–like Panama.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with being a tax haven, or stashing your treasure in one. In fact, the United States is quickly becoming a favorite haven among the world’s wealthy. But if you’re caught funneling cash overseas, especially as a public figure, expect your actions to be considered suspicious. Companies set up in tax havens are anonymous, conveniently hiding where the money that’s tucked away came from. If you’re a world leader lining your pockets by engaging in corruption and you need somewhere to bury the evidence, a tax haven like Panama is ideal. Thanks to the Panama Papers leak, led by the International Consortium for Investigative Journalism, some of those names and shady practices have seen the light of day. These are some of the headliners:
Russia’s Vladimir Putin
Controversy surrounding President Vladimir Putin always seems to take a familiar shape: A lurking suspicion about his activities is counterbalanced by plausible deniability, the absence of hard fact and the blaming of Western powers. Though Putin himself wasn’t named in the papers, a very close friend of his, cellist Sergei Roldugin, was listed as the owner of two offshore companies. One was involved in a particularly shady deal where a $6 million loan was later written off for $1. Some of this money has been traced back to loans from state banks and linked to Putin through a ski resort, where one of his daughters was married. Roldugin has yet to explain how he as a musician rather than a businessman holds a number of stakes in Russian companies, including Bank Rossiya, described as Putin’s “crony bank” and sanctioned by the U.S. The bank also just happens to be run by Yuri Kovalchuk, whom the U.S. alleges is Putin’s personal