Pandora Papers: 43 African Politicians Implicated in the Biggest Offshore Accounts Leak
- Journalists from around the world have collaborated to unveil one of the biggest collections of data into how the wealthy hide their assets
- The Pandora Papers encompasses of approximately 12 million documents that include emails and images
- Journalists discovered that over 330 political leaders from all around the world had several offshore accounts
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WASHINGTON DC - International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in corporation with over 600 journalists and 140 media global companies have done investigations into the wealthy and how they are hiding their assets in offshore accounts.
ICIJ has obtained the Pandora Papers which is is a leak of nearly 12 million documents that shows concealed riches, tax evasion, and laundering of funds by some of the world's wealthiest and most influential people, including world leaders and political leaders.
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The Pandora Papers is made up of over 6 million documents, 2.9 million images, 1.3 million emails, over 460 000 spreadsheets as well as over 880 000 files labelled as 'others'.
Approximately 336 politicians from around the globe have been fingered in the Pandora Papers. In Africa, 43 politicians are said to be hiding assets in offshore accounts. Two politicians are from South African and Nigeria has the highest number of politicians found with offshore dealings, with 10 politicians being fingered in the documents, according to the ICIJ website.
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According to BBC News, the Pandora Papers also revealed that Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta's family secretly owned a number of offshore accounts for numerous years. One of the companies owned by Kenyatta's family has stocks and bonds worth R447 million.
According to Pandora Papers, Kenyatta's mother, 88-year-old Ngina, is the beneficiary of the Varies foundation, which was established in Panama in 2003 and named Kenyatta as the benefactor, who will inherit everything when she dies.
The names of the other politicians are yet to be released.
Digital Vibes: Ramaphosa says it was necessary for him to wait before releasing the damning report
Briefly News previously reported that President Cyril Ramaphosa held a discussion on Wednesday, 29 September to discuss the Special Investigating Unit's Digital Vibes report as well as answer some pressing questions from the media.
One of the most important questions that South Africans have had is why the president took three months to finally release a report that was seemingly concluded a long time ago.
Ramaphosa explained that the release of the report took so long because he felt that it was necessary for the people who were implicated in the report to be given a chance to raise objections if they had any.
He stated that had they had any objections or viewed the allegations against them a little differently then his office would have needed to make the necessary adjustments to the report, according to IOL.
The health department has every intention of taking action against the people who have been fingered in the SIU's report. The department stated that an official statement on what kind of consequences they will face will come out in the next 24 hours, according to a report by News24.
Source: Briefly News
