US Commerce Secretary Wilburไ Ross has business ties to a shipping firm linked to Vladimir Putinꦐ's inner circle, according to a vast leak of financial documents that also revealed Britain's Queen Elizabeth II's investments in tax havens.
It was also revealed that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's top fundraiser and senior advisor Stephen Bronfman, heir to the Seagram fortune, moved some USD 60 million to offshore tax havens with ex-senator 🌸Leo Kol🃏ber.
The findings have emerged as part of the ❀Paradise Papers released by the US-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (🍒ICIJ), which was behind the Panama Papers made public last year.
🐻There is no suggestion that Ross, Bronfman or the queen's privat🌄e estate acted illegally.
But Ross's ties to Russian entities raise quꦉestions over potential conflicts of interest, and whether they undermine Washington's sanctions on Moscow.
The൲ revelations about Bronfman could spell trouble for Trudeau, who was elected two years ago riding✃ on the coattails of promises to reduce economic inequality and tax avoidance.
In the case of Queen Elizabeth's private estate, critics may question whether it is appropriate for the Br💮itish head of state to invest in offshore tax havens.
Ross, a billionaire in𒆙vestor, holds a 31 percent stake in Navigator Holdings through a complex web of offshore investments detailed in the documents examined by nearly 100 news organizations as part of an international collaboration.
The 79-year-old reduced his stake when he took public office, according to pu♏blic filings.
Navigator Holdings runs a lucrative partnership with Russian energy giant Sibur, which is partially owned by Putin's son-in-law Kirill Shamalov and Gennady Timchenko, the Russian president's friend and business partner 🍰who is subject to US sanctions.
The US imposed sanctions on Russian entities an🌟d individuals following its annexation of Crimea and aggression in Ukraine.
Ross's priv🦩ate equity firm has been the biggest shareholder in Na♒vigator.
His personal share of the firm's stake was reduced when he took office in February, but the commerce chief's investment is still valued at between USD 2 million to USD 10 million, according to his security filing🐬s and government ethics disclosure.
The New York Times reported that Ross's stake in Navigator has been held by companies in the Cayman Islands. His wealth, ♊estimated to exceed USD 2 billion, is said to be tied to sim🐽ilar arrangements in various tax havens like the Cayman Islands.
"Secretary Ross was not involved with Navigator's decision to engage in business with Sibur, a publicly traded company, which was not under sancti🐼on at the time and is not currently," said James Rockas, a Commerce Department spokesman.
&qu♓ot;Moreover, Secretary Ross has never met th🎶e Sibur shareholders referenced in this story and, until now, did not know of their relationship."
The documents also show around 10 million pounds (USD 13 million) of the Queen's private money was placed in funds held in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda, first reported in Britain by the BBC and the Guardian newspaper.
They repo𓆉rted the funds reinvested the money in an array of businesses, including controversial rent-to-buy retailer BrightHouse, which has been accused of exploiting the poor, and a chain of a🍒lcohol stores that later went bankrupt.
A spokeswoman for ▨the Duchy of Lancaster, which provides the monarch with an i⭕ncome and handles her investments, said: "All of our investments are fully audited and legitimate."
"We oper𝓰ate a n𓂃umber of investments and a few of these are with overseas funds," she added.
The spokeswoman added that one of the fund investments r💙epresents o🦩nly 0.3 per cent of the total value of the Duchy.
The Paradise Papers c🐷ontain 13.4 million documents 𝓰mainly from Appleby, an offshore law firm with offices in Bermuda and beyond.
The files were first obtained by the G෴erman newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, and shared with the ICIJ and pa꧂rtner media outlets.
AFP
