The bitter marital split of aviation tycoon Clive Joy has highlighted the issue the role tax efficient offshore trusts can play in lengthy High Court divorces. Recently aviation tycoon Clive Joy hit the headlines, but not for his expertise in aerospace issues. It was because in the course of a bitter… – Continue reading
People who used to know young billionaire-in-exile Serhiy Kurchenko say that if he ever started drawing his financial “chain” on a piece of paper, it would finish up on the ceiling. Kurchenko’s chain is made up of hundreds of fake Ukrainian companies, dozens of offshore firmsand more than 600 people who… – Continue reading
Texas tycoons Sam and Charles Wyly employed a labyrinthine system of offshore trusts to conceal stock trades in four companies on whose boards they sat, netting themselves more than $550 million in undisclosed profits, a U.S. government lawyer told a federal jury on Thursday. “This is a case about lies,… – Continue reading
BRUSSELS: While the origin of illicit financial flows ranges from government embezzlement to human trafficking, and from corporate tax evasion to grand corruption, the destination seems less ambiguous. A $35 million mansion in California, artwork totalling 18 million, and a $38 million dollar private jet. These sound like items purchased… – Continue reading
Quebec Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard opened an offshore account in a tax haven on the island of Jersey while he worked as a neurosurgeon in Saudi Arabia in the 1990s, a Radio-Canada report says. While Mr. Couillard did nothing illegal, the news report raises questions about his credibility to demand… – Continue reading
More bits of information have emerged regarding China’s secretive, young billionaire Perenna Kei. After Forbes Magazine put Kei on their list of the world’s youngest billionaires, the search for details began. Most publications could not confirm her identity, as several photos were published mistakenly labeling Kei. A new photo of… – Continue reading
Corporate Tax Avoidance: Inditex, the Spanish owner of Zara, this week announced its first fall in annual profits in five years as the world’s biggest fashion retailer invested in stores while foreign exchange rates moved against it. However, Amancio Ortega Gaona, founding chairman of Inditex, with a stake of 60%… – Continue reading
MUNICH, Germany — German prosecutors said Monday they won’t appeal against Uli Hoeness’ 3 1/2-year sentence for tax evasion, clearing the way for the former Bayern Munich president to start his prison term. Hoeness, one of German football’s most prominent figures, was convicted last Thursday of evading about 28.5 million… – Continue reading
Celebrities and major companies locked in legal battles over tax-avoidance schemes will be forced to pay up before their cases are resolved, under new rules to be introduced in this week’s Budget. The rules will hit 65,000 companies and individuals in dispute with the taxman over their use of complex… – Continue reading
BERLIN — When all of his cards were played and Uli Hoeness, the Bayern Munich president and German soccer legend, faced the prospect of a protracted and high-profile appeal of his conviction on charges of tax evasion, he chose to take his punishment. In a surprise move that came hours… – Continue reading
France’s disgraced former budget minister Jerôme Cahuzac, who was sacked after admitting he hid funds in a Swiss account, also had a €2.5 million stashed in a secret bank account in the Isle of Man, a British tax haven, it was claimed on Thursday. Cahuzac’s estranged wife Patricia admitted the… – Continue reading
KUALA LUMPUR: Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) should tap Hong Kong’s access to the markets in China, Japan and South Korea to gain tax advantages under the double-taxation deduction pact signed between Malaysia and HK. Hong Kong Trade Development Council deputy executive director, Margaret Fong, said HK SMEs paid five… – Continue reading
The young Ukrainian ex-billionaire Serhiy Kurchenko, now widely suspected of being a front man for overthrown President Viktor Yanukovych’s family, clearly liked offshore destinations. His companies registered in offshore zones are now accused of trading in oil products using a tax evasion scheme that cost Ukraine’s government an estimated $1… – Continue reading
Bob Geldof, Anne Robinson and Victoria Beckham said to be also among the 1,000 household names affected They each paid a minimum £100,000 to invest in a movie venture that promised to combine box office hits with tempting tax breaks A string of celebrities from David Beckham to Andrew Lloyd… – Continue reading
The European Union says it is freezing the financial assets in Europe of 18 Ukrainians it says misused the Kyiv government’s state funds. The EU’s foreign ministers approved the list Wednesday but withheld the names for a day before their official publication in the EU’s legal journal, so the Ukrainians… – Continue reading
LONDON — If you don’t want something, giving it back is often an option. That’s precisely what some Americans, frustrated at what they see as onerous U.S. tax filing obligations for Americans living overseas, are doing with their citizenship. “I felt like I had gotten a divorce,” says Donna-Lane Nelson,… – Continue reading
BERLIN: German football legend Uli Hoeness (pix), boss of champion club Bayern Munich, will face a high-profile tax evasion trial from Monday, accused of having stashed away millions in Switzerland. The folksy 62-year-old Bavarian club president, who also runs a flourishing sausage company, was arrested and bailed almost a year ago… – Continue reading
Senior German lawmakers on Sunday called for tougher rules to make it harder for tax cheats to claim amnesty by turning themselves in, days after soccer manager Uli Hoeness was sentenced for 3-1/2 years in prison for tax evasion. Recent news that Hoeness and other prominent Germans such as feminist… – Continue reading
Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness, once one of Germany’s most admired managers, goes on trial on Monday charged with tax evasion in a case that has shocked the nation and changed attitudes towards paying taxes. Hoeness, 62, who helped turn Bayern Munich into one of the world’s most respected clubs and won… – Continue reading
Liechtenstein, one of the world’s most uber secretive tax havens, has joined Switzerland in freezing the assets of ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich’s administration. An unnamed senior Liechtenstein government source told Reuters that Liechtenstein was freezing the assets of former party officials in the Ukrainian administration after other jurisdictions launched… – Continue reading
Winston Churchill said there is “no such thing as a good tax.” Surely, then, it follows that no good can come from double taxation. While it’s difficult to feel sympathy for Conrad Black, who earned approximately $3.39 million with another $1.7 million of taxable benefits in 2002, the underlying principles… – Continue reading
Fugitive mainland Chinese tycoon Zeng Wei, who is facing extradition to Hong Kong from the United States, is tied to at least five offshore companies, including one that was involved in a multimillion-dollar bribes-for-loans racket investigated by the ICAC, leaked company documents show. The property developer, hotel and golf course… – Continue reading
Swiss bank UBS is at the centre of embarrassing revelations that it helped to set up a secretive offshore firm for the wife and daughter of a former senior Chinese official who has since been convicted of corruption. Zhang Shuguang, a former deputy chief engineer of the disbanded railways ministry,… – Continue reading
