The most expansive leak of tax haven files in history reveals the secret offshore holdings of more than 300 politicians and public officials from more than 90 countries and territories in the Pandora Papers.

The trove of more than 11.9 million confidential files shows how presidents, prime ministers, royals, elected officials — and some of their family members and closest associates — stash assets in a covert financial system with the help of firms who establish companies in secrecy jurisdictions.

The examination of the files is the largest organized by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), with more than 650 reporters taking part.

It is the latest in a string of leaks over the past seven years, following the FinCen Files, the Paradise Papers, the Panama Papers and LuxLeaks.

Nearly 70 politicians and public officials from 20 countries and territories in Asia were found to have offshore entities in the Pandora Papers. Here are the biggest names…

Sri Lanka

Former minister

Nirupama Rajapaksa

Nirupama Rajapaksa is a cousin of Sri Lanka’s president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who rose to power during a brutal civil war. She is also a former member of Parliament and served as deputy minister of water supply and drainage from 2010 to 2015.

Her husband, Thirukumar Nadesan, has worked as a consultant and hotel entrepreneur, according to a biography on his company website. In 2016, he was charged with embezzlement in connection with a real estate deal involving another member of the president’s family Basil Rajapaksa, accused of using public funds to build a villa. The case is pending; Nadesan and Basil Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka’s current finance minister, have denied wrongdoing.

Nirupama Rajapaksa and Nadesan together controlled a shell company they used to buy luxury apartments in London and Sydney and to make investments, according to leaked files. Nadesan set up other shell companies and trusts in secrecy jurisdictions, and he used them to obtain lucrative consulting contracts from foreign companies doing business with the Sri Lankan government and to buy artwork.

In 2018, one of the companies, Pacific Commodities, transferred 31 paintings and other South Asian art pieces to the Geneva Freeport, an ultra-secure warehouse where assets are not subject to taxes or duties.

In confidential emails to Asiaciti Trust, a Singapore-based offshore services provider, a longtime adviser of Nadesan’s put his overall wealth, as of 2011, at more than $160 million. ICIJ couldn’t independently verify the figure.

Asiaciti Trust managed some of Nadesan’s offshore companies and trusts, with assets valued at about $18 million, according to an ICIJ analysis. The firm listed him as a politically connected individual because of his wife’s political position. Asiaciti kept the family as clients even after Nadesan was charged with embezzlement in 2016.

Hong Kong

Former Chief Executive

CY Leung

CY Leung founded a surveying company and served on the board of a British real estate firm, DTZ Holdings plc., before he was elected Hong Kong’s chief executive in 2012.

After he was sworn in, Leung disclosed that he owned shares of a DTZ subsidiary through a shell company, Wintrack Worldwide Ltd., and said he had transferred those shares to a trust to avoid any conflict of interests while in office. He claimed the subsidiary’s business did not "touch upon Hong Kong and the Mainland," but didn’t provide details.

Leaked records show that Leung used shell companies to own shares in EuroAsia Properties, a DTZ subsidiary operating in Japan. The records show that in late 2015, one of those shell companies transferred its stake in EuroAsia Properties, valued at $302,500, to DTZ. The transfer occurred while Leung was under investigation by the anti-corruption agency. It is not clear whether he was compensated for disposing of the shares.

In April 2017, while still Hong Kong’s top leader, Leung was listed as the owner of two British Virgin Islands companies, Wintrack Worldwide and Ace Link Property Ltd., the company that had held the stake in EuroAsia Properties. According to BVI registry documents, both companies were still active in November 2020.

Hong Kong

Former Chief Executive

Tung Chee-hwa

Tung Chee-hwa, a billionaire and the eldest son of a shipping magnate, was the first chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, presiding over the return of the former British colony to Chinese rule in 1997. He resigned in 2005, two years before the end of his term, citing medical reasons. But critics said Tung resigned after his government failed to pass Beijing-backed anti-subversion legislation that had sparked widespread protests in Hong Kong.

Tung was then elected vice-chair of China’s top political advisory body, a position he holds today, along with his successor as chief executive, Leung Chun-ying. Tung also helped run his family business, Orient Overseas, one of Hong Kong's largest shipping companies.

Tung’s billionaire brother, Chee-chen, was Orient Overseas’ chairman and CEO. In 2018, the Tungs sold their stake to COSCO, a Chinese state-owned shipping firm.

In 2017, the Tung brothers bought Rockington Ltd., a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, to open a bank account holding for $1 million in “liquid funds,” according to leaked files. The application form noted Tung Chee-hwa’s political position.

The company is one of nearly 30 offshore companies that the Tungs have registered in jurisdictions such as the BVI and Nevis, another Caribbean island. Some of those companies were created for the shipping business, according to an ICIJ review of leaked files and Orient Overseas company records.

Mongolia

Former Prime Minister

Sükhbaataryn Batbold

Sükhbaataryn Batbold made a fortune in mining before becoming a politician.

Batbold was appointed to a series of ministerial positions between 2000 and 2009, before Mongolia’s legislature, the State Great Khural, elected him prime minister. He left that office three years later. He has been a member of Parliament since 2004.

Batbold has faced lawsuits in Mongolia, the United Kingdom, Singapore and the United States, in relation to allegations that he received hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks from mining deals.

Batbold’s American attorney told ICIJ that he “categorically denies the allegations raised against him.” They said that “no court” has found any truth to the allegations, adding that “shadowy figures filed a number of abusive lawsuits against Mr. Batbold, including in London, Singapore, Hong Kong, Jersey, New York and Mongolia.”

In April 2006, when Batbold was Mongolia’s trade minister, he created the Quantum Lake Trust in Guernsey, an island tax haven in the English Channel.

The trust owned the BVI shell company, Premier Edge Ltd. Batbold became the company’s first shareholder in 2005.

In 2006, Premier Edge Ltd bought two luxury apartments in the same London building for more than $8.8 million, according to public records.

In response to ICIJ’s questions, an adviser to Batbold said the former prime minister legally purchased and sold property and complied with Mongolian laws when owning and investing through offshore companies.

“Batbold made no secret of the fact that his family lived in the flats in London during the time when the family members studied and worked there, long before the alleged ‘illegal kickbacks from mining,’” said the adviser, who called those allegations false.

China

Delegate, Henan province

Qiya Feng

Qiya Feng is a Chinese politician and entrepreneur who heads several companies, including the investment firm Shanghai Qisen Investment Holdings Co. Ltd., which, according to its website, manages an estimated $1.2 billion in assets.

Feng was a member of the Henan Provincial People’s Congress, the local legislature, from 2013 to 2017. Since 2018, she has been a delegate to the National People’s Congress, representing Henan province in the country’s top legislative body.

At the 2019 National Congress annual meeting, Feng recommended stricter laws to prevent corruption and white-collar crime involving private companies.

In 2016, Feng set up a company in the British Virgin Islands called Linkhigh Trading Ltd. with the purpose of investing in U.S. stocks. The company's assets, valued at $2 million, came from Feng’s real estate business, according to incorporation documents.

At the time her company was incorporated, Feng was a client of the Credit Suisse bank, which provided a reference for her, reporting that “the transactions executed through us have not given rise to any complaints whatsoever.” In internal emails, an employee of offshore provider Trident Trust noted that Feng is a politically exposed person and therefore required further due diligence.

Link high Trading is registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, but SEC records show that it is not active.

Feng did not respond to ICIJ’s repeated requests for comment.

Pakistan

Finance Minister

Shaukat Tarin

Shaukat Tarin is a businessman who has worked in the banking sector for more than 40 years. He first served as Pakistan’s finance minister from 2008 to 2010 under former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani and resigned to raise funds for Silkbank Ltd., a Pakistani commercial bank where he served as a board member. Prime Minister Imran Khan appointed Tarin finance minister again last April. In order to remain in office for more than six months, he will need to be elected to parliament by October 16, 2021.

Tarin holds one offshore company, Triperna Inc., while three of his family members hold three others named Hamra Inc., Moonen Inc. and Seafex Inc. All four companies were registered in Seychelles in 2014 to hold investments, according to the Pandora Papers. The records of all four companies are maintained by Tariq Fawad Malik, a financial consultant based in Dubai, who received company records and managed correspondence. According to Malik, the companies were set up as part of the Tarin family’s intended investment in a bank with a Saudi business. Malik told the ICIJ that, “as a mandatory prerequisite by [the] regulator, we engaged with the Central Bank of Pakistan to obtain their ’in-principle approval for the said strategic investment.” The deal didn’t proceed.

Tarin did not respond to ICIJ’s repeated request for comment. In a statement issued on the day of the Pandora Papers’ publication, Tarin said, “The off-shore companies mentioned were incorporated as part of the fundraising process for my Bank.”

Pakistan

Minister for Water Resources

Moonis Elahi

Chaudhry Moonis Elahi comes from a political dynasty in Pakistan. His father, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, is a former chief minister of Punjab, a former deputy prime minister of Pakistan, the founder of a major political party called the Pakistan Muslim League Q (PML-Q) and the current speaker of the Provincial Assembly of Punjab. Moonis Elahi’s uncle and grandfather were also prominent politicians. The family is also very wealthy, with businesses in textiles and the sugar industry.

Moonis Elahi served as a PML-Q representative in the Punjab assembly from 2008 to 2018. In 2018, he won the election to the National Assembly and the PML-Q joined a coalition government led by the Tehreek-e-Insaf party headed by newly elected Prime Minister Imran Khan. Khan appointed Elahi federal minister for water resources in July.

Elahi has been implicated in a number of high-profile scandals, including allegations of misusing public funds, corruption, bribery and attempted murder. He has denied all wrongdoing and has never been convicted of any crime. In 2013, ICIJ revealed an offshore company registered in the British Virgin Islands belonging to Elahi. In an email to ICIJ, Elahi said that he didn’t own or control the BVI company, but did not mention whether he had in the past.

The Pandora Papers reveal that in 2016, Moonis Elahi became a client of the Singapore-based offshore service provider, Asiaciti, hoping to invest $5.6 million in proceeds from an alleged loan scandal into a trust. When the offshore provider notified him of its obligation to report the investment to Pakistan tax authorities, Elahi called Asiaciti, raising “concerns” about the reporting requirements and deciding to terminate the trust. According to the leaked document, Elahi told Asiaciti that he would instead hold the investments in a U.K.-registered trust in his wife’s name, who as a U.K. tax resident, would not be subject to the same disclosure requirements. Elahi did not respond to ICIJ’s repeated requests for comment.

On the publication day of the Pandora Papers investigation, a spokesperson for the Elahi family told ICIJ partners that, “due to political victimization misleading interpretations and data have been circulated in files for nefarious reasons. ” He added that the assets of the family “are declared as per applicable law.”