Live: Paradise Papers offshore leak

1. The leak, dubbed the Paradise Papers, contains 13 million documents
2. Prince Charles' offshore financial interests revealed in latest wave of stories
3. Tax affairs of British island territories under the spotlight
4. US tech firm Apple has secret tax bolthole in Jersey, papers reveal
5. EU finance ministers call for a blacklist of tax havens
6. Trump's commerce secretary selling shares in firm with links to Russia

Paradise Papers live coverage: evening summary

BBC

We are going to finish our coverage at the end of day three of the Paradise Papers revelations.

The huge trove of leaked documents has made headlines around the world on the offshore financial affairs of hundreds of politicians, multinationals, celebrities and high-net-worth individuals.

Here are today's top stories so far:

• Prince Charles campaigned to alter climate-change agreements without disclosing his private estate had an offshore financial interest in what he was promoting
• An entrepreneur charged with managing the oil wealth of the struggling African state of Angola was paid more than $41m in just 20 months
• The Isle of Man has rejected claims it is a tax haven, saying it doesn't welcome those "seeking to evade or aggressively avoid taxes"

They came after a wave of stories on Monday, including:

• Apple has protected its low-tax regime by using the Channel Island of Jersey
• Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton avoided tax on his £16.5m luxury jet, the papers suggest
• A Lithuanian shopping mall partly owned by U2 star Bono is under investigation for potential tax evasion
• How three stars of the hit BBC sitcom, Mrs Brown's Boys, diverted more than £2m into an offshore tax-avoidance scheme

And the stories on day one revealed:

• The Queen's private estate invested about £10m offshore including a small amount in the company behind BrightHouse, a chain accused of irresponsible lending
• One of President Donald Trump's top administration officials kept a financial stake in a firm whose major partners include a Russian company part-owned by President Vladimir Putin's son-in-law
• Lord Ashcroft, a former Conservative party deputy chairman, has denied allegations he ignored the rules around how his offshore investments were managed.

Britain's offshore secrets exposed

The revelations from the Paradise Papers, a leak of more than 13 million documents combed over by nearly 100 media groups, has stunned the world and shone a light on the financial affairs of the wealthy and powerful.

If you missed the two special BBC Panorama episodes which laid bare many of the biggest stories from the leak, you can still catch it on iPlayer.

Prince's climate-change views 'well known'

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A bit more on the revelation from the Paradise Papers that Prince Charles campaigned to alter climate-change agreements without disclosing his private estate had an offshore financial interest in what he was promoting.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for the Prince denied that Charles had spoken out on the climate-change deals in order to benefit financially.

"The Prince has never chosen to speak out on a topic simply because of a company that The Duchy may have invested in," he said. "In the case of climate change his views are well-known, indeed he has been warning of the threat of global warming to our environment for over 30 years."

The spokesman added that carbon markets were just one of many strategies Charles had championed since the 1990s to try and slow the pace of climate change.

Oil firm uses tax haven 'shell' company

Ithaca Energy set up a shell company on Bermuda in 2012 to buy its share in a $50m (£38m) North Sea oil production platform.

In the leaked papers, Ithaca stated it was "important" to its tax position the company was controlled from Bermuda.

Les Thomas, the chief executive of Ithaca, spoke to BBC reporter Mark Daly about the arrangement outside the firm's Aberdeen office.

The problems facing an EU tax blacklist

BBC News Channel

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Estonian Finance minister Toomas Toniste says there's "strong support" for a tax blacklist

BBC correspondent Kevin Connolly says that if European finance ministers are going to pull together a list of tax havens and companies who are avoiding tax (see our post at 17.03), they must be prepared to act on it.

He told the BBC News Channel: "There are obvious targets - the usual suspects sometimes referred to in this sort of debate like those small Caribbean islands, like Panama and like other countries like that where large amount of financial business are transacted, which are not related to the local economy.

"It is one thing to produce a blacklist - pretty much anyone can do that - there is a huge question then about what you do to those blacklisted companies and of course for the EU in particular, there are also issues over the tax arrangements that some member states have made."

Prince Charles’s offshore investments revealed

Paradise Papers: Prince Charles’s offshore investments revealed

Prince Charles’s private estate secretly invested in an offshore company which lobbied to change climate agreements.

Isle of Man 'responsible for own fiscal matters'

House of Commons

Parliament

HoC

Financial Secretary to the Treasury Mel Stride responds to the concerns outlined by Dame Margaret Hodge, paying tribute to her as a "determined campaigner".

He says the government takes all allegations of tax avoidance and evasion "very seriously". He points out that the Isle of Man has "separate democratic institutions responsible for their own fiscal matters".

Mr Stride notes that the British Crown Dependency is conducting a review of VAT and the importation of aircraft, which he welcomes.

He further observes that journalists have not turned over details of the Paradise Papers requested by HM Revenue and Customs.

UK 'subsidising tax haven'

House of Commons

Parliament

HoC

The Isle of Man's low-tax system has come under intense scrutiny following revelations in the Paradise Papers documents.

Dame Margaret Hodge calls on the government to publish details of a formula which sees the UK government paying the island for the VAT it should generate, even if that's not the amount that's collected.

She tells parliament that the payments of about £300m a year "support and subsidise it as a tax haven".

How money is diverted from poor countries

There's a special File on 4 episode on the Paradise Papers in 10 minutes on BBC Radio 4. It's looking at how money is transferred out of the developing world and into the pockets of the rich.

'Poor oversight tarnished Queen's reputation'

House of Commons

Parliament

BBC

Dame Margaret Hodge says she's in "no doubt the Queen was as appalled as the rest of us" at discovering her money was invested offshore.

The Paradise Papers showed that the Duchy of Lancaster, which provides the Queen with an income, held about £10m in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda.

"With proper transparency of the Duchy of Lancaster's affairs this would never have happened.

"If Treasury had properly monitored the financial affairs of the Duchy, the Queen's reputation would not have been tarnished," Dame Margaret says in the House of Commons.

She adds: "The fact that the Queen's financial advisers saw nothing wrong with investing offshore in dodgy companies shows how deeply entrenched and acceptable the practices of hiding wealth offshore and avoiding tax have become."

Newsnight has more on Paradise Papers...

'No knighthood for Lewis Hamilton'

House of Commons

Parliament

AFP

Labour's Dame Margaret Hodge opens her parliamentary debate on the Paradise Papers by saying they reveal a "completely toxic mixture" of wrongdoing involving money.

She goes on to say: "It must be completely obvious to us all that anybody who is found to have used artificial financial structures offshore simply to hide their wealth and avoid tax should not be awarded with an honour from the Queen.

"Lewis Hamilton should not receive a knighthood."

It recently emerged via the Paradise Papers documents that the Formula 1 champion avoided tax on his £16.5m luxury jet by importing it to the Isle of Man in 2013.

MPs discuss Paradise Papers

‘There's a serious conflict of interest’

Paradise Papers: ‘There's a serious conflict of interest’

A former chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life has said Prince Charles' actions amounted to a serious conflict of interest.

Sir Alistair Graham says Prince Charles should be accountable to public scrutiny. The committee, which he chaired from 2003 to 2007, advises the prime minister on ethical standards across public life in England.

BBC Panorama has found that the Prince of Wales campaigned to alter climate-change agreements without disclosing his private estate had an offshore financial interest in what he was promoting

His private estate says the prince had no direct involvement in its investments. A Clarence House spokesman said the prince had "certainly never chosen to speak out on a topic simply because of a company that it may have invested in".

Paradise Papers: All you need to know

BBC

The investments of Prince Charles' private estate are the latest to be revealed in the data leak dubbed the Paradise Papers.

The financial affairs of hundreds of politicians, multinationals, celebrities and high-net-worth individuals, some of them household names, have been revealed.

For a full recap on what's been uncovered so far, click here.

Tycoon made $41m from Angolan 'people's fund'

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The stories from the Paradise Papers are coming thick and fast.

The leaked documents also reveal that an entrepreneur charged with managing the oil wealth of the struggling African state of Angola was paid more than $41m in just 20 months.

The payments were made via a complex web of companies set up in the offshore jurisdiction of Mauritius.

Jean-Claude Bastos also used his position to help set up large investment deals he stands to further profit from, the Paradise Papers show.

All sides deny any wrongdoing.

Read our full story here.

Blackstone avoided UK taxes on property deals

BBC

Private equity firm Blackstone avoided tens of millions of pounds in UK taxes on property deals in Glasgow and London, the Paradise Papers show.

The documents reveal it used offshore companies to purchase and operate the St Enoch Shopping Centre in Glasgow (pictured) and Chiswick Business Park in London.

The papers show how accountancy firms mapped out strategies to minimise or avoid every significant tax.

Blackstone said its investments were "wholly compliant with UK tax laws".

Read the full story here.

Prince Charles' offshore investments

BBC

BreakingPrince Charles lobbied on policy after shares buy

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Prince Charles campaigned to alter climate-change agreements without disclosing his private estate had an offshore financial interest in what he was promoting, BBC Panorama has found.

The Paradise Papers show the Duchy of Cornwall in 2007 secretly bought shares worth $113,500 in a Bermuda firm that would benefit from a rule change.

The prince was a friend of a director of Sustainable Forestry Management Ltd. The Duchy of Cornwall says he has no direct involvement in its investments.

Read the full story here.

'Reputation matters a lot' - Jersey tax expert

Ryan Morrison

BBC News Online

BBC

John Shenton, a Jersey tax expert, says the Paradise Papers story could harm the island's reputation. "There is nothing to suggest anybody has done anything wrong, anybody has done anything illegal or Jersey has done anything wrong," he said.

"What you have is a perception - it is hard to change perception - that something isn't right here.

"Reputation matters a lot and it is very difficult if somebody sullies your reputation, it is hard to get it back," he added.

The Paradise Papers contain 13m documents obtained from law firm Appleby and others. Appleby described it as an "illegal data breach" and as a hack.

One document revealed Apple registered as a tax resident of Jersey in 2015 after a law change in Ireland. Apple says they didn't transfer any money out of Ireland in 2015.