‘Pandora’s Papers’ reveals the mysterious businesses of hundreds of characters
Jacques Villeneuve, on the list for having companies in tax havens
Former Formula 1 driver Jacques Villeneuve’s name appears in the Pandora Papers, a global investigation that has uncovered shadowy deals from politicians, millionaires and artists from more than 90 countries.
It’s an even bigger investigation than the Panama Papers and the name of the 1997 Formula 1 world champion, Jacques Villeneuve, is in it, Canadian public broadcaster CBC reported.
The leaked files refer to 30 current or former world leaders and contain the names of 300 other public figures who have businesses in tax havens. For example, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the current Prime Ministers of the Czech Republic and Kenya and the King of Jordan are on the list.
It is about 11.9 million files, from emails to bank papers, documents and records of 14 companies providing tax haven services, that were leaked by a confidential source to the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
These papers show how certain personalities take advantage of opaque structures to protect their assets, evade taxes, or hide wealth.
There is nothing illegal about owning an account or company in a tax haven as long as the tax authorities are aware of it. The problem is the anonymity that jurisdiction provides tax havens along with little or no taxes, making these havens a magnet for money launderers, tax evaders, corrupt politicians, and other criminals.
Villeneuve lived in Monaco and Switzerland for most of his career and in Quebec in the 1990s and then from 2007 to 2013. Bandura’s papers show that he had companies in tax havens set up under a tax-free framework since the beginning of his career. as a pilot. These companies were set up as a “repository” of his salary as a pilot and the money of his sponsors.