Argentina, on the Pandora Papers offshore beneficiaries podium

Argentina is the third country with the most final beneficiaries of offshore firms detected in Pandora Papers, the leak of tax havens revealed this Sunday by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ for its acronym in English).

In this new global investigation led by the ICIJ, 617 journalists from 117 countries who work in 150 media were summoned, which in Argentina were Infobae, the newspaper La Nación and elDiarioAR.

With 2,521 Argentine final beneficiaries, Argentina is below Russia (4,437) and the United Kingdom (3,506), according to the newspaper La Nación, these are the “People who are the true owners and have final control of the offshore companies analyzed in the documents.”

Meanwhile, most Argentines chose to create their paper companies in the British Virgin Islands (1,981 companies), a small archipelago in the Caribbean, La Nación explained, and the rest were distributed between Belize, Panama and the United States, plus others. minor destinations.

The documents include, among others, the late former personal secretary of former President Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007), Daniel Muñoz, and the confessed financier of the cause of corruption that involves Kirchner officials called “notebooks of bribery”, Ernesto Clarens.

Also the guru and advisor to former president Mauricio Macri (2015-2019) and his Republican Proposal party, Jaime Durán Barba, and Mariano Macri, the former president’s younger brother.

The investigation will also offer data on Zulemita Menem, daughter of former president Carlos Menem (1989-1999), and Humberto Grondona, the son of the late Julio Grondona, powerful head of the Argentine Football Association for 25 years.

If the information is analyzed by number of companies involved, Argentina is also positioned in the top positions of the Pandora Papers, since it is the fifth country with the most companies controlled from the South American country with at least 1,448 companies, behind the United Kingdom (3,936), Russia (3,694), Hong Kong (2,104) and China (1,892), according to La Nación.

The media clarified that resorting to an offshore company or opening a bank account through a tax haven is not, in itself, an illicit activity. But if the person responsible for this operation does not properly declare his money or any other asset to the tax authorities, he could incur in tax avoidance or the crimes of evasion or laundering, among other criminal figures.