The files were obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and in addition to the names of the individuals in question, they also disclose which banks and accountancy firms were used to facilitate the offshoring, and where the assets are being held.
The documents were part of a cache of 2.5 million "leaked" files that the ICIJ’s journalists sifted through, with help from more than 50 "'reporting partners’ in Europe, North America, Asia and other regions,” according to the ICIJ, which said they showed how China's wealthy had become major clients of such Western institutions as PwC, UBS and other Western banks and accounting firms.
Such institutions, the ICIJ noted in an overview of its findings, had played “a key role as middlemen in helping Chinese clients set up trusts and companies in the British Virgin Islands, Samoa and other offshore centres usually associated with hidden wealth”.
“For instance, Swiss financial giant Credit Suisse helped Wen Jiabao’s son create his BVI while his father was leading the country.”
The files on which the ICIJ based its findings originally came from two offshore firms – Singapore-based Portcullis TrustNet and BVI-based Commonwealth Trust Ltd – which help clients to set up offshore companies, trusts and bank accounts, the ICIJ said.
Global coverage
News reports of the ICIJ’s findings are being carried today by major news organisations around the world.
The SCMP noted that the exposé of the offshore holdings of Chinese elite’s offshore accounts had come "at a crucial moment in China's ongoing debate on the wealth amassed by family members of China's top leaders". It also coincides with the trial of Xu Zhiyong, the founder of the so-called New Citizen Movement, "a grass-roots campaign which has called for the declaration of assets by government officials".
