WASHINGTON POST: …Today, there are between 50 and 60 offshore financial centers around the world holding untold billions of dollars at a time of historic U.S. deficits and forced budget cuts. Groups that monitor tax issues estimate that between $8 trillion and $32 trillion in private global wealth is parked offshore.…
The [International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a D.C-based nonprofit news organization] records contain information on at least 23 companies linked to an alleged $230 million tax fraud in Russia, a case that was being investigated by a Moscow-based lawyer named Sergei Magnitsky, who died in prison under suspicious circumstances. One of the companies was used to set up Swiss bank accounts into which the husband of a Russian tax official deposited millions in cash, according to legal filings in Switzerland.
The Magnitsky Affair has created tensions between the United States and Russia. Russia last year blocked hundreds of foreign adoptions after Congress passed the Sergei Magnitsky Act, barring Russian officials believed to be involved in the lawyer’s death from entering the United States or using its banking system… (more)
EDITOR: This is an important but lengthy investigative report which we cannot properly convey through excerpts.
