They provide a rare window into the hidden world of offshore finance, casting light on the financial secrets of some of the world’s richest people. The Pandora papers are the largest trove of leaked data exposing tax haven secrecy in history. The multimillion-dollar properties were acquired as US economic and military aid to Jordan quadrupled and Jordanian citizens were subjected to austerity as part of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout for the resource-poor country.
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He has disguised his ownership through a series of offshore companies incorporated in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), according to records shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists with the Guardian, the BBC and other media outlets around the world. The files expose that the Arab world’s longest-serving current monarch has spent the past decades amassing an international luxury property empire worth well in excess of $100m (£74m), with its footprint stretching from the clifftops of Malibu, California, to Washington DC and on to central London’s most exclusive postcodes.Ībdullah built this property empire showing the same zeal for secrecy he has demonstrated when asked about his finances at home. In a country propped up by billions of dollars in international financial aid – and where unemployment has nearly doubled over the past seven years – the topic is considered too sensitive for the Jordanian public to know about.īut today, the Guardian can reveal part of the answer, thanks to documents that form the Pandora papers, the largest ever trove of leaked offshore data. His crime was slandering the country’s ruler, King Abdullah II, simply by asking a single question: how much land does the king own?
Jordanian security forces arrived unexpectedly at Moayyad al-Majali’s home one day in October 2019, detaining the lawyer, confiscating his laptop and phones and accusing him of one of the kingdom’s most serious offences.