Three former Prime Ministers named in Paradise Papers.

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Meeshika Sharma
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The Paradise Papers are a set of 13.4 million documents relating to offshore investment, leaked to the public on 5 November 2017.Three PMs are named in Paradise Papers.

A trove of 13.4 million documents originally leaked to the German paper Süddeutsche Zeitung from an offshore law firm called Appleby.The documents have been the subject of a massive investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) – the same group that dropped the Panama Papers bombshell in April of 2016.

Former Canadian prime ministers Jean Chretien, Paul Martin and Brian Mulroney are among the most high-profile individuals named in the document release, which has more than 3,000 references to Canadians.

Martin was named due to his former ownership stake in CSL Group Inc., an international shipping firm now run by his sons and said to be one of Appleby's “biggest clients,” according to a leaked document.

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Chretien said in an interview that he was not aware of the shares in Madagascar Oil Ltd.

Mulroney is listed in the Appleby files as a director of Said Holdings Ltd. between 2004 and 2009. The Bermuda-based company is controlled by Syrian-Saudi businessman Wafic Said, who is said to have had a key role in the multi-billion dollar al-Yamamah “oil-for-arms” deal between the U.K. and Saudi Arabia.

Liberal Party fundraiser Stephen R. Bronfman, Queen Elizabeth II, and several of U.S. President Donald Trump’s allies are said to be among 120 international figures and companies who have been using offshore tax havens, an international team of journalists has learned.

 

Before the ICIJ report was released, the Canada Revenue Agency issued a statement on Friday outlining its efforts to “combat those hiding their assets offshore.”

The agency said it has invested $1 billion to ensure the integrity of Canada’s tax system, and noted that it currently has more than 990 audits and more than 42 criminal investigations related to offshore underway.

Neither the CRA nor any court has determined the Canadians did anything wrong.

Further details about the figures implicated in the Paradise Papers are expected to come throughout the week.

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