X Factor judge Simon Cowell , Margaret Thatcher’s son Sir Mark and golfer Sir Nick Faldo have been dragged into t he Panama Papers scadal. The Duchess of York, film star Jackie Chan and a fashion designer whose clothes have been worn by David Cameron ’s wife were also named in the unfolding scandal last night.
They became the latest high-profile figures identified among the 11.5 million files leaked from Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca.
There is no suggestion that the people named have done anything illegal.
Prime
Minister Mr Cameron was under mounting pressure for his failure again
to say whether he or his family previously benefited from his late
father’s offshore investments.
Tax dodging, fraud and evasion costs the Treasury an
estimated £34billion a year. The files revealed last night linked
A-listers, Premier League stars and even royalty to the exposé into
alleged tax avoidance.
Princess Diana’s former
butler Paul Burrell was named in the papers, plus Sir Paul McCartney’s
ex-wife Heather Mills and Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
Sir Nick Faldo
was allegedly the sole shareholder of British Virgin Islands company
Blenhim Road Ltd, set up in 1995 and shut down in 2009. The golfer
declined to comment.
Chelsea footballer Willian, 27, was identified as the sole
shareholder in a British Virgin Islands-based company called Saxon
Sponsoring Limited, set up in September 2013.
His UK
address was given as Chelsea’s training ground in Surrey. A spokesman
for the Brazilian told The Guardian the firm was dormant before being
closed last year.
He said: “Saxon was incorporated before Willian’s employment by Chelsea FC and was dormant following his arrival in the UK.
They added that “Saxon was subsequently liquidated and
dissolved and that following Willian’s arrival in the UK, Saxon was
never active nor did it receive any payments”. Willian moved to Stamford
Bridge in 2013.
Former England striker Andy Cole
, 44, was alleged to have used a firm called Crewzen Finance Limited to
own a semi-detached house in Nottingham, according to The Guardian.
He bought the property in his hometown in 2009 for £84,000. He declined to comment.
Martial arts star Jackie Chan, 61, has owned at least six
offshore companies based in the BVI, according to the documents,
including Jumbo Jaz Investment, Jackie Chan Ltd and Dragon Stream Ltd.
The Hong Kong-born actor was unavailable for comment.
Film
director Stanley Kubrick, behind classics such as A Clockwork Orange,
spent the last decades of his life in a grand 18th-century manor in
Hertfordshire.
The leaked papers triggered fresh accusations about Tory
attempts to block an EU crackdown on tax havens. Last year Government
lobbied against its proposed blacklist, featuring Bermuda and Panama.
It
was branded “deeply unhelpful” in a Government briefing, signed off by
Treasury Minister David Gauke and circulated to Tory MEPs.
Lib
Dem MEP Catherine Bearder said: “Tories must stop turning a blind eye to
global tax avoidance and start supporting EU measures to tackle it.”
Duchess of York was linked to Essar Company Inc, set up in the British Virgin Islands in May 2000.
Essar
held “certain of her interests”, according to letters from her lawyers
revealed in the files. At the time, it owned trademarks for Little Red, a
series of books she wrote.
Her spokesman said: “Essar was formed
by the partners who were to develop business opportunities with the
Duchess. Had any of the intellectual property generated income or gains
or other profits, it would have been disclosed as part of her normal tax
filings.”
Paul Burrell
Former royal butler Paul Burrell was listed as a shareholder of
Black Dragon Group Ltd which is based in the British Virgin islands,
according to reports.
He and wife Maria have held shares in the firm since 2008. Before that, they were owned through a Jersey- based trust company.
Black
Dragon was managed by Whitmill Trust, but after the fees became “too
high”, Mossack Fonseca was suggested as a possible registered agent for
the company in 2008.
It was unclear whether the company was ultimately transferred.
Mark Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher’s son Sir Mark is listed as the beneficiary of a trust that owns a house in Barbados.
A web of companies shields his ownership of the property, where his family spend time every year, reports said.
The
trust, managed by Guernsey-based Harbour Trust, owns British Virgin
Islands firm Calva Holdings Ltd. This owns another BVI company, which
owns the Barbados property.
Trust managers wrote to Mossack Fonseca: “We are extremely careful to maintain client confidentiality.”
Sir Mark was unavailable for comment.
Heather Mills
Paul McCartney’s ex-wife Heather Mills was named as a
shareholder of Water 4 Investment Ltd, which was set up to create health
foods.
However, Ms Mills said the £1million investment ended in a long legal battle.
The company planned to develop technology to extract the fatty acids usually found in fish oil from algae.
She owned 100 shares in the British Virgin Islands company; the other 898 were owned by another investor.
Ms Mills said: “I can say hand on heart I am a straight taxpayer and you will never find anything on me.”
Simon Cowell
Britain’s Got Talent judge Simon Cowell is the sole shareholder
of two British Virgin Islands companies, the leaked files revealed.
Southstreet
Ltd was set up in February 2007 and Eaststreet Ltd in October 2007,
when the music mogul was planning to buy two plots of land in Barbados,
where he regularly goes on holidays.
His spokesman told The
Guardian: “The companies were set up not by my client but by accountants
acting for him as a common means for an overseas investor to purchase
property in Barbados.
“My client, however, preferred to purchase them transparently in his own name.
“Therefore, the companies were never used for anything at all.
“I
can also confirm on behalf of my client that he has not used any
offshore companies for any purpose whatsoever.” The music tycoon, 56, is
worth an estimated £325million, according to the Sunday Times Rich
List.
He divides his time between his homes in London and Los Angeles, which he shares with his partner Lauren Silverman.
The couple have a two-year-old son called Eric, named after Cowell’s late father.
The family are often pictured in Barbados, where Cowell indulges his passion for jet skiing.
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