Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has orders requiring stricter reporting of all-cash sales in 12 metropolitan areas. Money-laundering cases often feature luxury real estate, found in almost every region of the world. The ICIJ found records of his purchases in London and Washington, DC, among other cities, as well as three side-by-side mansions in a luxury enclave in Malibu, near Los Angeles (see photo to right). Like many other politicians and oligarchs around the world, King Abdullah owns real estate in many places outside his country. The Pandora Papers also document the l uxury real estate holdings of Jordan's King Abdullah in Malibu, California. But other states, including Alaska, Florida, Delaware, Texas, and Nevada, have followed suit.
South Dakota led the way in providing such trusts, as reported in detail even before the current revelations. Owned principally by two Cuban exile billionaires in Florida, the plantation is notorious for its exploitation of Haitian workers. Among its clients were the family of Carlos Morales Troncoso, former president of Central Romana, the largest sugar plantation in the Dominican Republic. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which led the Pandora Papers investigation, obtained access to the records of the Sioux Falls office of Trident Trust. The Pandora Papers cite the example of South Dakota, an attractive destination for billionaires and others seeking to avoid estate taxes.
While the same is true to some extent of other nations with federal systems, and of the intricate financial network of the United Kingdom and its overseas territories, the United States offers unparalleled opportunities for concealment, lax enforcement, and legal obfuscation. This complex map provides ample opportunities for shell games of "hide the money." federal system is a patchwork of states and territories, municipal and local jurisdictions, each with its own laws and regulations. states providing secrecy for corporations and ultra-high-wealth individuals, both domestic and foreign.īoth red states and blue states are destinations for those who seek to hide their money from tax collectors and public scrutiny.
Reliably Democratic in national politics, Delaware still ranks at the top among U.S. Ironically, President Biden's home state of Delaware has long been renowned for its use as a tax haven, beginning in the late 19th century. Among the national leaders exposed was Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who met with President Joe Biden at the White House on October 14. Enforcement often also depends on municipal and other local officials, leaving ample opportunities for cronyism or simply failures to investigate.īased on an investigation by a network of 600 journalists around the world, the Pandora Papers revealed some 12 million financial documents-still only a tip of the iceberg.
Rather, what I mean is that the United States, where countless corrupt billionaires and dictators have stashed their loot, is not a single tax haven, but many separate tax havens.Įach state and territory has its own laws and regulations about financial transactions used for tax evasion or money laundering. Nor am I speaking here of racial or ethnic divisions, however defined. I'm not referring to the electoral reality of red states versus blue states, or to the split between a radicalized Republican Party and those of us who hope that an inclusive democratic vision of the nation might eventually prevail. There are many ways in which the United States is not one country. William Minter is the editor of AfricaFocus Bulletin and an advisor to the US-Africa Bridge Building Project. Pandora Papers Confirm: The United States Is Not a Country
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