Formations House

Last updated

Formations House (now The London Office) is a "company mill" which registered and operated companies for clients included organized crime groups, state-owned oil companies, and fraudulent banks. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

The company was founded in 2001 and registered at 29 Harley Street and promised to let clients run businesses "in Central London at a prestigious Harley Street business address". [4] The company formed more than 450,000 corporate entities in Britain, Gambia, Hong Kong, the Seychelles, the British Virgin Islands, Ireland, the US state of Delaware, Panama, Gibraltar, Jersey, the Isle of Man, Belize and Mauritius. [4]

#29 Leaks

In December 2019, Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets) published "#29 Leaks" in partnership with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and more than 20 outlets in 18 countries. [5]

The 450 gigabyte leak included emails, documents, faxes, and recordings of phone calls. [1] Investigations revealed the firm ran a web of companies registered in Hong Kong, Cyprus, the British Virgin Islands and Pakistan, [6] helped clients avoid anti-money laundering rules [7] and had created banks in The Gambia in an attempt to create a tax haven. [6] [8] According to The Times, there was no evidence that Formations House did anything illegal but their investigation highlighted worrying vulnerabilities in the UK's defences against money laundering". [9]

The release was compared to both the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers. [1] [2] [3] Belgian tax authorities initiated an investigation based on data from this leak and from the Cayman National Bank and Trust leak published by DDoSecrets the prior month. [10] Politicians in Sweden and the UK, including anti-corruption chief John Penrose said the leak showed the need for reforms on company creation and registration. [6] [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

Anthony Paul Bamford, Baron Bamford,, is a British billionaire businessman who is the chairman of J.C. Bamford Excavators Limited (JCB). He succeeded his father, Joseph Cyril Bamford, as chairman and managing director of the company in 1975, at the age of 30. He was knighted in 1990. Bamford has appeared in the Sunday Times Rich List, and in 2021 his net worth was estimated at US$9.48 billion. Bamford is a car collector whose collection includes two examples of the rare Ferrari 250 GTO, valued upwards of $70 million each.

David John Rowland is a British property developer, banker and financier. According to The Sunday Times Rich List in 2019, he is worth £612 million. He is nicknamed 'Spotty'. The Rowland family is an investment adviser to Prince Andrew, Duke of York.

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) is a global network of investigative journalists with staff on six continents. It was founded in 2006 and specializes in organized crime and corruption.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Inc. (ICIJ), is an independent global network of 280 investigative journalists and over 140 media organizations spanning more than 100 countries. It is based in Washington, D.C., with personnel in Australia, France, Spain, Hungary, Serbia, Belgium and Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mossack Fonseca</span> 1977–2018 Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider

Mossack Fonseca & Co. was a Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider. At one time it was the world's fourth-largest provider of offshore financial services. From its establishment in 1977 until the publication of the Panama Papers in April 2016, the company remained mostly obscured from public attention, even though it was a major firm in the global offshore industry and acted for approximately 300,000 companies. Prior to its dissolution, the company employed roughly 600 staff members spread across 42 countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Panama Papers</span> 2016 document leak scandal

The Panama Papers are 11.5 million leaked documents that were published beginning on April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. The documents, some dating back to the 1970s, were created by, and taken from, former Panamanian offshore law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, and compiled with similar leaks into a searchable database.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jürgen Mossack</span> German-Panamanian tax lawyer

Jürgen Rolf Dieter Mossack is a German-born Panamanian lawyer and the co-founder of Mossack Fonseca, a former law firm headquartered in Panama City which had more than 40 offices worldwide. The firm gained global notoriety in 2016 when it found itself at the centre of the Panama Papers affair, which uncovered the activities of the offshore finance industry. According to the leaked papers, Mossack Fonseca set up more than 214,000 shell companies around the world, some of which were found to have been used for illegal purposes, including fraud and tax evasion. In 2016, Mossack Fonseca was raided by police on suspicion of money-laundering, bribery and corruption. Mossack and his partner Ramón Fonseca Mora were arrested and jailed on 10 February 2017. They were initially refused bail because the court saw a flight risk, but were released on 21 April 2017 after a judge ruled they had cooperated with the investigation and ordered them each to pay $500,000 in bail. Numerous lawsuits including serious allegations of collusion with despotic regimes, mafia, and global criminals are ongoing.

This article lists some of the reactions and responses from countries and other official bodies regarding the leak of legal documents related to offshore tax havens from the law firm Mossack Fonseca, called the Panama Papers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alemán, Cordero, Galindo & Lee</span> Panama law firm

Alemán, Cordero, Galindo & Lee is a law firm based in Panama. Founded in 1985, the firm represents several multinational companies that operate in Panama and was chosen as the Central American law firm of the year by Chambers Global in 2007 as well as in 2013. Jaime Alemán Healy is the managing partner and founder. The firm has offices in several countries aside from Panama, including in tax havens such as The Bahamas, Belize, the British Virgin Islands, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Seychelles, and Switzerland. Other office locations include New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates, and Uruguay. The firm is affiliated with the international Meritas network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Panama Papers case</span> 2017 Pakistan Supreme Court case

The Panama Papers case, or the Panamagate case, was a 2017 landmark decision by the Supreme Court of Pakistan that disqualified Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister of Pakistan, from holding public office for life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paradise Papers</span> 2017 documents leak related to offshore investment

The Paradise Papers are a set of over 13.4 million confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investments that were leaked to the German reporters Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer, from the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. The newspaper shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and a network of more than 380 journalists. Some of the details were made public on 5 November 2017 and stories are still being released.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Panama Papers (South America)</span>

The Panama Papers are 11.5 million leaked documents that detail financial and attorney-client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. The documents, some dating back to the 1970s, were created by and taken from, Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, and were leaked in 2015 by an anonymous source.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Panama Papers (Europe)</span>

The Panama Papers are 11.5 million leaked documents that detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. The documents, some dating back to the 1970s, were created by, and taken from, Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, and were leaked in 2015 by an anonymous source.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Panama Papers (Asia)</span> Documents leaked in 2015

The Panama Papers are 11.5 million leaked documents that detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. The documents, some dating back to the 1970s, were created by, and taken from, Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, and were leaked in 2015 by an anonymous source.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Panama Papers (North America)</span> Details from the Panama Papers concerning North America

The Panama Papers are 11.5 million leaked documents that detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. The files were uncovered and exposed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and other news organizations. The documents, some dating back to the 1970s, were created by, and taken from, Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, and were leaked in 2015 by an anonymous source.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Panama Papers (Africa)</span>

The Panama Papers are 11.5 million leaked documents that detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. The documents, some dating back to the 1970s, were created by, and taken from, Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, and were leaked in 2015 by an anonymous source.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Distributed Denial of Secrets</span> Whistleblowing organization

Distributed Denial of Secrets, abbreviated DDoSecrets, is a non-profit whistleblower site founded in 2018 for news leaks. The site is a frequent source for other news outlets and has worked on investigations including Cyprus Confidential with other media organisations. In December 2023, the organisation said it had published over 100 million files from 59 countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pandora Papers</span> 2021 leak of financial documents

The Pandora Papers are 11.9 million leaked documents with 2.9 terabytes of data that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published beginning on 3 October 2021. The leak exposed the secret offshore accounts of 35 world leaders, including current and former presidents, prime ministers, and heads of state as well as more than 100 business leaders, billionaires, and celebrities. The news organizations of the ICIJ described the document leak as their most expansive exposé of financial secrecy yet, containing documents, images, emails and spreadsheets from 14 financial service companies, in nations including Panama, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates. The size of the leak surpassed their previous release of the Panama Papers in 2016, which had 11.5 million confidential documents and 2.6 terabytes of data. The ICIJ said it is not identifying its source for the documents.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Smith, Suzanne (December 4, 2019). "The story behind the #29Leaks data dump". Crikey . Archived from the original on February 21, 2021. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
  2. 1 2 Hall, Kevin G. (December 5, 2019). "How #29Leaks differs from Panama Papers, other leaks". McClatchy DC Bureau . Archived from the original on December 14, 2019. Retrieved February 17, 2017.
  3. 1 2 Feidt, Dan (December 4, 2019). "Global Offshore Corporate Networks Exposed in Massive Data Leak". Unicorn Riot . Archived from the original on February 25, 2021. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
  4. 1 2 Bullough, Oliver (2016-04-19). "Offshore in central London: the curious case of 29 Harley Street". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077. Archived from the original on 2023-07-07. Retrieved 2023-12-25.
  5. "#29Leaks: Inside a London Company Mill". Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project . December 4, 2019. Archived from the original on February 21, 2021. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
  6. 1 2 3 "The British company that set up firms for international criminals — Finance Uncovered". financeuncovered.org. Archived from the original on 2023-03-22. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
  7. Gibbons, Katie (2023-12-24). "Undercover with Formations House: 'It won't be easy to take cash in . . . banks generally don't like it'". The Times . ISSN   0140-0460. Archived from the original on 2023-12-25. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
  8. Greenwood, George; Eriksson, Christian; Brown, David (2023-12-24). "UK firm Formations House and corrupt dictator Yahya Jammeh". The Times . ISSN   0140-0460. Archived from the original on 2023-12-25. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
  9. "The Times view on Formations House: Dirty Laundry". The Times . 7 December 2019. Archived from the original on 5 July 2021.
  10. Hope, Alan (December 22, 2019). "Tax authorities investigate new leaks incriminating Belgians". The Brussels Times . Archived from the original on May 23, 2021. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
  11. Eriksson, Christian; Brown, David; Greenwood, George (2023-12-24). "Formations House leak shows need for reforms on creating companies, anti-corruption chief says". The Times . ISSN   0140-0460. Archived from the original on 2023-12-23. Retrieved 2023-12-24.