President of the Dominican Republic, Louis Abenader explained in writing to the country’s Chamber of Accounts his tax status and his relatives’ relationships with offshore companies prior to taking office, as detailed by the International Consortium of Journalists and Investigators (ICIJ) — The authors of Pandora Papers, which details how some world leaders own assets in tax havens.

The president’s attorneys reported that Padreso SA and Littlecot Inc. Part of a fund in which President Abenader does not have any kind of power, according to the Dominican newspaper. ‘the National’.

Which is that when the publications related to the Panama Papers were issued, Abenader responded in writing to the Accounts Chamber explaining that these companies had been set up by consultants who were appointed to purchase these types of companies and thus “facilitate business transactions with clients and reduce corporate administrative obstacles”

In the same vein, the Director of Strategy and Government Communications, Homero Figueroa, stated that the information on the financial situation of the Dominican president appreciates its “transparency”.

“The information (…) acknowledges the president’s transparency by recalling that the statement of assets he has provided includes all ‘offshore’ companies that are managed under a family trust.”Figueroa posted on his social networks.

It is true that the Pandora Papers admits that “both companies were created before Abenader became president – in August 2020 -.” Specifically, Littlecot appeared in 2011, while Padreso appeared in 2014, according to the local newspaper ‘Today’.

In addition, this report includes that the Dominican president’s net worth is “about $70 million – more than €60 million – according to a public statement of assets submitted a month after his election as president”.

The Pandora Papers consist of a series of documents that would show how 35 prominent and former world leaders such as Russian President Vladimir Putin; King Abdullah of Jordan. Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis; Or the president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, has assets in tax havens.

The leaked documents could lead to lawsuits related to corruption, money laundering or tax evasion, although they are often evidence of fully legal processes used by the rich and powerful to set up businesses to buy real estate.

The Pandora Papers follows in the wake of leaks of documents such as the FinCen Archive, Paradise Papers, Panama Papers and LuxLeaks, but the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism asserts the latter is the largest leak, with 14 sources, about 12 million files and about 3 terabytes of data.

Documents from 14 financial services firms from tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands, Panama, Belize, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore or Switzerland.

More than 600 journalists from 177 countries and major well-known media outlets from around the world participated in this latest leak of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

(With information from Europa Press)

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