The leak also reveals Canada’s status as an international laggard when it comes to investigating and prosecuting those who exploit offshore secrecy to pay bribes, evade taxes and launder the proceeds of crime.
The Canada Revenue Agency has calculated that as much as $3 billion in tax revenue is lost annually to offshore accounts held by wealthy Canadians. Add to that as much as $11.4 billion in tax lost to corporations’ use of offshore subsidiaries, and tax havens cost Canadians almost $15 billion each year.
Over the next several days, the Star will be reporting on some of the players who inhabit this offshore world, ranging from a convicted fraudster to an alleged arms dealer to an accountant who secretly managed the growth of a Middle Eastern king’s luxury real estate portfolio through offshore accounts.
In some cases, records reviewed by the Star appear to show breaches of offshore transparency laws that were created after publication of the Panama Papers.
The motivations for establishing companies in secret offshore havens are often not transparent and the use of offshore tax havens often doesn’t breach the letter of any specific law.
Proving illegality – which requires a law preventing the conduct, enforcement and successful prosecution – remains treacherous as complex pieces of evidence lie sprinkled across borders, jurisdictions with different laws and corporate registries that were built to keep secrets.