The federal government is scrambling to obtain access to information gleaned from a massive confidential data leak containing the identities of thousands of wealthy offshore account holders around the world, including 450 Canadians.
Foreign bank accounts ? they?re not just for the furtive
Banking abroad is as ordinary as a winter home in Florida or a business office in London.
Most of the accounts are for convenience, such as paying utility bills for a condo beneath the palms and getting access to an ATM without paying heavy fees when drawing foreign U.S. currency.
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?Anyone with information on tax cheats has an obligation to bring it forward,? Gail Shea, the Minister of National Revenue, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Canada Revenue Agency announced it is ?consulting with other jurisdictions around the world to obtain the information referred to in the media.?
The data, contained on a 260 gigabyte hard drive, was obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a Washington, D.C. based non-profit group which collaborated with dozens of news organizations including the CBC, The Guardian and the Washington Post to decipher the data files.
The list of account holders reportedly includes more than 130,000 individuals from around the world, including Americans, Germans, Italians as well as people from India, China, Thailand and Indonesia.
So far however, only a small portion of the names have been disclosed, with only one from Canada, class action lawyer Tony Merchant, who reportedly has an account with $1.7-million in the Cook Islands. Mr. Merchant did not return a request for comment from the Financial Post.
Launched in 1997, the ICIJ was created by the Centre for Public integrity, another Washington-based group focusing on corruption and abuse of power. More recently it has reportedly run into funding problems and has had to reduce staff as a result.
With only a handful of names release so far, it is unclear what ICIJ and its partners plan to do with the rest of the previously-confidential personal information it has in its possession, much of which is likely perfectly legal transactions. Calls to the ICIJ were not returned.
For her part, Ms. Shea says the publication of the names ?is good news for hardworking Canadians who pay their fair share.?
?I?ve been told that the CBC will release a few names at a time,? said Dennis Howlett, executive director of Canadians for Tax Fairness. Mr. Howlett, whose organization is focused around tax avoidance issues, said he has been in contact with the ICIJ and received ?early warning? of the strategy though he didn?t have the actual list.
One of the reasons people open up tax haven accounts is to hide assets from their spouses,? he said, adding that even though reports say there are 450 Canadian names, he?s seen about 500 names. The discrepancy has to do with the fact that ?there are databases within databases and links, and some that are not determined where the address is that links to those names. So [investigators] haven?t actually got to the whole bottom of it yet.?
The story went public on Wednesday evening after the ICIJ put out a press release announcing a few tantalizing pieces information from its bid to ?lift the curtain on the offshore system and provide a transparent look into the secret world of tax havens and the individuals and companies that use and benefit from them.?
I?ve been told that the CBC will release a few names at a time
Sources said the leaked files were originally sent anonymously to a staffer at the ICIJ several months ago and since then the organization has been working closely with journalists and news organizations around the world to disentangle the information.
The leak reportedly contains evidence that some of the world?s major banks including many European institutions worked closely with offshore banks to generate business. Coming at a time when governments everywhere are struggling with ballooning debt and rising unemployment, the revelations will likely prove damaging for many countries.
Among the names so far identified: A former finance minister of Mongolia; the president of Azerbaijan; the wife of the deputy prime minister of Russia; Denise Rich, the ex-wife of controversial commodities trader Mark Rich; and a daughter of Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Many of the accounts were domiciled at banks and trusts in the British Virgin Islands and the Cook Islands, described as lower-tier tax havens compared to jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands and Switzerland. Still, the geographic limits of the leak are unknown.
With little information on the source of the leak, no doubt thousands of Canadians with overseas funds of every order are worried the contents of the bank accounts could be spilled online in an instant.
While Canadians are required to report income, it is not illegal to open an account at an offshore bank.
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