British actress Emma Watson, best known for playing the witch Hermione Granger from the Harry Potterfilm series, has been tied to the Panama Papers, which detail various people with offshore companies and accounts.
The company, Falling Leaves Ltd. is reportedly based in the British Virgin Islands and had earned the actress her £2.8 million three-bedroom home in London. The entity had been formed in 2013 by the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, from which the term “Panama Papers” is derived.
The account is for privacy.
According to a released statement, Watson’s representatives claimed to The Spectator magazine that while she does have an offshore account, its primary purpose is to keep her privacy, as companies in the United Kingdom are required by law to publish their shareholder in ways that are publicly available.
Watson’s people also deny that the actress received any extra monetary or tax-related benefits from the offshore company and that her only benefit is “safety.”
Reasons to deny tax benefits.
Watson’s representatives do have a reason to deny tax benefits beyond attempting to save face. Owning property from an neither offshore account nor setting up an offshore company are not necessarily illegal activities by themselves, but actions from offshore companies and accounts can lead to money laundering, taxation fraud, and embezzlement schemes, among other forms of corruption, due to the anonymity of these shareholders. These tax havens are especially controversial with anti-poverty campaigners, who feel that they only benefit the wealthy and may aid inequality.
A look at the “Panama Papers”
The issue of the “Panama Papers” was instigated when the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (or the “ICIJ”) published a list of around11.5 million documents from the Mossack Fonseca law firm, including various figures attached in offshore trusts and accounts.
Reportedly, the list of well-known figures attached to Mossack Fonseca includes politicians from Russian President Vladimir Putin and British Prime Minister David Cameron, as well as his late father Ian Cameron, to Celebrities such as Jackie Chan or Simon Cowell.
The ICIJ did claim that there are various “legitimate uses” for these offshore accounts and do not in themselves claim that they have evidence that these people attached are necessarily guilty of illegal conduct. For their part, Mossack Fonseca also claims that it had properly identified clients.
The ICIJ has also released an online database detailing a full list of people attached to Mossack Fonseca,
