How World Leaders Hide Their Money

this is Nigeria one of the poorest countries in the world but in 1998 someone in this poor country was carrying 38 bags full of $100 bills that someone was Mariam abacha and she was heading to the Nigerian airport Mariam was sweating profusely looking around nervously and trying to act normal she finally arrived at the airport and wheeled her 38 suitcases of cash through the busy terminal Mariam felt like people were watching her but she wasn't sure maybe she was just being paranoid if smuggling 38 suitcases stuffed with cash wasn't hard enough Mariam also had another problem she had to hide her face so that no one would recognize her that's because Mariam was quite famous in Nigeria actually famous is an understatement because every single Nigerian knew mariam's name and face and it was all because of who her husband was Mariam abacha was the wife of General Sani abacha the most ruthless military dictator in Nigeria's history after overthrowing the government in 1993 s abacha ruled Nigeria for 5 years his dictatorship was brutal Free Speech was a crime and anyone who spoke against the dictator mysteriously disappeared but out of all the insane things s abacha did there was one that left the world speechless during the 5 years he ruled Nigeria General abacha stole $4.3 billion from the nation's coffers that's 4.3 billion stolen by one man there were times the dictator would order trucks full of dollars to be sent to his home and no one asked any questions or challenged him but there was a problem stealing the money was the easy part the hard part was finding a place to hide all that money s abacha started transferring the money into Swiss bank accounts but he didn't live long enough to finish the job on the 8th of June 1998 abacha was having fun with some girls when he suddenly grabbed his chest and fell the dictator was dead and though it seemed like a heart attack almost everyone believed he was poisoned but that didn't matter What mattered was he had died before hiding all the $4.3 billion doar he had stolen and that's why his widow Miss Mariam abacha was racing through a Nigerian airport dragging 38 suitcases full of money trying to get out of the country so what happened did she get get out with the money unfortunately no Mariam was stopped and searched and her bags of money were seized by airport officials and that brings us to the question if you were a world leader who'd stolen millions or billions of dollars how would you hide the money in this video we'll reveal a secret industry of hundreds of companies whose sole focus is helping corrupt leaders hide money where no one will find it it's a shadowy world filled with people who won't hesitate to pull the trigger to protect their secrets this is how world leaders hide their money the shadow economy hiding money is a simple five-step process but before we reveal the first step we have to talk about something called The Shadow economy an underground network of Agents managers and contractors who operate behind the scenes the shadow economy has one aim to make it easy for bad people to hide Dirty Money the most common clients in this Shadow economy are world leaders however you can also find criminals convicts and Shady CEOs taking advantage of this underground Channel according to investigators the shadow economy currently holds at least 11.3 trillion in offshore accounts that money flows from countries all over the world and is transferred to safe havens where it can never be linked to the politicians and ministers who actually own it but how does this system work who runs the show the kingpins of the financial Underworld the shadow economy is run by a group of companies known as offshore providers or Offshore Service Providers they are The Gatekeepers of the Shadow economy offshore providers are real companies with employees like lawyers secretaries analysts and accountants who have mastered the art of making dirty money disappear for a considerable fee these offshore providers can help anyone set up shell companies foundations and trusts to hide billions and most importantly they handle their business with the utmost secrecy but their reputation for secrecy was shattered in October 2021 when the Pandora papers leaked and all hell broke loose this leak is really pan papers on steroids world leaders politicians and billionaires with hidden vaults of wealth a new chapter in a NeverEnding Story the Pandora papers is a leak of almost 12 million documents that alleges concealed assets taxo avoidance and in some cases money laundering by some of the world's richest and most powerful more than 600 journalists in 117 countries have been sifting through files for months as part of the largest ever Global Financial investigation the Pandora papers are leaked emails memos incorporation records share certificates compliance reports that allow the true owners of shell companies to be identified for the first time these documents expose the secret offshore accounts of about 400 world leaders including current and former presidents Prime Ministers politicians and public officials across 91 countries journalists sifted through more than 6.4 million documents nearly 3 million images over 1.2 million emails and half a million spreadsheets the hall revealed that more than 400 of the world's richest and most influential individuals have set up companies or trusts in lightly taxed countries to hide the extent of their wealth using information from the Pandora papers and other sources we'll break down how offshore providers hide money in five simple steps explaining how they move money where they hide it and how they protect it you'll also discover which world world leaders have been caught trying to hide their Loot and what they splashed the money on and that brings us to the first step step one pick your country when you hire an offshore provider the first thing they do is to decide which country to stash your money in the most popular destinations are switzland the Cayman Islands the Bahamas Panama and Luxembourg but why is it important to hide money in another country why can't they just hide it in a safe or a vault in their own home well your home is one of the worst places to hide money and S abacha's family learned that lesson the hard way after she failed to leave Nigeria with 38 bags of money Maria maacha returned to her lavish house in Nigeria as we mentioned earlier the late dictator s abacha had successfully transferred some money to Swiss accounts however there was still a lot of money they hadn't been able to get out of the country instead of keeping the cash the abacha family bought almost a million dollar worth of gold and diamond jewelry according to estimates the money they spent on jewelry was equivalent to 100 years income for the average Nigerian the abates decided to keep their jewelry at home and it wasn't long before they were punished for their silly mistake in 2011 four men raided the abacha's mansion and grabbed $125,000 of gold and diamond jewelry disappearing into the night that's what happens when you keep money under your mattress a home can be burnt down broken into or searched by the cops that's why offshore providers want to move your funds into another country they pick a country with banking secrecy laws where they don't have to pay as much tax or share much information about the source of the money however selecting a country is only the beginning the next step is far more technical step two create a shell company after selecting a country to hide the stolen funds the next step is creating a shell company a shell company is a business that only exists on paper it doesn't have real ation or doesn't do any real work it's like an empty shell what exactly is a shell company anyway setting up a shell company is is really quite easy you can go to a place like Panama or the British Virgin Islands or Delaware or Nevada and usually uh the places where you're doing it have have tough laws where they will not reveal sort of who the beneficial owner is and they just sort of layer on different aspects of anonymity a shell company will have a name and even an address but there's usually no real office or workers there it's just words on paper the aim is to make it impossible to figure out who's really behind the company and what they're doing the Pandora papers revealed that shell companies are a must have for anyone trying to hide money and one of the world leaders who was linked to a lot of shell companies is Jordan's King Abdullah Jordan is an Arab Nation on the East Bank of the Jordan River they have a struggling economy and a high unemployment rate but while jordanians filled the streets protesting joblessness and Corruption their King was creating dozens of shell companies in offshore countries the Pandora papers revealed that King abdullah's advisers helped him set up at least 36 shell companies from 1995 to 2017 the king then funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into bank accounts in the name of the those shell companies but the cash didn't stay in the account for long King abdlla II of Jordan who used shell companies to build a real estate portfolio worth more than $100 million leaked documents show that the king secretly purchased a total of 14 luxury homes in the US and the UK these included three beachfront mansions in Malibu worth $106 million but there's a problem with when creating a shell company something that can mess up the whole process and that brings us to the next step step three find someone you can trust here's the issue you can't create a shell company without names there needs to be names on the paperwork for positions like CEO director and secretary obviously the world leaders trying to hide money wouldn't want their names on any company documents and that's when offshore providers have to find special people called nominees what are nominees nominees are people who act as standings for the actual owners of the company while their names are on the company paperwork as owners they aren't the real beneficiaries of the company's assets for example you could have fake directors where you you pay a little bit extra and someone pretends to be the public face of this company this Arrangement is like a protective layer allowing the true owners to remain hidden however putting someone else's name on the paperwork presents one obvious problem what happens if that person decides to take the money and run after all it's their name on the paperwork that is a legitimate problem and there's only one way to prevent that from happening using the age old tool called fear a nominee must be so scared of the owner of the money that they wouldn't dream of stealing a scent the fear must be so real so tangible that they would watch a billion dollars sitting in the bank and not feel tempted to touch a dollar the nominee must believe that stealing is like signing their death warrant a perfect example of this is the case of Vladimir Putin according to leaked documents from the Pandora papers Putin might have billions of dollars hidden through multiple shell companies Putin uses this money to make expensive purchases around the world for example Putin's girlfriend a Russian woman swetlana kogi received a plush monarco apartment that was purchased through an offshore Company Incorporated on the Caribbean island of torola if Vladimir Putin put your name on the paperwork for his shell company would you take his money and run this is the story of Vladimir Putin's Global campaign of targeted assassination this is about how the Russian State goes after enemies traitors critics journalists those who seek to expose Vladimir Putin's links to organized crime anyone who insults or betrays Putin spends their life on the run because Putin never forgives and never forgets Putin's Hitmen will track down his enemies and settle the score and Putin is only one example example the point is clear the rich and powerful people hiding money in Shell companies aren't the type of people you want to steal from step four open a secret bank account now that the shell company has been set up and the nominees have filled out the paperwork the next step is to create a bank account for the company it doesn't have to be one account you can create as many as possible offshore providers select banks in countries with banking secrecy laws they we also ensure the accounts are strictly private making sure only authorized Bank Personnel have access to the account details and financial transactions and if the clients want to spend the money in the account on buying property or making Investments the offshore providers also help with that so they help you hide your money and also help you spend it without the risk of detection or scrutiny from authorities but what if the client dies after depositing millions of dollars in these private accounts that scenario happened in 1998 when General Sania Bacher died after depositing billions of dollars in various private accounts throughout the world after racha's death the next Nigerian president Olan obasanjo was shocked when he discovered exactly how much his predecessor stole the president initiated an international treasure hunt hiring an English lawyer to find the stolen money and get it back and after years of of Investigations the lawyer was able to find billions of dollars scattered in private accounts throughout the world under intense pressure from the Nigerian government some banks in Switzerland returned $500 million of a batch of stolen money to Nigeria in 2006 it was the first time European Banks had returned looted money to an African country by 2018 the amount Switzerland had returned to Nigeria had crossed $1 billion Nigeria was lucky to get some money back however in most cases money that's hidden is never found that brings us to the final step step five keep everything quiet the final step is to keep everything quiet after successfully siphoning millions or billions of dollars these world leaders can't resist the urge to brag a little too much alcohol and before they know it they're telling girls about their private count in the Cayman Islands however some leaders take the opposite approach to avoid suspicion they launch a public campaign condemning the practice of channeling money to Offshore accounts pointing the finger at someone else is an easy way to look innocent and that's exactly what Kenya's former president uru Kenyata did uru Kenyata initiated a Witch Hunt publicly criticizing public officials who use shell companies to hide money overseas the former president declared that he had no secret money stashed outside the country and called those who did corrupt in 2018 Kenyata told the BBC every public servant's assets must be declared publicly so that people can question and ask what is legitimate however that was all an act a brilliant Act of misdirection this is a President Who for many years and even a few years ago sat down with uh a BBC interviewer and said if anyone has something to tell us that we haven't been transparent about let them tell us and I suppose today with the Pandora papers we're doing just that leaked documents from Pandora papers revealed that the Kenyata family secretly owns a network of 11 offshore companies holding assets worth over $30 million the reports also say Kenyan president uru Kenyata and his family have at least $30 million in off sure accounts keeping quiet after stealing millions of dollars is hard but without it the entire house of cards Falls what now the shadow economy shows no signs of slowing down while politicians and world leaders openly denounce corruption they turn around and loot millions of dollars draining government treasuries and damaging the economies of their countries to discover some of the outrageous things world leaders spend money on watch this video on the homes of the richest world leaders [Music]

Channel: Luxury Zone

Views: 152,683

Keywords: panama papers, world leaders money, financial secrecy, money laundering, hidden wealth, offshore banking, tax havens, corruption scandals, political finances, global leaders assets, wealth concealment, financial scandals, Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, illegal wealth, political corruption, asset hiding, wealth management, secret accounts, international finance, black money, economic transparency, swiss bank accounts, financial investigations, money hiding techniques

Id: 5INL5oafE2U

Length: 19min 41sec (1181 seconds)

Published: Sun May 26 2024