“Pandora papers”: Lebanese political-political elite Champion of tax evasion

With 346 companies listed, Cedar Country is a Best Trident Trust Cabinet Client, Domiciliation Specialist in Tax Panels.

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The Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, his predecessor Hassan Diab, the governor of the central bank, Riad Salamé, bankers and foremost businessmen: the list of members of the Lebanese political-financial elite who appear In the “Pandora Papers” is long. With 346 listed companies, Cedar country is even a better Cabinet Trust client, a specialist in offshore companies domiciliation in the tax havens that some of the documents that have leaked. The situation hardly surprises Lebanon, but it strengthens the distrust of an elite seen as corrupt and predatory, and judged responsible for the country’s financial and economic collapse.

Does these oligarchs still make profits by putting their fortune abroad to escape the tax? When the rich escape taxes, it has consequences for our health services, on the Education, etc. We are supposed to believe that those themselves will get out of the hole now? “, Denounce Diana Moukalled, editor-in-chief of Daraj online investigative magazine. His journalists conducted the survey on the Lebanese component of the scandal revealed, Sunday, October 3, by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in collaboration with 150 international media, including Le Monde.

“Keep your head cold”

In the 12 million confidential documents transmitted to ICIJ, appear more than 330 politicians and public personalities of 90 countries, which conceal their fortune behind companies-screens in tax havens. In the Lebanese case, these revelations do not reveal the existence of financial offenses. “One can be facing tax avoidance situations based on applicable laws, breaches and faults that lead to situations of non-taxation. We may have to do with illicit financial flows. We must keep The cold head until investigations are carried out, “says Karim Daher, tax lawyer and President of the Lebanese Association for Taxpayers’ Rights and Information (ADIC).

The telecom magnat, Najib Mikati, at the head of the government formed in September, already appeared in the “Panama Papers” (2008) as the owner of HESSVILLE INVESTMENT INC. domiciled in the Panama tax haven, and in the “Paradise Papers” (2017). The businessman, whose fortune is estimated at $ 2.9 billion (2.5 billion euros) in the last Forbes ranking, according to the new revelations, would have bought through his company Hessville Investment Inc. a property worth € 7 million in Monaco in 2008. Its Son Maher would also hold two offshore companies domiciled in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), used by the Mikati Family Investment Fund, The M1 Group, to buy an office in London.

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/Media reports.