The sons and daughter of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif reportedly set up at least four offshore companies in British Virgin Islands (BVI), said a report released by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on Sunday.
These companies owned at least six upmarket properties overlooking London’s Hyde Park, The Indian Express reported.
“Thousands of Mossack Fonseca (MF) documents reviewed by The Indian Express and subsequent enquiries reveal that the Sharif family mortgaged four of these properties to the Deutsche Bank (Suisse) SA for a loan of GBP 7 million and the Bank of Scotland part financed the purchase of two other apartments,” it said.
The ICIJ reports said that, "Three children of former and current Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif – Mariam, Hasan and Hussain– were owners or had the right to authorise transactions for several companies."
"Mariam Safdar was the owner of British Virgin Islands-based firms Nielsen Enterprises Limited and Nescoll Limited, incorporated in 1994 and 1993," it reads.
The report said that the daughter and sons of Nawaz Sharif “did not respond to repeated requests for comments”.
Leaked documents reveal financial dealings of world elite
A huge leak of confidential documents has revealed how the rich and powerful use tax havens to hide their wealth, a BBC report said.
"Around 11 million documents were leaked from one of the world's most secretive companies, Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca," it said.
The documents show links to 72 current or former heads of state in the data, including dictators accused of looting their own countries.
Gerard Ryle, director of the ICIJ, told BBC “the documents covered the day-to-day business at Mossack Fonseca over the past 40 years”.
"I think the leak will prove to be probably the biggest blow the offshore world has ever taken because of the extent of the documents," he was quoted as saying.
While the local media had connected some of these BVI companies and London properties to the Sharif family in the past, Nawaz Sharif has denied ownership of any such property.
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A decade ago, Raymond Baker in his book Capitalism’s Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free-Market System alleged that “offshore companies have been linked to Sharif, three in the British Virgin Islands by the names of Nescoll, Nielson, and Shamrock 68 and another in the Channel Islands known as Chandron Jersey Pvt. Ltd. Some of these entities allegedly were used to facilitate purchase of four rather grand flats on Park Lane in London, at various times occupied by Sharif family members”.
