The singers Julio Iglesias and Shakira are some of the main figures of the show that are mentioned in the Pandora Papers for creating offshore companies abroad to evade taxes. Both artists are featured in the report of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) that included more than 11.9 confidential documents.
According to the research, Julio Iglesias used five companies located in the tax haven of the British Virgin Islands to acquire properties on the island of Miami Indian Creek, known as the “bunker of the rich”. The 78-year-old musician is linked to 15 other companies, all of which are managed by Trident Trust, a law firm specializing in the registration of offshore structures.
Iglesias shares ownership of 16 of those firms with his wife, the Dutch Miranda Rijnsburger. The other four companies are only in your name. The current value of the homes acquired by Iglesias, according to the official Miami-Dade County registry, amounts to $ 112 million.
The dynamics for buying the land in Indian Creek, as tracked by ICIJ researchers, tends to repeat itself: first a limited company is founded in a tax haven and then, through it, the land is purchased. On this exclusive island, a 7,400-square-meter undeveloped lot is valued at $ 25 million.
According to his representative Juan Velasco, the musician has not had a tax address in Spain since 1978. Although it is known that at least until 2018 he resided in the Dominican Republic, his lawyers did not report his current residence. “I’ve never stopped paying a fucking tax anywhere in the world“Iglesias assured the journalist Jordi Évole during an interview in 2015.
Shakira, for her part, continued to open offshore companies in tax havens when the Spanish Ministry of Finance was already investigating her finances, according to the Spanish television network La Sexta. The Colombian singer, who lived in Barcelona for ten years, faces a 14.5 million euro ($ 16.83 million) tax fraud charge.
The Pandora Papers contain documentation of three companies owned by him: two already known to the Spanish Treasury and a third that had not been disclosed. called Titania Management, of which Shakira appears as the sole director and beneficiary. The popular artist launched that latest company in the tax haven of the British Virgin Islands between late 2018 and early 2019.
The singer’s legal representatives rejected the ICIJ investigation and assured that “the fact of having companies abroad is based on a purely operational and commercial issue and in no case to enjoy any tax advantage or benefit “.
.