Emma Watson latest

Panama Papers: Emma Watson latest celebrity named in data leak

Harry Potter star Emma Watson is the latest in a growing list of celebrities implicated in the Panama Papers leak.

Emma Watson

The actress was listed as a beneficiary of a company based in the British Virgin Islands, according to The Telegraph. However, a spokesman said: "Emma receives absolutely no tax or monetary advantages from this offshore company whatsoever - only privacy." He said Watson had had her personal safety "jeopardised" by companies publishing her details.
"UK companies are required to publicly publish details of their shareholders and therefore do not give her the necessary anonymity required to protect her personal safety, which has been jeopardised in the past owing to such information being publicly available," he told The Telegraph.
"Offshore companies do not publish these shareholder details."



Other famous names in the leaked database include entertainment mogul Simon Cowell, who The Guardian reported as being the sole shareholder of two British Virgin Islands companies.
A spokesman for Cowell told The Guardian that the companies were set up by accountants acting for Cowell as a common way for an overseas investor to buy property in Barbados.
"My client, however, preferred to purchase them transparently in his own name. Therefore, the companies were never used for anything at all. I can also confirm on behalf of my client that he has not used any offshore companies for any purpose whatsoever," the spokesman said.
Jackie Chan was also listed as owning at least six offshore companies based in the British Virgin Islands.
The Guardian reported The Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson had a "degree of chaos" surrounding her finances, in particular some complex arrangements around an entity, Essar Company Inc, set up in the British Virgin Islands. Allegedly, letters between Ferguson's legal representatives and Mossack Fonseca, the Panamanian law firm involved with the Panama leak, show the British royal "trying to make sense of her assets", set up in Essar Company Inc. Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi was implicated through his company Mega Star Enterprises, according to The Telegraph. The database list also included film director Stanley Kubrick, whose house was transferred to offshore companies controlled by his daughters, according to The Guardian. After Kubrick died in 1999 ownership of the property passed to three companies registered in the British Virgin Islands, which could have saved the family hundreds of thousands of pounds in inheritance tax. The leaked papers did not reveal if this happened, though.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released the names and shareholders of 240,000 corporate entities and their shareholders administered by Mossack Fonseca in more than 20 low-tax jurisdictions around the world. The data includes 368 shareholders with New Zealand addresses, including 189 trusts.

source: www.stuff.co.nz