China was Largest Market for Panama Papers Law Firm

Still on the Panama Papers but this time in China!

A massive data leak from a Panamanian firm has revealed that from relatives of the founding father of the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong, to current leader Xi Jinping, offshore holdings are common place among the families of China's ruling elite.

Among the more than 11 million documents are details about the offshore holdings of relatives of at least seven current and former Politburo Standing Committee members, a powerful political body in China, and the grandson-in-law of the founding father of the People’s Republic of China, Mao Zedong.

On Wednesday, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists said that Chinese leaders’ relatives who have offshore holdings include: the brother-in-law of President Xi Jinping; the son-in-law of Standing Committee member Zhang Gaoli; a brother of former Chinese Vice President and the daughter of former Premier Li Peng.

The ICIJ also said its analysis of leaked records indicates that by the end of 2015, Mossack Fonseca – the law firm at the center of the document dump – was collecting fees for more than 16,300 offshore companies from China and Hong Kong, accounting for 29 percent of its business worldwide.

Hong Kong is the company’s busiest office in Asia and the world.