when the richest people hide an impressive amount of money worldwide. GERARD RYLE We're talking about the president, we're talking about the prime minister, we're talking about rock stars, we're talking about porn stars and people who have been imprisoned around the world.
Their methods are a very secure secret. However, a wide paper trail is hidden, now it has been exposed for all to see. ANTHONY WATSON: The shell game.
They hide the goods, they hide the revenue, they hide the real profitable owners. Solving these beautiful buildings you find takes a long time.
The confidants are lawyers and accountants, who work with a global network of trustees and shell companies based in tax offices around the world elevator DOOR DINGS Today, it is a global business with customers on every continent.
GERARD RYLE: He is one of the largest service providers in the world. It is also owned by an Australian man. They have all kinds of legitimate clients, big banks, big banks, big accounting firms.
Asiaciti is setting up coastal companies for people seeking privacy. Asiaciti is part of a growing sector of professional economic managers who help the very rich manage their finances.
LAKSHMI KUMAR: Attorneys, accountants, investment advisers. You know, so, anyone who helps with private money, engagement fund, real estate agents.
They are all gatekeepers. And if we use the term 'gatekeepers', in fact .... these people are designed to protect the financial system because they have the technology, they have the expertise to navigate professionally what is one of the most complex ways to use it.
What we have learned from this analysis is that each of the organizations that provide these services, in and of themselves, has the greatest potential.
So, you know, there is ongoing advice. There is a charge for establishing these structures. There is a revenue model to follow because you continue to control these structures.
Therefore, for those individual businesses operating in this space, there is a huge profit. Asiaciti prides itself on being trustworthy and understanding, keeping the details of its top clients confidential.
An anonymous source has now released millions of internal documents from Asiaciti and 13 other overseas media providers worldwide through the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
GERARD RYLE: It's interesting that we see someone we haven't heard of. He talks about Graeme Briggs - an accountant, a man who went to Singapore, built a business and is now the center of what will be, I think, a global political storm.
Graeme Briggs is a 75-year-old grandfather who tastes the best in life. He owns a $ 1 billion mansion in the Mornington peninsula. Graham lives in Victoria. He collects art.
He loves sweet wine, especially Italian wine. He also collects Japanese fountain pens. Therefore, he is a person who loves expensive things.
But it also connects with people from all over the world, the richest, the most important clients, and also some of the most influential people in the community.
The leak reveals that Graeme Briggs has amassed $ 62 million in assets, including more than $ 10 million in real estate, $ 4-million, and $ 400,000 in fine wine.
Like the wealth of those in power, Graeme Briggs' vast wealth is held in the hands of a complex maritime company and a trust-building.
One of the ways in which the Pandora Papers appear in the text is the fact that this coastal country is secretly appealing, urging governments to allow seaside land to be developed. As a result, Graham played a key role in turning Samoa into a tax haven.
The island nation of Samoa is dotted with seas between New Zealand and Hawaii. Graeme Briggs was one of the first to see the power in Samoa two decades ago.
He boasted of being an expert in government on maritime finance. He built an Asiaciti office in the nation's capital, just down the road from the governor.
TO'OTO'OLEAAVA DR FANAAFI AIONO: He was one of the first to bring that kind of business here to Samoa. And I understand that he had a voice in advising on the first law. I've met him once.
I met him on one of Samoa's updates following the Asia Pacific Group's illegal money-laundering operation. In one of their reviews of Samoa back in 2014, it was when I first met Mr. Graeme Briggs.
He looks very human. She is not very tall. Short, curly hair. Gray. Aussie. It may not look like a global financial hub, but there are tens of thousands of international companies based here -one in three residents.
Genesis was ... I think it was trying to find other sources of income that were legal and legitimate in a small nation on an island with very limited natural resources. That is its source.
It is a tax hotspot that has been criticized for its lack of transparency and has been badly selected by the European Union since 2017.
LAKSHMI KUMAR: In addition to checks, gatekeepers have a carte blanche and can ride over financial conditions without being asked questions and not answering.
They pay the fine, and then the business just as usual. JOHN CHEVIS: I think some of the best money can be made if you are willing to not see who you are dealing with and where their money may have come from.
I think there is a lot of good money to be made, sadly. DEBRA LAPREVOTTE: You have a handful of people looting the country's resources. Imagine the good that could have been done with $ 5 billion.
Roads, infrastructure, schools, medicine, education, health. All of that could have been and all that has been taken up by a handful of people.
The private fortune of the rich, famous, and sometimes notorious. They are hidden in the profitable hold and expensive housing, and Australia has become a major investment destination.
PETER WHISH-WILSON: I think the outrage that Australians would have shown if they knew that corrupt money was buying their local jewelry and competing with local people at auctions, I think they would be angry about that.
NATHAN LYNCH: Really, that means your kids or yourself are probably going to buy a place, and, if they are on sale, there may be someone there wearing a suit
they look great, are very sharp and legitimate, but they can be a representative working for an external kleptocrat or a politically exposed person.
Tonight on Four Corners investigates politicians, criminals, and the richest distribute millions with the same economy open only to those who cannot afford it.
We also disclose how Australian auditors make a lot of money helping high-risk clients to keep their assets invisible.
Our investigation begins in Singapore. This glamorous financial center on the island is an ideal setting for establishing complex business buildings.
PETER WHISH-WILSON: Their 17% corporate tax rate has been traditionally low than other foreign authorities.
So, that attracts companies who want to start a business there and pay less tax. And again, if you are going to try to set up a world headquarters in a country like Singapore and you are a big international company and take part in profit-making activities and everything else that is really wrong and wrong, then what you will also want from the Singapore government.
Layers of rules to hide your identity and what you do.
It’s a self-deprecating recipe. Forty years ago, Singapore was the home of a little-known business owned by an Australian accountant named Graeme Briggs. He founded his own company, Asiaciti, here in the 1980s.
ELEVATOR DOOR DINGS Today, it is a global business with customers on every continent. GERARD RYLE: He is one of the largest service providers in the world. It is also owned by an Australian man.
They have all kinds of legitimate clients, big banks, big banks, big accounting firms. Asiaciti is setting up coastal companies for people seeking privacy.
Asiaciti is part of a growing sector of professional economic managers who help the very rich manage their finances.
LAKSHMI KUMAR: Attorneys, accountants, investment advisers. You know, so, anyone who helps with private money, engagement fund, real estate agents. They are all gatekeepers.
And if we use the term 'gatekeepers', in fact ..... these people are designed to protect the financial system because they have the technology, they have the expertise to navigate professionally what is one of the most complex ways to use it.
What we have learned from this analysis is that each of the organizations that provide these services, in and of themselves, has the greatest potential.
So, you know, there is ongoing advice. There is a charge for establishing these structures. There is a revenue model to follow because you continue to control these structures.
Therefore, for those individual businesses operating in this space, there is a huge profit. Asiaciti prides itself on being trustworthy and understanding, keeping the details of its top clients confidential.
An anonymous source has now released millions of internal documents from Asiaciti and 13 other overseas media providers worldwide through the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
GERARD RYLE: It's interesting that we see someone we haven't heard of. He talks about Graeme Briggs - an accountant, a man who went to Singapore, built a business and is now the center of what will be, I think, a global political storm.
Graeme Briggs is a 75-year-old grandfather who tastes the best in life. He owns a $ 1 billion mansion in the Mornington peninsula... Continue
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