On Sunday, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), along with 95 media partners, among them the New York Times and the Guardian, leaked 13.4 million documents revealing information about the offshore tax investments of more than 120,000 high-profile individuals and companies to the public.
The project, called the “Paradise Papers,” included the names of Trump administration officials involved with offshore accounts linked to the Kremlin:
- Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross maintained a stake in a shipping company, Navigator Holdings, which includes among its clients the Kremlin-connected Russian petrochemical company Sibur.
- Russian investor Yuri Milner, whose investments include a real estate company partly owned by Trump advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner, used Kremlin-backed funds to invest heavily in U.S. social media companies, such as Facebook and Twitter.
While offshore investments are not illegal in and of themselves, Ross’s and Kushner’s financial ties to Russia are worth particular scrutiny against the backdrop of Mueller’s investigation, as well as revelations about the sheer scope of the systematic Russian propaganda operation mounted on U.S. social media platforms during the 2016 election.
To explore the full extent of over a dozen Trump advisers’ and backers’ offshore connections, visit the ICIJ’s “The Influencers” project page.
[…] “The Ties That Bind: Paradise Papers Reveal More Connections between Trump Officials and the Kremlin,” IELR Blog, November 6, 2017. […]