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| The (mostly) silent partner |
The Yoovidhya family’s efforts to hide assets show how easily major global financial players can routinely — and, usually, legally — move billions of dollars with little or no oversight.
The family’s confidential deals were inadvertently exposed by the jet-setting son Vorayuth “Boss” Yoovidhya, who has attracted cries of impunity in Thailand after repeatedly failing to show up in court for allegedly racing away in his Ferrari after a deadly accident with a motorcycle cop almost five years ago. More than 120 Instagram and Facebook postings by friends and family led The Associated Press earlier this year to the Yoovidhyas’ London vacation home, where Vorayuth refused to comment.
Thai authorities revoked his passport and issued an arrest warrant, but say they don’t know where he is.
Now the investigation into Vorayuth’s whereabouts has led to the Panama Papers, a collection of 11 million secret financial documents that illustrate how the world’s wealthiest families hide their money, including some of the Yoovidhya family’s financial arrangements.
The Panama Papers leak first was obtained by the German newspaper Sudeutsche Zeitung and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which began publishing collaborative reports with news organizations in 2016, putting wealthy and powerful people in more than 70 countries under scrutiny.
Since then, political leaders have been ousted, an estimated $135 billion was wiped off the value of nearly 400 companies, and governments are cracking down on offshore tax havens. Founders of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, which owned the leaked documents, were charged earlier this year with money-laundering.
The Yoovidhya family’s network of offshore companies — set up by Mossack Fonseca — was so complex that, until now, the family name and Red Bull brand had not been exposed. But the Panama Papers shared with the AP show the family has used at least a half-dozen anonymous companies in tax havens for more than two decades.
The Yoovidhyas, who share ownership of Red Bull with Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz, did not respond to requests for comment. Red Bull said in a statement that Vorayuth’s legal situation “is not a matter for Red Bull” and that the company’s financial matters are private.
Vorayuth was last seen in public in April, outside his family’s London home. (more...)
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