SCOTTISH shell firms played a core role in a billion-dollar bribery 'mega scandal' threatening to topple or disgrace up to a dozen world leaders.
The Herald can reveal that three Edinburgh businesses were part of an elaborate global offshore scheme allegedly used to launder multi-million-dollar kickbacks to politicians across Latin America.
Court papers from Brazil show the Scottish firms - as well as two English ones - are at the centre of one of the world's biggest-ever corruption investigations: the ongoing unravelling of a global web of illicit payments by the construction multi-national Odebrecht.
The Brazilian-based giant has admitted paying bribes, but a Who's Who of Latin America politics - including former heads of state in Brazil and Peru - have denied taking them.
The probe into Odebrecht and related scandals - called Operation Car Wash - has already brought a jail term of a decade for the company's chief executive and six years for the former vice president of Ecuador.
Now the investigation has also once again exposed the increasingly controversial role of British - and especially Scottish - corporate entities as the money-laundering vehicles of choice for international criminals.
Court documents directly link an executive who was last year convicted of money-laundering for Odebrecht to three Scottish limited partnerships or SLPs registered next door to the headquarters of the Church of Scotland in George Street, the main shopping zone in Edinburgh's prestigious New Town. (more...)
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| Get in my belly |
Secret societies do cherish their secrets.
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