More Than 100 Universities And Colleges Included In Offshore Leaks Database

Hidden in the 25,000 offshore entities we added to the Offshore Leaks Database today are some of the world’s most prestigious universities and colleges.

ICIJ and its partners found more than 100 educational institutions in offshore law firm Appleby’s client database, which was part of the Paradise Papers leaks.

Some of these elite institutions hold tens of billions of dollars in their endowments, and in the eyes of the law, they are treated as charities: altruistic, mission-driven and tax-exempt.

The only time university endowments pay taxes is when they invest in debt-financed financial firms such as private equity funds and hedge funds. These investments are considered a business activity unrelated to their tax-exempt missions.

As ICIJ’s partners at The New York Times reported, large numbers of universities have adopted an offshore scheme that allows them to avoid even those taxes. The universities assign entities called “blocker funds” legal responsibility of otherwise taxable investments. These entities are incorporated in zero-tax jurisdictions such as Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.

Consequently, wealthy universities have settled en masse on a strategy for reaping Wall Street-sized investment gains tax free.  (more...)

More Than 100 Universities And Colleges Included In Offshore Leaks Database

Student opinion:

Paradise Papers Implicate Oxford, Cambridge, and Over 100 American Universities

My own alma mater, the University of Toronto made the list. Not surprising.

A pattern?

Canada’s biggest corporations have more than 1,000 subsidiaries in tax havens, report says

Canada’s 60 biggest corporations have more than 1,000 subsidiaries in offshore tax havens, depriving government coffers of up to $15 billion annually, according to a new report being published Wednesday.

The report, titled “Bay Street and Tax Havens: Curbing Corporate Canada’s Addiction” and prepared by the group Canadians for Tax Fairness, shines a light on one of the legal methods used by big corporations to reduce their taxes — tax havens.

“The reality is that most companies do this,” said Diana Gibson, the report’s author. “It’s not illegal, but it should be.”

Companies named in the Paradise Papers leak, made public last week, defended themselves by pointing out that they didn’t break any laws. But Gibson says legality isn’t the point.

“It’s not necessarily about whether it’s illegal or not, the issue is that it’s doing harm to Canada,” she said.

If the billions that remain on company balance sheets were instead collected in taxes, they could pay for a national pharmacare program, free university tuition or affordable public child care.

“Not only are tax havens costing us those lost opportunities to invest in public programs, but we’re also seeing harm to economic growth due to the inequality made worse by tax havens,” Gibson said.  (more...)

Canada’s biggest corporations have more than 1,000 subsidiaries in tax havens, report says

Was owner of paedophile palace who kept list of secret VIP vistors murdered?

The discovery of files that police said were destroyed has cast fresh doubts on the suicide ­verdict at the heart of the Westminster VIP paedo scandal.

Campaigners are demanding a review of the coroner’s verdict into the death of Carole Kasir and a new inquest.

Mrs Kasir ran the notorious paedophile brothel Elm Guest House in South West London. She may have kept a dossier of the perverted visitors’ names and photos from the early 80s.

The newly found files reveal her GP’s surprise at her apparent suicide. They also say syringes and vials found next to her body had not been analysed.

One source believes a fresh probe may expose a cover-up and reveal that Mrs Kasir, 47, who was found dead in her bed in 1990, had been murdered.  (more...)

Was owner of paedophile palace who kept list of secret VIP vistors murdered?

More commentary:

How newly found “destroyed” papers revive the mystery of the notorious gay and paedophile Elm Guest House

Legionaries deny illegal offshore dealings indicated by Paradise Papers

MEXICO CITY — The Legionaries of Christ say a series of offshore accounts opened by its disgraced founder — and exposed by investigative journalists examining a cache of documents shining a light on tax havens — have been closed.

The order added that the accounts never violated any laws and did not handle the vast sums of money alleged in the investigation.

"The offshore entities that existed with some relation to the congregation and its members were operated legally and never were companies used for illicit activities, as some journalistic articles affirm," the Legionaries said in a statement.

The statement also attempted to pin the blame for the accounts' existence on the wealthy order's founder, the late Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, who led a double life in violation of Catholic teaching, included fathering children and sexually abusing seminarians. Maciel died in 2008 after being ordered to lead a life of prayer and penance, and the Legionaries of Christ was put under Vatican leadership, which started the process of cleaning up the order's finances and closing the offshore companies.

The order previously had companies established in Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Channel Islands, Panama and Luxembourg.

The revelations of the Legionaries activities came from the so-called Paradise Papers, in which a consortium of international journalists combed through a trove of leaked information on offshore companies.

An investigation by Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity, a Mexican anti-graft group, showed the Legionaries of Christ had established a Bermuda-based company called International Volunteer Services.

In its statement, the order said International Volunteer Services "did not handle economic funds."

"The educational projects related to the congregation operate with transparency, have their accounts audited and observe the legal and fiscal provisions of their respective countries," the Legionaries statement said. "They do not have any relation or operations with offshore companies."

Journalist Raul Olmos, author of the investigation, told Catholic News Service that documents cast doubt on the Legionaries' statement.

"These universities generated a lot of money," he said. "We had access to the financial statements of the Legionaries of Christ's universities, and they generated $300 million per year."  (more...)

Legionaries deny illegal offshore dealings indicated by Paradise Papers

Related:

Catholic order concedes past offshore holdings in tax havens

Background:

"Our Father" Maciel, who art in Bed: A Naive and Sentimental Dubliner in the Legion of Christ

Depraved world view of Ben Levin continues on parole

Convicted child pornographer Ben Levin, the former bigwig in Ontario’s ministry of education, is on parole — but he is busy online, trolling academic studies on porn and leaving comments that suggest the disgraced educator still doesn’t think he did anything wrong.

Or that he hurt anyone.

If he remains so clueless, why isn’t this registered sex offender still behind bars?

Levin, 65, was sentenced to three years in prison in 2015 after pleading guilty to creating and possessing child pornography and counselling others to commit a sexual assault.

Caught by undercover officers online, the world-renowned educator, UofT prof and former member of Kathleen Wynne’s transition team was a frequent visitor to an incest chat room where he counselled single moms on how to sexually assault their daughters for his pleasure and theirs, a site where his profile listed his sexuality as “nothing is taboo.”

In one disgusting sampling read out in court, the depraved Levin told one London “mom” he’d like to “f— all 3 (of her children) in front of you with your help…would they submit or would I need to tie them?”

Levin was denied full parole in August 2016 after the National Parole Board found he still lacked insight into his crimes. This past January, he somehow convinced them otherwise and was granted full parole.

Yet Levin still appears to blame everyone but himself. In his online comments, he suggests we’re the ones with the problem, that as a society, we’re overreacting to “harmless” fantasies.

Since his release, Levin’s Internet footprint is all over ResearchGate, a kind of Facebook for academics to post and review studies.  (more...)

Depraved world view of Ben Levin continues on parole

Background:

Three year sentence brings sad, sickening end to onetime education superstar

Editor, publisher of 'Your Ward News' — newspaper Canada Post banned from delivering — face hate charges

James Sears contemplating getting a real job

TORONTO — The editor and publisher of a controversial Toronto publication are facing hate-related charges.

Toronto police say James Nicholas Sears, 54, and Lawrence (Leroy) St. Germaine, 76, are each charged with two counts of wilful promotion of hatred against an identifiable group, namely Jews and women.

Investigators say they received numerous complaints about the distribution and content of “Your Ward News” between March 2015 and June 27 and allege the accused published and disseminated editions that promoted hatred against members of the Jewish community and women.

Last year, the federal government ordered Canada Post to stop delivering “Your Ward News” after the then-minister of public services and procurement found it “highly offensive and well outside the norm of Canadian values.”  (more...)

Editor, publisher of 'Your Ward News' — newspaper Canada Post banned from delivering — face hate charges

More coverage:

WARMINGTON: Hate charges laid over Your Ward News

BREAKING: NEO-NAZI RAG CHARGED WITH PROMOTING HATE AGAINST WOMEN AND JEWS

James Sears and Leroy St. Germaine Arrested and Hotel Cancels on Paul Fromm

The Campaign Against Canada’s Largest Pro-Nazi Newspaper

EDITOR, PUBLISHER OF YOUR WARD NEWS CHARGED WITH PROMOTING HATE

Background:

Warren's Life Matters: Latest

Federal government orders Canada Post to stop delivering Toronto newspaper, calling it ‘hate propaganda’

Let's sing a little victory song with Warren Kinsella:

Normalization? 'SHE'S GROWN UP': Notorious teacher Debra LaFave 'completely different' 13 years after student sex trial

An infamous teacher who notoriously admitted to bedding a 14-year-old student has discarded her troubled ways in exchange for the wholesome lifestyle required by her new-found faith.

Debra LaFave was 24 years old when she pleaded guilty to having sex with a teenage pupil – a salacious story that made international headlines in 2004 due to the novelty of a teacher-student relationship and LaFave’s striking looks.

The victim told authorities he engaged in sex acts with LaFave on multiple occasions during a four-day period that included sex in a vehicle that was allegedly being driven by the victim’s cousin.

She was sentenced to three years house arrest and seven years of probation in a plea agreement.

Thirteen years later, LaFave is a changed woman, her friend Joe Zuniga recently told People.com.  (more...)

'SHE'S GROWN UP': Notorious teacher Debra LaFave 'completely different' 13 years after student sex trial

No doubt, she votes Republican values, too. The Christian Right will absolve you of ANY sin:

Family Values: Ex-teacher Mary Kay Letourneau separates from former student years after sex scandal