The UK minister formerly in charge of anti-money laundering has been named in the Paradise Papers leak

The man in charge of the fight against money laundering in the UK has been named in the Paradise Papers Filtration as a beneficiary of an offshore trust.

According to documents found in the International Consortium of Journalists (ICIJ) Paradise Papers database, James Meyers Sassoon, who served as chairman of the Financial Action Task Force in the United Kingdom between 2007 and 2008, he is the beneficiary from one of the Cayman Trust Fund Islands named DCR Herschorn. settlement

On Sunday, more than 13 million documents were leaked detailing the complex financial arrangements of some of the world's richest people. The documents, known as "paradise documents", were stolen from Appleby's offshore law firm during a cyber attack last year and were shared with ICIJ.

As chair of the working group, Sassoon was responsible for the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. He has also been an advocate of legal tax evasion (as opposed to illegal evasion), and said in 2010 that minimizing tax payments "is perfectly reasonable".

Mr. Sassoon, now a member of the House of Lords, was also Secretary of Treasury Affairs from 2010 to 2013 and was responsible for overseeing economic productivity and industrial strategy.

The fund was created by Sassoon's grandmother several decades ago and originally operated under Bahamian law (the Bahamas is also considered an extraterritorial secret jurisdiction). The records show that the trust is owned by Orchard Limited, a Bahamas-registered investment company, which held $ 124 million in 2002, according to the financial statements. For 2007, it had $ 236 million, and the same year distributed $ 8 million to beneficiaries, according to the records.

In 2002, the trust used the accounting firm "Cuatro Grandes" Deloitte to advise on tax matters.

In 2008, according to the documents, a Sassoon fax father an Appleby administrator showed that Deloitte warned that British taxpayers could be subject to UK tax on over $ 14 million financing if they were removed.

Mr. Sassoon told ICIJ that the trust fund was established by his grandmother 60 years ago for several beneficiary families, including residents who did not come from the UK. He added that this also included non-UK assets not subject to UK tax. Given this, and this confidence had been established on the high seas since the beginning, Sassoon told the ICIJ that "there was no doubt that the assets had been transferred to the high seas".

He said that the UK tax authorities were aware of the agreement and its management company. "When UK-domiciled people benefited from the agreement, it was disclosed normally and the tax due was paid," Sassoon told ICIJ.

"I have not received any benefits from the trust for over 25 years." He also said he had revealed his potential interest in the trust when he joined the Treasury in 2002.