As fresh names emerge, senior Lib Dem politician says British Virgin Islands offshore haven 'stains the face of Britain'
The prime minister of Georgia heads a list of fresh names that emerged on Thursday as owners of secret offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands.
A senior Lib Dem politician said the secret haven of the BVI "stains the face of Britain", while anti-corruption campaigners called for action from the British prime minister, David Cameron.
The latest cluster of names to emerge from the huge leak of BVI financial data include Bidzina Ivanishvili, the prime minister of the Caucasus nation since last year, and prominent figures in Pakistan, India, Thailand and Indonesia. They also include a Briton, Neil Gaitely, nominally a director of a company reported to be a front for the Iranian regime.
Lord Oakeshott, the Lib Dem peer and a former Treasury spokesman, said: "How can David Cameron keep a straight face calling for the G8 to make big business pay tax when we let the BVI use British law and British protection to suck in billions in dirty money?"
The names of thousands of owners of secret offshore companies are currently being revealed by the washington-based ICIJ, a journalists' group, in collaboration with the Guardian and other international media. This follows the leak to ICIJ of a hard drive containing 200GB of internal files of offshore incorporation agencies in the BVI, Singapore and the Cook Islands.
Robert Palmer of the campaign group Global Witness repeated the call for Cameron to take action. He said: "The time to deal with this issue is now. Given that he has pledged to tackle these secretive shell companies at this year's G8 summit in Northern Ireland, he and his fellow leaders must commit to publishing information on the people who ultimately control and own companies."
Today's release of names includes:
Georgia
Name: Bidzina Ivanishvili
Offshore company: Bosherston Overseas Corp
Details: Ivanishvili, a billionaire businessman, became prime minister of Georgia in 2012. Listed from 2006-9 as director of the BVI company, administered via an agent in Panama, incorporated in 2006 and still active.
Comment: Spokesman says he has done everything according to law: "For the reporting period of 2011-12, Prime Minister Ivanishvili had no interest in the company … and therefore there was no obligation to report it in his [financial] declaration"
India
Name: Gaddam Vivekanand
Offshore company: Belrose Universal Ltd
Details: A ruling Congress party MP, Vivekanand is also vice-chairman of Visaka Industries, which produces about one quarter of India's asbestos supplies. He and his wife Saroja are listed as directors and shareholders of Belrose, which was incorporated in the BVI September 2008.
Comment: Vivekanand said: "I do not remember being involved with such a company and have no connection with it.''
Indonesia
Name: Stephen Riady
Offshore Companies: J&S Company, Eastlink Industrial Investments and others
Details: The Riady family, one of many wealthy Indonesian families and owners of the conglomerate Lippo Group, had at least 11 offshore entities. The agents, TrustNet refer to them as "Client A", noting "client does not want to be seen dealing offshore". Their agent, Gary Phair, instructed TrustNet staff to "delete any reference to 'C/- [care of] Lippo Group'"
Comment: A spokeswoman for Stephen Riady said there was "nothing illegal or improper in protecting the privacy of one's own information".
Iran
Name: Iran's shipping fleet
Offshore Company: Tamalaris Consolidated Ltd
Details: The company was set up in 2006 in the BVI via a Russian incorporation agency. An anonymous Panama entity, Palmarris Group SA, is listed as shareholder, while a Briton, 39-year-old "general builder" Neil Gaitely, from Abbey Wood, south London, whose name appears as a nominee on a variety of offshore and UK companies, is listed as a director. In 2011 it was publicly blacklisted by the US and UK governments as a front for the state-controlled Iranian shipping line, designed to dodge anti-nuclear proliferation sanctions.
Thailand
Name: Nalinee "Joy" Taveesin
Offshore Company: Hall Kingston International
Details: Taveesin is currently Thailand's international trade representative, and previously a government minister and adviser to Thailand's commerce minister. The offshore company naming her and her brother Anuraj Mishra was set up 2008, according to TrustNet records. In the same year, the US treasury department blacklisted her and her assets as a "crony" of the Zimbabwean leader, Robert Mugabe, accusing her of "secretly supporting the kleptocratic practices of one of Africa's most corrupt regimes" through gem trafficking and other deals.
Comment: Taveesin's secretary said: "She [Taveesin] strongly affirmed that she had neither known nor heard about this so-called Hall Kingston. The information about her being [a company] shareholder is incorrect."
Pakistan
Name: Moonis Elahi
Offshore company: Olive Grove Assets Ltd
Details: Elahi is a politician from a prominent Punjab dynasty. He is the son of Pakistan's former deputy prime minister Chaudry Pervez Elahi, and runs a family textile business. The company was incorporated in the BVI 2006, and the address listed in BVI records is the Chaudry family residence in Lahore. Elahi was acquitted in a Pakistan court in 2011 of receiving payments in a corruption scandal.
Comment: Elahi said "I do not own" nor control the BVI company. He did not state whether he had previously owned the firm.
• This article was amended on 4 April 2013 to correct Robert Palmer's name, which was originally wrongly given as David Palmer.