Still barely a squeak from the Big Four accounting firms about the world’s biggest tax leak, the 13.4 million documents from the Paradise Papers.
In a perusal of the websites of Deloitte, KPMG, EY and PwC – and their advocacy group Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand – we only managed to find one mention of Paradise Papers.
In its annual rundown of the events of 2017, Deloitte notes “November: Paradise Papers data breach publicised”.
The firm awarded Paradise Papers with its gong for “Tax word/phrase of the year: New to the lexicon after only two months”.
The failure of the mainstream media to pursue the architects of global tax avoidance is staggering. Yet again, some courageous and high-minded professional has risked his or her life and almost certainly blown up their career to bring this data into the public domain.
The result, sadly, has been a spot of collateral damage for a few celebrities and the finger of blame pointed squarely at Caribbean law firm Appleby while the real culprits have got off scot-free yet again. LuxLeaks, Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, what’s next?
Ethic Cleansing & Paradise Papers : Big Four whitewash is done
Michael West established Michael West Media in 2016 to focus on journalism of high public interest, particularly the rising power of corporations over democracy. West was formerly a journalist and editor with Fairfax newspapers, a columnist for News Corp and even, once, a stockbroker.