【新唐人2013年04月15日讯】一场史上最大的泄密风暴，正在令中国权贵和贪官们惶惶不可终日。一块存储量超过260G的电脑硬碟，被告密者送到了海外调查机构，其中包括大量中国顶级富豪向海外转移资产、和不法交易的详细资料，一旦公布，一些原本潜藏很深的中共贪官，将被按图索骥曝光于众。
据大陆财经媒体报导，调查性新闻记者国际联盟（ICIJ），在对澳洲一项涉及离岸公司及欺诈丑闻的调查过程中，获得由告密者提供的一个信息量超过260G的电脑硬碟，其中包括200多万个邮件和50万份资料，涉及12万多个离岸公司或信托机构的秘密交易，而这些离岸公司的作用主要有两个——转移财产和逃税。
北京理工大学经济学教授胡星斗：“在国外办离岸公司形式上是合法的，但是他们有可能实际上干着一些非法的勾当，也就是把财产转移出去，偷逃税收，还有把一些国有资产转变成境外的私人财产，其中存在着很多非法的事情。”
报导说，硬碟里的文件，揭露了大量富豪在英属维尔京群岛、库克群岛、新加坡等地，开设离岸公司及银行户口的记录，当中涉及中国客户的讯息极多、中国权贵设立境外实体的比例也是最高的。
“避税天堂”英属维尔京群岛，是与中国牵扯最深的离岸地之一，那里成为了中国贪官洗钱的主要通道。岛上大部分资产都属中国富豪持有，他们开设了大量“空壳”公司，并利用复杂的公司架构，将巨额财富隐匿其中来掩盖腐败行为。
胡星斗：“这是很多贪官、腐败分子洗钱的一个重要方式，也就是通过办离岸公司这样一种形式来转移资产，特别是将国有财产转变成个人资产，这可以说是一个主要的形式。”
在“避税天堂”开设离岸公司的，除了急于转移财产的贪官，还有少部分是因无法承担国内巨额赋税，而不得不逃税的企业家。
胡星斗：“国内的公司税费太高，税赋负担太高，也是重要原因。因为有很多的机构经过调查，认为中国企业的税费负担是世界第二、也有的人说是亚太地区第一，这是不同的机构的调查，在国内开公司，税赋负担非常重，那么它通过注册离岸公司的方式也可以成功的避税。”
“北京理工大学”经济学教授，首都经济研究会副会长胡星斗认为，中国法制不健全、官员财产不透明、个人产权保护不完善等，都是造成中共官员和企业家向海外转移财产的部分原因。
胡星斗：“国内对高官、对官员的财产没有建立公开透明的制度，这样一些官员也对外转移财产。很多的私人企业家感到在国内没有安全感，他们偷偷的转移财产，或者是通过注册离岸公司的方式，变相的通过某种合法的渠道，但实际上是转移了他的私人财产。”
在这次泄密事件中，不少客户资料信息，明确显示了藏匿在离岸的秘密公司、和家族信托操作离岸资产的痕迹，而这些暴露在阳光下的姓名，不仅有亿万富翁、公司高管、中产阶级，还有政界高官、国际军火商等。随着涉密信息的不断披露，牵涉其中的中国客户主动或被动的不法信息，都会逐渐浮出水面。
据了解，各国媒体将会在4月15号揭露更多相关细节，如果这个硬碟的消息解密，中国权贵的海外资产、公司架构、股权比例等绝密资料，将大白于天下，他们煞费苦心隐藏的财富也将会公诸于众。
采访编辑/张天宇 后制/葛雷
China’s Bigwigs Illegal Financial Activities Leaked
Possibly the most massive data leak on offshore wealth cons
keeps China’s super rich and corrupt officials on their toes.
A hard disk with over 260 gigabytes of data has been
submitted to an overseas investigative organization.
The disk contains a great amount of details on how China’s
super rich transferred assets abroad and made illicit trades.
Once this data is open to the public, many corrupt party
officials who have lurked for a long time will be exposed.
China’s financial media reported that the ICIJ (International
Consortium of Investigative Journalists) acquired a hard disk with over 260 GB of data from an informer,
during an investigation of Australian fraud’ scandal,
involving offshore companies.
The disk contains over 2 million emails and 500,000 files,
related to secret trades of over 120,000 offshore companies and trusts.
These companies served two major purposes,
assets transfer and tax evasion.
Hu Xingdou, Professor in Economics at Beijing Institute of
Technology: ”Founding offshore companies abroad is legal.
Yet, those companies may be engaged in illegal activities,
such as transferring assets abroad, evading taxes and converting state-owned assets to private ones.
There can be great many illegal activities involved.”
According to the report, the files in the hard drive contain
massive records of the super rich’s offshore asserts.
These include companies, trusts, and bank accounts
in the British Virgin Islands, Cook Islands and Singapore.
Among the records a great many relate
to Chinese clients.
The proportion of offshore economic entities founded
by China’s rich is also the highest among all the countries.
The British Virgin Islands, dubbed “tax haven,” is one
of the off shores that have most connections with China.
The island has become a money-laundering hub for China’s
corrupt officials, who own most of the assets on the island.
They found many “dummy companies” with complicated
structures to hide their huge corruption gained’ wealth.
Hu Xingdou: ”This is an important way
of money-laundering for many corrupt officials.
They transfer assets abroad, and especially convert
state assets to their own through offshore companies.
This can be regarded as a primary approach
to achieve that.”
Other than the anxious corrupt officials transferring assets,
some offshore firm’ owners are Chinese entrepreneurs.
They could not afford to pay the huge taxes in China,
and were compelled to evade them in such a way.
Hu Xingdou: ”Another important reason is that our
domestic companies are burdened with overly high taxes.
There have been many relevant surveys on the issue,
conducted by different agencies.
They conclude that Chinese companies have to pay
the second highest taxes in the world, or the highest ones in the Asia-Pacific region.
This is a common conclusion,
according to a number of different sources.
As the tax burden is very heavy in China, founding offshore
companies appears to be a feasible way to evade taxes.”
Hu Xingdou also serves as the vice president
of the Capital Research Board of Economics.
Hu remarked that party officials and entrepreneurs
transfer their assets abroad for several reasons.
These include China’s legal system flaws, opacity of officials’
wealth, and unreliability in protecting personal properties.
Hu Xingdou: ”China has no law, requiring officials to declare
properties, which allows them to transfer assets abroad.
In addition, many private company’ owners
have little sense of security with their wealth left in China.
They secretly transfer assets abroad, or register
offshore companies to do the same in a legal way.
Either way they are moving private assets
into foreign countries.”
The customer profiles leaked by the hard drive this time
clearly indicate the existence of many secret offshore firms,
and record how the family trusts operate
their offshore assets.
The list of exposed names includes not only billionaires,
company executives and middle-class men, but also senior politicians and arms dealers.
As more of the leaked information becomes open,
the Chinese clients illicit activities, both active and passive, will gradually rise to the surface.
On Apr 15, the media from different countries
will announce more details about the leaked information.
If all hard drive’s records are made public, the top secrets
of China’s super rich, including their offshore assets, company structures and equities will be known to the world.
The truth of their wealth, which they worked so hard
to hide away, will also be exposed to the Chinese people.
