Shakira, Bono, Madonna and Queen Elizabeth II named in 'Paradise Papers'
Shakira, Bono, Madonna and Queen Elizabeth II named in 'Paradise Papers'
COLOMBIAN pop-rocker Shakira is reported to have been involved with the so-called 'Paradise Papers' offshore scandal recently revealed, in which names such as Germany's Princess Corinna zu Sayn Wittgenstein – a close friend of King Juan Carlos – U2's Bono, Madonna, and even Queen Elizabeth II of England have appeared.
More and more names have been appearing in the 'Paradise Papers' list, although so far all those whose identities have been made public have said they believed their actions had always been legal.
Shakira, 40, who has two small sons with FC Barcelona midfielder Gerard Piqué, is reported to have placed up to €31.6 million in accounts in Luxembourg and Malta to benefit from their preferential tax régimes.
Her solicitor Ezequiel Camerini explains that his client has owned a property in the Bahamas since 2004, when she had been living in Miami with her then long-term boyfriend Antonio de la Rúa.
“Over the next few years, [Shakira] had to travel non-stop and spent most of her time in different countries – as part of her Sale el Sol tour, she gave 110 concerts around the world,” Camerini explains.
“She also spent long periods of time in the USA when she was a judge on The Voice.”
The €31.6m in royalties for her music has been earnt over the past 10 years and was managed by the company Turnesol Limited, based in Malta, Shakira's lawyer reveals.
He says this set up 'complies with all legal requisites' – exactly as the Queen of England's solicitor has confirmed.
At the same time as her name appeared among the 'Paradise Papers' headlines, Shakira announced she had cancelled the first concert of her El Dorado tour, due to start this month.
But her decision is completely unrelated to the story – the half-Lebanese vocalist and songwriter's doctors have ordered her to rest her voice entirely for several days to avoid causing permanent damage to her vocal chords.
Addressing a message to her 'friends in Germany', where she was due to perform her first date of the tour, Shakira explained that in the run-up to the show she had been 'forcing her vocal chords' during 'intense rehearsals', which her GP confirmed had overstretched them.
The 'Paradise Papers' leak, like its predecessor – the 'Panamá Papers' – is the result of digging by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), in which 382 whistle-blowers gave information to nearly 100 different communications media worldwide.
Some 13 million leaked documents have been examined, which cover the financial activities of 127 celebrities, politicians and other famous figureheads in tax havens between 1950 and 2016.
