the petista Fernando Haddad, the party’s candidate for the presidency of the Republic in 2018, stated that the practice of keeping accounts in tax havens so as not to pay taxes is unethical. Haddad commented on this Monday (4.Oct.2021) in his twitter profile on the offshores of minister Paulo Guedes (Economy) and Roberto Campos Neto, president of the Central Bank.
“It is unethical to keep accounts in tax havens so as not to pay taxes. If the account is from an economic authority and has been declared, it may be legal, but it is serious. If there was any financial movement, it is improbity. If you used privileged information it is a crime! If you don’t find out, it’s collusion!”
The companies of the BC minister and president are declared to the Federal Revenue. Campos Neto would not have made any changes after taking office, but the offshore remains open and may have made investments in the last 2 years, as revealed by the Pandora Papers series, a partnership of power360 like ICIJ.
> read on here all Pandora Papers texts published by Power360.
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Guedes owns offshore Dreadnoughts based in the British Virgin Islands. Also participating in the company are his wife, Maria Cristina Bolivar Drummond Guedes, and her daughter, Paula Drummond Guedes.
The Attorney General of the Republic, Augusto Aras, told the power360 that will “officiate” Guedes for more information about the case. According to Aras, an inquiry cannot be opened only with news from the media, but that the PGR (Attorney General’s Office) will carry out a “preliminary inquiry”.
The PT will ask the Public Ministry to investigate the offshore by Paulo Guedes and Roberto Campos Neto. A similar request must be made by the opposition in the Chamber of Deputies. They also ask for your summons to be explained.
PUBLIC INTEREST
As recorded in several texts in the Pandora Papers series, having an offshore company or a bank account abroad is not a crime for Brazilians who declare these activities to the Federal Revenue and the Central Bank, as the case may be.
If it’s not a crime, why disclose information about people whose business abroad complies with Brazilian rules? The answer to that question is simple: o power360 and the ICIJ are guided by the principle of journalistic relevance and public interest.
As is well known, there is a difference in how Brazilians should register their companies.
For the vast majority of citizens with registered businesses within Brazil, the data is public. All you have to do is go to a notary office or a Board of Trade to find out who the owners of a particular company are. In the case of those who have an offshore company, even if declared, the information is not public.
There are, therefore, 2 types of Brazilian entrepreneurs: 1) those who have their companies in the country and are exposed to the scrutiny of any other citizen; two)those who are able to open the business outside the country and thus protect the data in secrecy.
Those are the rules. This space will not be analyzed if they are inappropriate or not. That’s the law. It must be fulfilled. It is up to Congress, if it wishes, to improve the rules. Journalism is left with the mission of reporting the facts.
It is, therefore, a function of professional journalism to describe to society what is happening in the country. There are citizens who occupy a prominent position and who must always be subjected to greater scrutiny. In this category, among others, celebrities (who live off their public exposure and often receive state subsidy); journalistic media companies and journalists (since one of their functions is precisely to investigate what is right or wrong in the country’s daily life); big businessmen; who makes donations to political campaigns; public workers; politicians in general. And there are even more explicit cases: contractors cited in major scandals, money changers, bookmakers and drug dealers.
All investigations must be judicious and never expose anyone improperly. A large businessman who chooses to open an offshore company, duly declared, has every right to do so. But the obligation of professional journalism is also to investigate big business and say how a certain company takes care of its resources – always underlining, when applicable, that everything is in accordance with the current laws.
Many of the Brazilians mentioned in the Pandora Papers series responded proactively to the power360. They presented proof of the legality of their business abroad. They are citizens who contribute to the common good by understanding the role of professional journalism in scrutinizing who is more politically exposed in society.
The Pandora Papers series is the 8th that the power360 did in partnership with ICIJ (read about the previous ones here). It is a contribution of professional journalism to offer more transparency to society. The principle expressed in the sentence coined by the US Supreme Court Judge Louis Brandeis (1856-1941) about a century ago about access to data of public interest was followed in this report and in others already carried out: “Sunlight is the best disinfectant”. O power360 believes that in this way it fulfills its main mission as a journalism company: “Improving democracy by ascertaining the truth of the facts to inform and inspire”.