Three companies in the British Virgin Islands have been listed in the recently leaked financial documents – Pandora Papers – for their assistance in secretly purchasing properties in the United States valuing nearly $70 million, for the King of Jordan.
This is according to a published BBC article dated Sunday October 3, which said that the King of Jordan Abdullah II bin Al Hussein secretly purchased 15 homes since assuming power in 1999.
This information about the King of Jordan is reportedly contained in newly-obtained financial documents labeled the Pandora Papers. They detail the work of companies that offer secretive financial services – and the hidden fortunes of some of the most powerful people on the planet.
The article said that BBC Panorama and the Guardian in the UK have worked with other media partners to access more than 12 million files from 14 companies in the British Virgin Islands, Belize, Panama, Hong Kong, Cyprus, Switzerland and other countries.
The properties in question included a seven-bedroom home which sits among the multi-million-dollar cliff-top properties overlooking the Pacific in the Point Dume peninsula of Malibu, California.
According to BBC, the property was bought for $33.5 million in 2014 by Nabisco Holdings SA, a company located in the territory – at a record price for the area at the time.
It further said that two different BVI companies bought the homes either side of the property in 2015 and 2017, which are all being developed into one huge property at a total cost of $68 million.
The documents in the Pandora Papers also exposed that the three companies are among those represented by a Panama law firm, and all were secretly owned by the King of Jordan.
Company not adhering to the BOSSs system
The article further revealed that eight months after the passing of the Beneficial Ownership Secure Search System Act in 2017 – which compels owners of companies on the island to be identified on an internal register held by the government – the companies still did not disclose King Abdulla as the property owners.
He also does not appear to have been identified as a politically-exposed person – someone in a prominent public position – a requirement on financial firms under anti-corruption rules.
This is not the first time that the BVI has been mentioned in global leaked financial documents, as offshore companies in the territory were also mentioned in the 2016 Panama Papers as well as in the leaked US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network(FinCen) documents which were revealed in 2020.