Hong Kong's rich face exposure in tax-haven leak

Journalists investigating British Virgin Islands data say those setting up offshore entities were mostly from Chinese mainland, HK and Taiwan

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A General view of British Virgin Island . Photo: SCMP Pictures

Published: 12:00am, 5 Apr 2013Updated: 3:01pm, 5 Apr 2016

Some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in Hong Kong, on the mainland and elsewhere in the world are watching nervously as the identities of those holding accounts in the offshore haven of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) are being exposed in what is described as the biggest information leak in recent history.

More than two million documents naming many individuals and detailing their financial exploits have leaked from the British Virgin Islands to the US-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The group is working with dozens of journalists around the world to process the data and publish the secret financial information.

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The ICIJ said its data analysis showed most people setting up offshore entities lived on the Chinese mainland and in Hong Kong and Taiwan. "This explains why the second-largest source of capital investment flowing into China is the offshore tax haven of BVI," it said.

Britain's newspaper, which is working with the ICIJ, said the leak could cause "a seismic shock worldwide to the booming offshore trade". The leak, in terms of quantity, was 160 times bigger than the WikiLeaks' political data haul three years ago. said the leak also included data on "offshoots in Singapore, Hong Kong and the Cook Islands in the Pacific".

There is so much information that people in Hong Kong and USA will recognise some of the names if ICIJ reveals more stories

John Bruce, Macau director of Hill & Associates

It will take weeks, even months, for ICIJ journalists to analyse the data. They will release their findings in batches.