Indonesia’s second-largest pulp and paper firm routed billions of dollars through a network of offshore shell companies, likely to minimize its tax in the Southeast Asian country, where it has drained vast swaths of carbon-rich peatland in order to establish vast timber estates.
The company, APRIL, also sought the removal of an environmental condition from a $600 million loan it received from major banks in 2011.
The revelations were published last week by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) as part of its reporting on the Paradise Papers, a leak of 13.4 million files that shine new light on how the world’s richest individuals and corporations hide their wealth in secrecy jurisdictions. Most of the documents come from the Bermuda-based law firm Appleby.
— source news.mongabay.com