Baker McKenzie was involved in illegal offshore abuse and tax evasion services that it sold. The firm worked for the interests of the oligarchs and those who were under sanctions. The location of this company is Chicago. As it is known, it and its affiliates received substantial income from the established offshore system, tax evasion and the transfer of profits to tax shelters.
Offshore tax avoidance schemes
This news was not passed on by a professor at the Center for Corruption Research at the University of Sussex, where he pointed for an article on the site law.com. Robert Barrington believes that the credibility of lawyers can be diminished if they are neglected to receive inflated fees and protect their clients in any way.
Law.com International Editor-In-Chief Paul Hodkinson raises the ethical issues of the legal community and calls the exposure of Baker McKenzie the opening of Pandora’s Box. He also clarifies that everyone has always had the right to consult, but dealing with dubious clients can cause widespread resonance. In his opinion, it is necessary to fight even now for ethically dubious clients. In the article, he recalled the Allen & Overy case where an elite law firm drafted a nondisclosure statement, thereby deterring many sexual harassment lawsuits against the film’s producer Harvey Weinstein.
What is offshore abuse case
The Pandora Papers are documents that reveal the various machinations of a huge number of celebrities and wealthy people, including members of royal families in over 200 countries. The number is equal to 11.9 million records. An ICIJ investigation linked to Baker McKenzie has moved forward on a new leak. Earlier, there were other leaks, as well as mass interviews.
Baker McKenzie denied the allegations and called the report dubious and “speculative.” The chairman of the company said about the high moral principles of the company and a high level of professionalism, transparency of affairs.
Recently, their website also posted a statement titled “Check out the facts about our global tax practice.” Now, perhaps law firms will rethink how they approach new clients, according to some legal experts.
Due to recent events, US law is proposing a law that would force law firms of their new clients to be checked for their integrity before the law. The American Journal of the ABA Bar Association has already cited the new rules to experts in the fight against money laundering.
Barrington, the anti-corruption professor, talks about the principles where oligarchs also had the right to protection before the law until their guilt was proven. But now he considers it ineffective in the era of cross-border transactions and globalization. He believes that it would be better for law firms to take the direction of strengthening their moral principles and offshore fraud.
Offshore trust tax avoidance may strongly doubt those who diligently follow the law in some elite legal services firms.
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