NYC real estate had been greatly impacted by the release of the Panama Papers. The leak revealed millions of documents from the illegal offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca. It had already led to the resignation of the Prime Minister of Iceland, and had revealed the shady offshore transactions of the likes of Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif and the Russian President Vladmir Putin.
An analysis of another set of files released by the ICJI had revealed at least five companies with NYC connections. They were Stonehenge Partners, the Witkoff Group, Hiro Real Estate, M1 Real Estate, some members of the Nakash Family, and New York Wheel project investor. NYC real estate group Witkoff's most well-known projects included the Helmsley Park Lane Hotel, the 91-unit West Village condominium at 150 Charles Street, and the Woolworth Building on Madison Square West. Stonehenge Partners managed over 3,000 units across the city, according to a feature from NY Curbed.
The Panama Papers were released when an anonymous source gave away the data to German publication Süddeutsche Zeitung a few years ago. The paper shared the information with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists which subsequently sent the information to various major publications.
The Panama papers, also popular by the name Offshore Leaks Database, documented at least 30 years of transactions, all related to two offshore fund leaks. These leaks are from Commonwealth Trust Limited, a British Virgin Islands company, and Portcullis TrustNet located in Singapore. Both of these corporations specialize in improving the wealthy's assets through setting up secret accounts and offshore entities, according to a feature from The Real Deal.
Doing business offshore is legal. While the entities involved in the leak are often used to evade international sanctions, evade taxes, and hide assets, there legitimate reasons why maintaining one is beneficial. on top of all legal reasons, investment diversification, personal and private estate planning, and legal tax exemption are the most popular.
