{"id":29481,"date":"2017-11-07T13:37:38","date_gmt":"2017-11-07T08:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=29481"},"modified":"2017-11-07T13:37:38","modified_gmt":"2017-11-07T08:37:38","slug":"irish-singer-bono-distressed-by-links-to-paradise-papers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=29481","title":{"rendered":"Irish singer Bono &#8216;distressed&#8217; by links to Paradise Papers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>LONDON Nov 07 (TNS):\u00a0<\/strong> U2 frontman Bono said Monday he is &#8220;distressed&#8221; by leaked documents showing he invested in a Lithuanian shopping centre which may have broken tax rules, but welcomed reporting on the issue.<\/p>\n<p>The Irish singer owns a stake in a Maltese company that bought the mall via a Lithuanian holding company in 2007, according to the so-called Paradise Papers leaks reported by the BBC and the Guardian newspaper.<\/p>\n<p>The enterprise, in the Lithuanian city of Utena, is now under investigation for possible tax avoidance, after it allegedly avoided paying \u00a341,500 ($54,500, \u20ac47,000) in local taxes using an unlawful accounting technique, they reported.<\/p>\n<p>Bono &#8212; whose real name is Paul David Hewson &#8212; was &#8220;extremely distressed if even as a passive minority investor&#8230; anything less than exemplary was done with my name anywhere near it&#8221;, he said in a statement obtained by the BBC and the Guardian.<\/p>\n<p>The singer said he had been &#8220;assured by those running the company that it is fully tax compliant&#8221;, they reported.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The fact is, I welcome this reporting,&#8221; he added, calling for public registries in offshore tax centres.<\/p>\n<p>The revelations stem from a trove of documents leaked from a Bermuda-based law firm, Appleby, and reported by the US-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) through partner media outlets around the world.<\/p>\n<p>Bono, a well-known activist in the fight against AIDS in Africa, has received international recognition in recent years for anti-poverty advocacy through his &#8220;One&#8221; charitable organisation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I take this stuff very seriously. I have campaigned for the beneficial ownership of offshore companies to be made transparent. Indeed this is why my name is on documents rather than in a trust,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LONDON Nov 07 (TNS):\u00a0 U2 frontman Bono said Monday he is &#8220;distressed&#8221; by leaked documents showing he invested in a Lithuanian shopping centre which may have broken tax rules, but welcomed reporting on the issue. The Irish singer owns a stake in a Maltese company that bought the mall via a Lithuanian holding company in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[533],"class_list":["post-29481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29481"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29483,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29481\/revisions\/29483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}