More Than 130 Israeli Companies Make Global Tax-Haven List
Over 130 companies have an Israeli connection in the global list of more than 100,000 offshore companies that are used as tax shelters around the world.
The list, published Friday by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, includes names of shareholders, managers and directors. The companies with an Israeli connection have either Israeli board members, shareholders or an Israeli address.
While offshore firms are often used legally to avoid taxes in a company’s or person’s home country, such firms sometimes play a role in unreported financial activity. In Israel, it’s legal to own offshore companies and bank accounts as long as the activity is reported to the Israel Tax Authority.
On the global list, several offshore companies are owned by Arcadi Gaydamak, who appears under his Hebrew name, Aryeh Bar-Lev. In 2009, one such company sold land in Moscow for $30 million to the Israeli construction firm Osif shortly after Gaydamak acquired a controlling stake.
The list also includes companies owned by an arms dealer, Brig. Gen. (res.) Shlomo Elia, as well as by businessmen Yakir Sha’ashua and Eli Antebi.
Read more at Haaretz.com.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!