Paradise exposed: Queen invested millions in offshore accounts, leaked docs show

The former Tory treasurer Lord Ashcroft, the owners of Arsenal and Everton football clubs, the U2 singer Bono and a senior member of Donald Trump’s administration are among those facing questions after the breach of security.

Appleby said in a statement that its computers were hacked by an intruder “who deployed the tactics of a professional hacker and covered his/her tracks to the extent that a forensic investigation by a leading international cyber & threats team concluded that there was no definitive evidence that any data had left our systems”.

The attack was described as extremely sophisticated, allowing hackers to move within the firm’s network over period stretching from October 2015 to May last year.

More than 13 million files were released.

The firm added that the hack was not carried out by anyone who works at Appleby.

The files show that the Duchy of Lancaster, the private estate that funds the Queen, put about £10 million into the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. Some went into the failed off-licence chain Threshers and a rent-to-buy business, Brighthouse, which has been accused of exploiting the poor.

The duchy obeyed the law and was not involved in decisions made by funds. The BBC, which reported the contents of the leaked files, said there is no suggestion that the Queen personally knew of specific investments.

Dame Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP and former chairwoman of the Commons public accounts committee, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “Tax havens aren’t just repositories for people to hide their wealth. They are also repositories for money laundering, for organised crime, bribery and all sorts of nefarious acts.

“I think the Queen herself would be completely shocked to find her advisers have used tax havens in which to invest their money and that her reputation has been sullied by the actions of the tax advisers.”

The list also includes one of the Tory party’s biggest donors, Lord Ashcroft, who has given more than £10m to the Tory party.

Meanwhile, it is expected that English football’s Premier League will be studying claims that Farhad Moshiri, who bought nearly 50 per cent of Everton last year, might have received a gift from Alisher Usmanov, a major shareholder in Arsenal, which could have funded the purchase.

Mr Moshiri denied receiving such a gift.

And Wilbur Ross, the US commerce secretary, was shown to have interests in a company that provides transport for an energy business whose shareholders include the son-in-law of President Putin.

Bono, the lead singer of U2, is accused of using the low-tax jurisdiction of Malta to buy a share in a shopping centre in Lithuania. His spokeswoman said that he was a passive investor.

Reacting to the revalations, Scotland’s ruling SNP party called on the UK government to immediately address “years of inaction” in Westminster on the use of offshore tax structures in the wake of the Paradise Papers, and to implement “rigorous regulation.”

Stewart Hosie MP warned that the leak reveals the “rotten core of society that has allowed the wealthiest to shield their wealth from paying tax, whilst families across the UK have endured years of ideologically driven, failed austerity”.

The SNP has tabled an Urgent Question in Westminster today pressing the UK government to set out regulations on the use of offshore tax structures.

Mr Hosie said: “The Paradise Papers reveals the very rotten core of our society, whereby the richest and most powerful – including donors to political parties, and this very government – are able to shield their wealth abroad in order to avoid paying their fair share.

“It’s clear that the Tories have benefited from the individuals who have been found to be using offshore structures. They must now address the years of hollow rhetoric and inaction, and implement rigorous regulation that holds to account the wealthiest for exploiting offshore tax havens.

Speaking at the CBI conference today, Prime Minister Theresa May did not commit to a public inquiry and did not directly answer when asked whether she would insist on British overseas territories publishing a list of who owns companies and trusts registered in crown dependencies.

She said the UK government was working with its dependences “to ensure we’re seeing greater transparency.”