off the southern coast of the state. gavin newsom said it underlined the need for to end america's dependence on fossil fuels. it is thought to have resulted from the rupture of a pipeline. now on bbc news panorama investigates the pandora papers, one of the biggest offshore leaks in history, revealing the financial secrets of some of the most powerful people on the planet. on panorama tonight, prime ministers, presidents and royalty — their secrets exposed. it feels instinctively really unfair, because they got access to an advantage that the rest of us don't have. millions of leaked documents reveal hidden fortunes. as a former government official, i would be looking very hard at this. we will show you how world leaders use offshore companies to conceal wealth.

that he hasjust been sort. of funnelling money abroad all this time? that would look really bad. these are the deals they didn't want you to know about. you are following me whole day. welcome to the pandora papers, the massive leak that shows how the powerful play by different rules. between the santa monica mountains and the gleaming pacific is one of california's most sought—after addresses. malibu. john. hi, richard, nice to meet you. are you going to show me the homes of the stars? absolutely. let's get on board.

we will get going. let's do it. these clifftop houses sell for millions. this is david beckham's place on our right. this is david beckham's place? the villas are owned by some of the most famous people on the planet. simon cowell�*s place just there. just there? but even the malibu tour guides don't know who owns one particularly imposing property. who lives here on this house on the left? i have no idea. extremely impressive. the mansion with the white roof was bought for $33.5 million in 2014.

its owner hidden behind offshore secrecy. the same mystery owner has bought the properties on either side. it is a very impressive place and the highest point on the the cliffs. so it is a prime spot and not just that villa, but three in a row, and we have solved the mystery of who owns this spot. we have obtained documents that show it is the secret fortune ofa king. it's held through a company call nabisco holdings, but the real owner is the king ofjordan.

his kingdom isn't rich. it receives international aid, including £650 million from the uk over five years. the king has been accused of corruption. the king runsjordan and although sometimes you see efforts by the king to sort of deflect blame on to his government, but people know that the buck stops with the king. and one interesting thing that we have seen in some of the protests in more recent years are people who are not just blaming the prime minister, but aiming at abdullah himself. the kings properties are revealed by a huge leak of offshore emails and financial data, a secret source handed 12 million files to the international consortium of investigativejournalists. they made it very clear to me that they want this

investigation to come to the attention of governments all over the world. the consortium is leading a global investigation, involving more than 600 journalists around the world, including the guardian in the uk. with the king ofjordan, it wasn'tjust villas in malibu. documents dating from 2003 to 2017 show he also bought property in the us capital. this is said to be one of washington's most glamorous areas and the files show the king has secretly been spending millions here. the files reveal the king

bought four apartments in this block for $16 million. these are properties that jordanians don't know about. it is very difficult for the averagejordanian to achieve just a basic level of home and family and a good job. and so to have it really thrown intojordanians faces that he has been just funnelling money abroad all this time that, would look really bad. and there is more. we found a total of 15 properties hidden behind offshore companies. six of them are in london. it's a matter of public record when you or i buy a house, the rich can keep it secret. so, the files show that these are the properties that are owned by the king ofjordan. firstly, there is this one.

he has three flats in there and then all of this. then if we go around here, there is more. if you look down here in this little private street, this mews, we can't go in there, we can have a peak. this first one and the second one, the files show that the king owns them as well. so that makes for an enormous block of property right bang in belg ravia. the king spends more than £70 million on his property empire. it is worth bearing in mind, that while the uk was sending millions in much—needed aid tojordan, the king ofjordan was spending millions on fancy properties in the heart of london. the king ofjordan's lawyers said our information is not accurate or up—to—date.

they said there is nothing improper about his ownership of properties and the source of funds is personal wealth. they said the use of corporate entities to protect his privacy is a common practice among high—profile individuals. but our documents show the king's offshore advisors didn't always comply with the rules and kept his identity hidden and referred to him as "you know who." but now the king's secret is out. translation: i'm astonished to hear that the king owns - these properties, considering jordan is a poor country with dire budget problems and the king and the people are constantly seeking help from abroad. when i hear this, naturally

i do feel sad and shocked. one of most significant revelations in the files is how easy it is to hide dirty money in the uk. it is child's play. what is a good present for an 11—year—old? a bike. a computer? what about this? a chunk of property in the heart of central london, worth £33 million? the lucky boy with his foot on the property ladder was the son of the president of azerbaijan. a country our own government once described as corrupt. it looks like the property deal was set up to hide the trail of dirty money. the property was bought by an offshore company in 2009. the company was owned

by a friend of the president. it was then transferred to 11—year—old heydar so he owned the property. this is a suspicious set of transactions and it is certainly... deserves the attention of the authorities in the uk, including the police. and clearly a child isn't getting rich off the basis of their own business acumen, are they? 0ur files revealed how president aliyev and his family used london to hide a fortune. we have identified 17 secret property deals. altogether, we have found the aliyevs and their close associates have been involved in property deals worth more than £400 million in the uk. translation: azerbaijani people understand and feel sorry -

about one thing, that the stolen funds belong to the azerbaijan people. it has been stolen from their pockets. there is one property deal the family did that's particularly embarrassing for the uk government. the aliyevs bought this london property in 2009 for £35 million. it was sold in 2018 for £66 million. to the crown estate. that is a public body that manages the queen's properties and helps raise cash for the nation. it looks like the crown estate has helped one of the world's most notorious families launder its money. the crown estate said it conducted checks required by uk law and did not establish any reason why the transaction should not proceed, but it is now looking into the matter.

it strikes me as incredibly cavalier to engage in a multimillion pound transaction with the family of a foreign state, where... ..our own government's foreign office has previously described corruption as a part of every day life. some world leaders have been in the offshore business. here in cyprus, the files take us into the corridor of power. we have a revelation about the president of cyprus. not about his hiding his wealth offshore, but his law firm helped a client to hide theirs. this island is one of world's biggest offshore centres.

president nicos anastasiades says he is trying to clean the country up. his government has introduced a register to show the real owner of 200,000 companies that are based here. it is aimed at reducing offshore secrecy. that all sounds transparent, the thing is, our documents reveal that the president's own law firm did the opposite, providing fake owners to help a rich client stay in the shadows.

it happened in 2011, before mr anastasiades became president. this is the client they kept hidden. leonid lebedev, a russian oligarch. who made his fortune in oil and gas. mr lebedev has been accused of embezzle $200 million. this is one example of how mr lebedev�*s wealth was hidden. mr lebedev owned a boat

called the lady l. the documents show it was transferred to an employee of the president's law firm in 2011, but the evidence strongly suggests lady l still really belonged to lebedev. are are you here is his daughter's instagram. are are you there are many more examples in the files. another legal firm became suspicious. they concluded the president's employees were most likely acting as nominee beneficial owners on behalf of leonid lebedev. offshore firms are not supposed to conceal ownership in this way. transparency around who is really behind companies and the assets that they own is a valuable tool for deterring criminal activity. what would you say about a law firm providing false beneficial owners? if you are covering their

tracks, then you are very much part of the enterprise. president anastasiades said our allegations were totally unfounded. and that it is no longer his law firm because he had transferred the shares to his daughters since becoming president in 2013. the law firm told us that it had never concealed the true identity of a beneficial owner and that it had evidence proving the opposite of what we are claiming. cyprus demonstrates how hard it is to stop offshore secrecy, when even a company founded by a president was willing to break the rules.

i think what we are seeing for the first time ever is the size of the involvement of the political elite, the global political elite, in the offshore world, and the consequences of that involvement. the documents allow us to see how some world leaders go about hiding their fortunes. and how the offshore world help them do it. piece together the information in the files and you get a glimpse into how offshore companies can be used to hide wealth. the files suggest that president putin used this place, the glamorous tax haven of monaco, to hide some of his assets. the first clue is a swanky flat in this block. so, this is where the apartment block is and it really

is in an exclusive location, because this is the heart of monaco, here, and thenjust the other side of this sort of cliff area is the harbour and the sea, so we are sort of on the roof now, but this is how you get in. so, who is the owner? our documents show the apartment was bought by this woman in 2003 $3.6 million. she had been a student, a part—time cleaning lady. it turns out she is also a very close friend of vladimir putin. some indeed say that she was his mistress. in 2003, she had a daughter who happened to look incredibly like vladimir putin. she certainly became wealthy after the baby was born. she landed a shareholding worth tens of millions of dollars in a controversial

russian bank. the americans think bank rossiya is a front for president putin's wealth. so they sanctioned the bank to stop it doing business in the west. we targeted it because it is known as kind of the putin cronies' bank and we went after it very early. this was part of the theory of going after the putinesuq system and making it clear that we could expose it. what we are interested in is who looked after svetla na krivonogikh�*s money. the files reveal it was this financial services company, moores rowland, monaco. we have discovered the firm had two other important russian clients. one man is the billionaire businessman gennady timchenko, a childhood friend is another. both were sanctioned by the us because of their close links

to the russian president. i think if you where to find a firm that was doing business with both of those men, i would say that you have hit pretty lucky that this was a nest for running much of putin's wealth. and that this was a nest that was very sensitive. mr timchenko's lawyers say he has always acted are entirely lawfully. lawyers for moores rowland said it does rigorous due diligence before taking on new clients. it has at all times complied with its obligations and all applicable laws and regulations. and it can't comment on clients because of a strict duty of confidence. what we found in monaco could have serious repercussions. if moores rowland help

hide putin's wealth, then they could be in trouble. one of the things that we found is the deal for the flat that was offshore was brokered by a company that represented represented mr timchenko in the past. if they have, they may have violated us sanctions and i would be looking very hard at this with possible sanctions in mind. this woman we have looked at, svetlana krivonogikh, in your opinion, is this something the state department should be looking at? sure, sure.

it is useful to know where putin's circle is keeping its money. go get her. one world leader in our files is asking his nation to trust him with power for another four years. the czech prime minister is standing for re—election next week. looking forwardj to the election? of course. andrej babis is a populist billionaire. he campaigned on an anti—corruption message. one of our team caught up with him last week. what do you think about

corruption in the czech i republic? the deals that we have found are about property a long way from mr babis' czech heartland, they are luxury villas on the french riviera. he bought two villas near cannes for 1h million euros in 2009, before he was prime minister. the properties were bought in a highly suspicious way. here is how he did it. first, he put his money into a company he had set up in the british virgin islands. that company then lent the money to another company he had set up in the united states, which immediately lent their cash back to yet another company he had set up in monaco.

it is the sort of convoluted technique also used by money launderers. the scheme is typically known as a loan—back scheme. but we can call it a textbook scheme. the intention of the people who are using this scheme is to hide their identity. when he was elected to parliament in 2013,

mr babis should have declared his offshore property interests, but he didn't. so why all the secrecy? our team caught up with him on the campaign trail. mr babis... next time, if you want to film me, ask me for permission. we did, we asked, sir. no stop when we would like to ask you. why you use an offshore company to buy the villas in france - and why you did not declare them? - mr babis, sir. don't touch me. i'm not touching you. i told you that you are following me the whole day without asking me for permission. we did. mr babis, why didn't- you declare the companies you used... you didn't ask. mr babis, we would like to ask you why you sent your moneyl through such a complicated i route to buy your properties. mr babis has not responded to our written questions. there is a former prime minister closer to home who is in our documents. he hasn't broken any rules, but it looks like tony blair benefited from the sort of tax perks he said he wanted to stamp out.

millionaires with the right accountant pay nothing, whilst pensioners pay vat on fuel. offshore trusts get tax relief, while homeowners pay vat on insurance premiums. we will create a tax system that is fair, which is related to ability to pay. applause. our documents show the blairs has benefited from a tax loophole themselves. tony and cherie blair wanted to buy this townhouse in central london in 2017. mrs blair needed a new base for her law firm. the price was £6.45 million. the blairs did not buy the property itself, they bought the offshore company that owned it. they did bring the property back onshore and under uk tax

rules, but because they had not bought the property directly, they didn't have to pay stamp duty, the tax on buying a house. the stamp duty on a property like this would be more than £300,000. that is what you or i would pay if we bought this property direct from somebody else. but the blairs did not pay it. that does not look great and it partly does not look great because most people can't do the same thing. even if what the blairs did was perfectly legal and legitimate in the business world, it feels instinctively really unfair, because they got access to an advantage, a potential advantage, that the rest of us don't have. cherie blair told us the sellers had insisted they buy the house through the offshore company. her spokesman added that they were not liable for stamp duty but will of course be liable for capital gains tax on resale. there's loads of property on the property market here, so if you want to invest in property, i mean, you just have to be really careful to do it in a way which ensures that you, of course, act legally,

but you also ensure your moral responsibility. for most people when they are buying or selling their house, it is a big chunk of change and it is cash you have to pay upfront. you know, as an ordinary person with an ordinary salary, i can't buy a house or a property or a business investment through an offshore company. the leak of offshore files has revealed the secret deals of world leaders, and a system that helps them play by different rules. tomorrow night, we use the documents to investigate who funds our political parties. if you give enough, you will be having dinner with the prime minister, you meet the top chap at the prime minister, various cabinet ministers, to get access. it is crony capitalism,

capitalism for the super—rich.

welcome to bbc news. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories: a former facebook employee tells the us congress the social media giant is harming children, stroking division, and weakening democracy. i saw facebook repeatedly encounter conflicts between its own profits and our safety. facebook consistently resolve these conflicts in favour of its own profits. victims demand action after an enquiry shows over 200,000 children were assaulted by priests in the catholic church. an economical disaster after a pipeline burst spilling thousands of barrels of oil is

in the ocean.