The latest revelations around tax evasion, dubbed the 'Paradise Papers', are certainly embarrassing for powerful individuals like Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Both are accused of links with funds stashed offshore.
But the most striking of the Paradise Papers revelations is how poor African countries are being cheated out of taxes. The papers reveal what many citizens in resource-rich African countries already know: powerful multinationals, in collusion with shady middlemen and top officials, evade taxes through a complicated system of illicit flows, leaving next to nothing for local development.
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