Fresh evidence of links between the highest levels of Donald Trump’s administration and associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin have been revealed in a massive leak of documents from firms and corporate registries specialising in tax minimisation and financial secrecy.
US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross is among scores of high-profile names to emerge in an unprecedented dump of documents out of global offshore law firm Appleby, Singapore-based Asiaciti
Trust and 19 corporate registries in notorious tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions, dubbed the Paradise Papers.
The ABC’s Four Corners program had access to more than 13.4 million documents leaked to German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, and shared through the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists with 96 media partners in 67 countries, in an even bigger leak than the Panama Papers in early 2016.
Mr Ross is a powerful figure within the Trump administration, handpicked and described by the President as “a killer” for his tough approach to business.
The documents reveal that Mr Ross continues to hold a stake in a shipping company that has a multi-million-dollar deal with a Russian firm part-owned by Putin cronies currently subject to US sanctions.
The latest revelations about Mr Ross feed into concerns that the Trump administration is too closely linked with powerful Russian figures, and come a week after investigators laid charges against one-time Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates over alleged Russian involvement to skew the 2016 presidential election in favour of Mr Trump.
Aside from Mr Ross, the leaked papers uncover offshore dealings involving other Trump officials, celebrities and business identities.
