Pandora Papers: Arnon Milchan hiding half a billion dollars offshore

Arnon Milchan, an Israeli Hollywood mogul who is a key witness in former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial, has more than half a billion dollars in offshore companies, according to a new investigative report.

Milchan is among the 565 Israelis reportedly named in the Pandora Papers, a massive trove of leaked documents about financial secrecy in global tax havens that was published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists this week.

Shomrim, an Israeli investigative journalism nonprofit organization that took part in the investigation, said that Milchan’s name appears numerous times in the documents, which reveal that he is listed as the ultimate beneficiary of seven companies in the Virgin Islands.

One of the charges in the indictment of Netanyahu is that he allegedly received extensive gifts from Milchan in exchange for a series of favors — that included working to extend a little-known tax exemption law that would benefit the Hollywood producer.