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Offshore Leaks Database

Data from
Paradise Papers - The Power Players
Former prime minister, Canada (2003-2006)

Paul Martin

Related to

Canada Bermuda

About

Paul Martin was the Liberal prime minister of Canada from 2003 to 2006. He had been a prominent businessman who owned CSL Group Inc. but sold it to his sons in 2003 to minimize conflicts of interest while serving as prime minister. Martin was criticized by political opponents for his company’s offshore holdings. In 1995, as finance minister, he had exempted Barbados, where CSL would set up key units, from offshore tax reform.

In the data

In 1991, CSL Self-Unloader Investments Ltd., part of the CSL Group, was registered in Bermuda. It was created to hold the shares of two Barbadian corporations involved in a leaseback contract for three shipping vessels owned by the group. The company was active while he held government positions, including minister of finance.

CSL Group registered at least 12 more entities in Bermuda in the years after Martin’s children took over the firm according to the Appleby files. The companies were registered in 2012 and 2013 and their purposes involved international traffic, vessels and transportation of cargo.

Response

A spokesperson for Martin said that he “has not been involved in CSL in over a quarter century and is not in a position to comment on its operations.”

A spokeswoman for CSL said that CSL is a private company and “does not share proprietary information publicly. CSL and all its affiliates rigorously uphold the highest ethical and business standards, and comply with the laws, rules and regulations of each jurisdiction in which they operate.”

This visualization contains relevant information in relation to the profiled individual. Some additional connections might show up once we release the full structured data connected to the Paradise Papers investigation in the coming weeks. Record manually added from leaked documents.

Disclaimer

There are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts. The inclusion of a person or entity in the ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database is not intended to suggest or imply that they have engaged in illegal or improper conduct. Many people and entities have the same or similar names. We suggest you confirm the identities of any individuals or entities included in the database based on addresses or other identifiable information. The data comes directly from the leaked files ICIJ has received in connection with various investigations and each dataset encompasses a defined time period specified in the database. Some information may have changed over time. Please contact us if you find an error in the database.

There are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts. Read more