Panama Papers: Mossack Fonseca's Noble Park hot spot
- Panama Papers names Australian top companies, rich listers
- Wealthy hold property in offshore tax havens
- How to search the Panama Papers
In Mossack Fonseca's murky world of offshore shell companies, nothing is quite what it seems and surprises lurk around every corner.
And never was that more apparent than on Tuesday, when it transpired that 58 shareholders of one of the Panamanian law firm's Taiwanese clients had been squeezed into one humble red-brick unit in Melbourne's suburban southeast.
The release of the so-called "Panama Papers" has already exposed how some rich people use offshore firms to avoid paying tax and the scandal widened with the further release of a database of 200,000 shell companies listed in more than 20 tax havens around the world.
But in a bizarre twist, it emerged from out of the data released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that Mossack Fonseca had 12 corporate entities and 46 people mentioned in its records who were all registered at the same home on a subdivided block in Noble Park.
This suburban Noble Park house is at the heart of a Panama Papers puzzle.Credit:Joe Armao
Taiwan connection
As well as having the same address, the individuals and corporate bodies are all shareholders of Taiwanese company Apex Optech Corporation.
The Panama Papers reveal Mossack Fonseca registered Apex Optech in the British Virgin Islands, a tax haven, while the company used an intermediary called Power Point International.
It is unclear if Apex still exists, but at one point it manufactured electronic components for circulators and fibre-optic components, according to product supplier websites.
Incorporated in 2000, Apex was struck off Mossack Fonseca's books in 2004 and its offshore entity was deactivated in 2008.
Apex's director and chairman were also listed as the chairman and director of Siward, a publicly listed Taiwanese crystal manufacturing company with offices in the US, Japan and China. Their names are not among the 46 people registered at the Noble Park address.
Owner shocked at links
The Noble Park home's current owner was shocked to learn of the property's connection to the offshore scandal engulfing the business world.
The owner said she bought the property in 2002 from a builder, whose daughter lived in the unit before that, and knew nothing of the companies or shareholders that were registered at the address.
She lived in the house for a number of years before renting it out, she said.
"I have no idea about it," she said, asking not to be named and declining to comment further.
While there is no sign of the 58 shareholders that were once registered at the home, some of them are still in business.
Taiwanese company FOCI Fiber Optic Communications International was on Mossack Fonseca's books as being registered at the crowded Noble Park home, and was listed as an Apex shareholder.
FOCI continues to deal in optic fibre, according to Reuters, and is on Taiwan's Gre Tai Securities Market.
Know more? Contact patrick.hatch@fairfaxmedia.com.au