Offshore shell companies, the black hole of global finance

Washington - Their promise of secrecy has made the United States an increasingly popular destination for foreigners wanting to hide assets.

Anonymously owned shell companies, against which the G20 economic powers pledged action on Friday, amount to a global black hole that legally puts trillions of dollars out of tax authorities' reach.
The "Panama Papers," leaked two weeks ago from the Mossack Fonseca law firm, which helps set up such companies, opened a window into that world.
The documents show how thousands and thousands of the mailbox business fronts exist worldwide, most often in tax havens like Panama, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands, enabling untraceable owners to stash assets, legal or illegal, offshore.
Often encased by other shell entities like Russian nesting dolls, their existence represents a gaping hole in the international effort to combat tax evasion launched in 2009, which forced banks around the world to share account holders' data with their home tax agencies. 
The business of providing secrecy through shell companies isn't confined to sunny Caribbean or Pacific islands. In the United States, a number of individual states such as Delaware and Wyoming are hubs for shell company registration. 
Their promise of secrecy has made the United States an increasingly popular destination for foreigners wanting to hide assets, legal or illicit.