Already back in 2011, Public Eye had put its finger on it: commodity trading is in effect the most dangerous business in Switzerland. Six years on and the Paradise Papers, published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), have now confirmed this verdict. Glencore, Louis-Dreyfus, Trafigura: Some of Switzerland’s leading players in the commodities sector are globally making headlines, in connection withtax avoidance, suspicions of corruption or conflicts of interest. Some of the cases published as part of this vast media operation had already been well documented by Public Eye. The data obtained by the ICIJ, however, now let us better understand the workings of these illegitimate or even illegal schemes. Often concealed behind the smoke screens of offshore setups, these dodgy business dealings allow traders to conduct highly lucrative activities in Africa and elsewhere on the planet, to the detriment of the people in these resource-rich countries.
