Carney’s Brookfield linked to Cayman Islands address known for tax avoidance
Mark Carney’s former company, Brookfield Asset Management, has registered more than a dozen business entities to a tax haven called the “largest tax scam in the world” by former U.S. president Obama.
Liberal Leader Mark Carney’s former company, Brookfield Asset Management, has registered more than a dozen business entities to a tax haven called the “largest tax scam in the world” by former U.S. president Barack Obama.
Ugland House in the Cayman Islands was described in 2008 by former U.S. President Barack Obama as “the largest building in the world or the largest tax scam in the world.”
A review of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings from 2015 to 2024 by CTV News reveal that the global investment firm has used the five-storey building in the Cayman Islands capital to register thousands of limited companies and partnerships.
Ugland House is known to be the registered office for at least 18,000 corporate entities, taking advantage of the Cayman Islands’ lack of income and corporate taxes.
Carney, served as chair of Brookfield’s board from August 2022 until January 2025, before he resigned when he successfully ran for the Liberal party leadership.
His tenure at the firm has become a point of controversy, with political rivals accusing him of being associated with tax avoidance in places like Bermuda.
Two such funds, worth a combined $25 billion, were personally overseen by Carney and structured offshore for tax purposes.
Records obtained by Radio-Canada further revealed that Brookfield’s $5-billion Catalytic Transition Fund was incorporated in the Cayman Islands under Carney’s leadership between 2020 and 2025.
This fund, aimed at promoting clean energy investment in emerging markets, had raised $2.4 billion as of September 2024.
Another report from last week, highlighted by the NDP, accused Carney’s Brookfield of avoiding an estimated $5.3 billion in Canadian taxes between 2021 and 2024.
During that time, the firm generated $23.3 billion USD in income but paid only $2 billion in taxes.
The use of Ugland House as a corporate registration hub is facilitated by Maples Group, an international law firm specializing in financial services.
Canadians for Tax Fairness, a tax advocacy group, estimated in 2022 that Canada accumulates over $30 billion of loss revenue per year, due to corporate tax dodgers.
Their report ranked Brookfield Asset Management as Canada’s top corporate tax dodger in 2021, avoiding $3.5 billion in taxes that year.
Does anybody know how long Carney was simultaneously the governor of the Bank of England or The Bank of Canada and the Chair of Brookfield? It seems to be a growing unpalatable length of time. Apparently only politicians must put their investments into a blind trust while those who have the right to alter the interest rate not so willy-nilly can do so to their own private interest.