Brookfield registered entities to Grand Cayman address Obama called ‘largest tax scam in the world’

People walk by Ugland House, which houses Maples Group, the largest law firm in the Cayman Islands, on Jan. 12, 2004. (Photo by David Evans / Bloomberg via Getty Images) (Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Liberal Leader Mark Carney’s former firm Brookfield has registered more than a dozen business entities to an infamous address in the Cayman Islands that former U.S. president Barack Obama once described as either “the largest building in the world or the largest tax scam in the world.”

CTV News reviewed U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings between 2015 and 2024 that show the global investment firm registered limited companies and limited partnerships to a five-storey building in the capital of the self-governing British Overseas Territory.

That building is known as Ugland House, and is home to at least 18,000 corporate entities. The Cayman Islands charges no income or corporate taxes.

Carney previously served as chair of Brookfield’s board, from August 2022 until mid-January of this year, when he resigned to run for the Liberal Party leadership. The now-leader, who replaced Justin Trudeau as prime minister before calling an election, has been under fire on the campaign trail for the tax practices of his former firm.

Carney’s rivals, including NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, have accused him of leading a company that doesn’t pay its fair share in Canadian taxes.

Among the business entities registered to the Cayman Islands is a limited partnership linked to Brookfield’s United Arab Emirates-backed Catalytic Transition Fund, launched under Carney’s stewardship.

According to the company’s 2024 annual report, the fund will help “drive clean energy investment in emerging markets.” As of September 2024, the fund had raised $2.4 billion in capital.

The Catalytic Transition Fund LP was registered in May of 2024 to Ugland House, according to the Cayman Islands corporate registry.

CTV News reported earlier this month that Brookfield had registered several entities related to its core business to an address in Bermuda, another notable tax haven, that also houses a local bike shop.

Earlier this week, Carney was asked by a CTV News reporter whether Canadians should infer from his answers thus far on Brookfield’s tax practices that he wouldn’t condemn the use of tax havens.

“I have a long career in the private sector, longer career in the public sector. What’s important is that we have an effective tax system and that companies — every company — follows the rules … to not just the letter, but the spirit, of those regulations,” said Carney.

“We need to continue to refine our tax system to ensure that companies are paying their fair share of tax,” Carney said, before pivoting to his campaign promise to better steward federal spending.

CTV News asked the Liberal campaign Thursday what specific policies a Carney-led Liberal government would pursue, and whether it would seek to crack down on the use of tax havens by Canadians companies.

“A Liberal government led by Mark Carney will commit to a fair tax framework where all large companies pay their fair share, no matter where they operate,” wrote Mohammad Hussain, spokesperson for the Liberal campaign, in an email on Thursday.

“This includes working closely with our partners in Europe and the G7 to get a fair and consistent set of international tax rules in place, as proposed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. This work will help us to ensure that large global businesses pay their fair share,” said Hussain.

Ugland House is home to the headquarters of Maples Group, an international law firm that describes itself as “market leaders” in providing legal and financial services. Maples Group acknowledges that at least 18,000 companies have registered business entities to the address.

A 2008 U.S. Government Accountability Office report studying the Cayman Islands stated Maples Group’s business, formerly known as Maples and Calder, is to “facilitate Cayman Islands-based international financial and commercial activity for a clientele of primarily international financial institutions, institutional investors, and corporations.”

Maples Group provides international firms registered office services, using Ugland House as a registered address, to entities it establishes, according to the report.

The Tax Justice Network, a British advocacy group, ranks the self-governing Cayman Islands as among the world’s top corporate tax havens.

Canadians for Tax Fairness (C4TF), a non-profit organization that advocates for fair and progressive tax policies, reported in 2022 that the Canadian government lost more than $30 billion in tax revenue in the previous year due to tax avoidance.

C4TF says Canadian corporations do this by employing “complex and opaque corporate structures” that allow companies to record revenue and profit in low-tax jurisdictions, like the Cayman Islands, even if the revenue and profit was not generated in that jurisdiction.

The report names Brookfield Asset Management as the top corporate tax avoider in 2021.

CTV News asked Brookfield how many business entities it had registered to Ugland House, why the company registered these entities to that address, and how the company responds to claims that companies like Brookfield register entities in jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands in order to avoid paying taxes on revenues and profits.

A spokesperson for the firm did not directly answer the questions posed, instead writing “Brookfield and its affiliates are committed to adhering to all applicable tax rules in Canada and all other jurisdictions in which we do business.”

“Our asset management business, like all of our peers, offers tax-transparent collective investment vehicles to our clients, who are based all over the world. Our global portfolio of investee companies pay all applicable corporate taxes in their local jurisdictions, and the after-tax distributions that our clients receive are subject to applicable taxes in their home jurisdictions,” said the spokesperson.