The curious tale of Mandela's Mad Trust and the Paradise Papers

It seemed unlikely that the hunt to trace all the funds belonging to SA’s first democratic president, the late Nelson Mandela, would lead to the Isle of Man — a tiny island in the Irish Sea, struggling to shake off its notoriety as a tax haven. However, the Paradise Papers — the leak of 13.4m documents from 19 "secrecy jurisdictions" obtained by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists — contains references to a mysterious offshore account held on Mandela’s behalf. The first inkling of this trust emerges in the leaks when, in May 2015, the Bermuda-based law firm Appleby was asked by the executors of Mandela’s estate to provide a "legal opinion on the validity of an Isle of Man Trust, known as the Mad Trust." But the circumstances of exactly how the Mad Trust — a reference to Mandela’s clan name, Madiba — was to be established in one of the most secretive tax jurisdictions has been hotly contested in court in recen...