The co-owner of Pornhub, one of the world’s largest porn sites with an annual revenue of $98 billion, is among the ultra-rich who squirreled away money in known tax havens.
David Tassillo was listed on two companies registered in Delaware, Anguilla, and the British Virgin Islands, The Toronto Star reported.
The Canadian newspaper was among news outlets throughout the globe to receive nearly 12 million documents leaked to the US-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The so-called Panama Papers revealed Tassillo was the sole owner of Appscrutiny LLC and Appiation Management LLC, which were both registered in Delaware.
He also registered Singleron Ltd. in Anguilla, and Teckkix in the British Virgin Islands in 2017.
He reportedly used nominee shareholders and directors to create the companies, which allowed him to hide his identity.
Tassillo told The Star in a statement that ‘every facet of the business, including tax obligations, were handled in accordance with the law.’
It’s not clear why the companies were registered in known tax havens, nor was it revealed why nominee shareholders and directors were used.
Tassillo said the companies were created to work with a firm building technology that identifies and scrubs the web of phony online accounts.
‘To support the business, we established companies in Delaware, like many Fortune 500 companies, as well as Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands,’ the statement said.
He said the project, which wrapped up in 2018, earned $100,000 with proceeds going to an unnamed Delaware company.
