When billionaires, multinationals and the politically connected seek to hide wealth or avoid taxes, they often turn to Baker McKenzie, the Chicago-based behemoth. They all had a friend in America’s biggest law firm. was shopping for a tax haven to stash its mountain of offshore cash. The sale triggered a corruption probe of the then-Mongolian prime minister. Prosecutors say he and his associates used the companies to divert hundreds of millions of dollars from a government economic development fund.Ī Russian maker of Kalashnikov rifles, under international sanctions for bad behavior, wanted to sell its shares in a large copper mine to a shadowy business in Mongolia.
An adviser to Malaysia’s prime minister needed help managing companies in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur and in Hong Kong.
