Pandora Papers: Guy Forget owned an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands – Roland-Garros boss explains having delegated the management of his financial income

Several countries and leaders have rejected the revelations of a large investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) accusing several hundred politicians and their relatives of having concealed assets in offshore companies, especially for the purposes of tax evasion.

Published on Sunday, this survey, in which around 600 journalists collaborated, is called Pandora Papers, a reference to the legend of Pandora’s box. It draws on some 11.9 million documents from 14 financial services companies and has uncovered more than 29,000 offshore companies.

According to this survey, the former tennis player and current Roland-Garros boss, Guy Forget, owned for several years an offshore company based in the British Virgin Islands, a tax haven located in the Caribbean. Le Parisien explains that he was the hidden beneficiary of this company, created in 2005 and dissolved in 2016. This company – Mainland Group Limited – had the function of “holding intellectual property rights”.

Asked about this company by Radio France, Guy Forget reacted to the revelations by evoking his fiscal incompetence. “From my teenage years, and at the beginning of my professional career in the 1980s, until my period as captain of the national teams, the company, known worldwide IMG, managed my interests and my contracts like those of many top athletes. in the greatest legality, “he says.

And to add: “If I appealed to this company, it is precisely because I am perfectly incompetent to regulate and manage these financial, legal and fiscal questions”. For its part, IMG specifies that “Guy Forget was a client of IMG when he was a professional tennis player, until 1997, when his representation contract officially ended”.