Fugitive’s trail exposes Red Bull co-owners’ offshore deals

The Bangkok billionaire family that co-founded Red Bull, the world’s leading energy drink, uses offshore companies to cloak purchases of jets and luxury properties, including the posh London home where the clan’s fugitive son was last seen.
The Yoovidhya family’s efforts to hide assets show how easily major global financial players can routinely – and, usually, legally – move billions of dollars with little or no oversight.
The family’s confidential deals were inadvertently exposed by the jet-setting son Vorayuth “Boss” Yoovidhya, who attracted cries of impunity after repeatedly failing to show up in court for allegedly racing away in his Ferrari after slamming into a motorcycle cop in a deadly hit-and-run. More than 120 Instagram and Facebook postings by friends and family led The Associated Press earlier this year to the Yoovidhyas’ London vacation home, where Vorayuth refused to comment.
Thai authorities revoked his passport and issued an arrest warrant, but say they don’t know where he is.
Now the investigation into Vorayuth’s whereabouts has led to the Panama Papers, a collection of 11 million secret financial documents that illustrate how the world’s wealthiest families hide their money. Yoovidhya family financial arrangements are outlined in those records.
The Panama Papers leak was first obtained by the German newspaper Sudeutsche Zeitung and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which began publishing collaborative reports with news organizations in 2016, putting wealthy and powerful people in more than 70 countries under scrutiny.
Since then, political leaders have been thrown out of office, including Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, who was kicked out just last month after being accused of concealing assets exposed in the leak. Overall, an estimated $135 billion was wiped off the value of nearly 400 companies, and governments and the European Commission began cracking down on offshore tax havens. The reports won a 2017 Pulitzer Prize.
Founders of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, which owned the leaked documents, were charged earlier this year with money-laundering.
The Yoovidhya family’s network of offshore companies – set up by Mossack Fonseca – was so complex that, until now, they managed to keep the family name and Red Bull brand out of the spotlight. But the Panama Papers shared with the AP show the family has used at least a half-dozen offshore, anonymous companies in tax havens for more than two decades.
The Yoovidhyas, who share ownership of Red Bull with Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz, did not respond to repeated requests – faxed, telephoned and hand-delivered – for comment. Red Bull said in a statement that Vorayuth’s legal situation “is not a matter for Red Bull and only concerns the Yoovidhya family.” A spokesman also said that, as a private company, Red Bull doesn’t speak publicly about financial and commercial matters.
Experts agree that tax avoidance manuevers involving offshore companies are permissible and ubiquitous worldwide, including among many of Thailand’s richest families. Shell companies can facilitate shared ownership between different countries.
There’s no indication the Yoovidhya family’s accounts violated any laws, but the extremely confidential deals also can be used to evade taxes or launder money.