King's Property Abroad Not A Secret: Jordan Refutes Pandora Papers' Claims

Jordan's King Abdullah owns properties in the United States and Britain and this was not a secret, the royal palace said, adding privacy and security reasons were behind not disclosing it.

In a massive leak of financial documents published on Sunday, King Abdullah, a close ally of the United States, was alleged to have used offshore accounts to spend more than $100 million on luxury homes in the United Kingdom and the United States.

"It is no secret that His Majesty owns a number of apartments and residences in the United States and the United Kingdom. This is not unusual nor improper," said the statement.

The dump of millions of records that tied world leaders to secret stores of wealth came five years after the leak known as the "Panama Papers" exposed how money was hidden by the wealthy in ways that law enforcement agencies could not detect.

The Jordanian palace said these properties were used during official visits and some of these are used during private visits.

Security reasons were behind not disclosing the foreign properties which were brought from the monarch's private income and not state funds, it said.

"The cost of these properties and all related expenditures have been personally funded by His Majesty. None of these expenses have been funded by the state budget or treasury," the statement said.

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