Offshore Commission Architecture as Dynasty Shield

“Through ingenious solutions, the family, primarily Hans, and its employees, especially Carl Borgström and the administrative head at the headquarters, Ingvar Wenehed, set up a network of companies whose purpose was to keep money outside of Sweden, beyond Swedish taxation, and beyond Swedish currency regulations. In Switzerland, the company Société Outremère (Socomer) was registered, created solely to absorb commission money for all the paper, plastic, paint, and aluminum that Tetra Pak purchased from suppliers. Normally, such purchases go through an agent who receives a commission of 2–5 percent of the invoiced amount. What the agent is paid for is that he formally takes on the credit risk until the goods are paid for by the buyer. If, for example, the buyer goes bankrupt before the payment date, it is the agent who takes the financial hit.”

“Once the money had reached Socomer, it was transferred to another Switzerland-based company, Cordotex. This company would collect commissions, patent fees, and profits from companies outside Sweden. At the beginning of the seventies, they had reached 10 billion sold packages per year, which required 140,000 tons of paper, plastic, and aluminum. The commissions on the materials for all these packages gave Cordotex a modest 4 million kronor in 1970. When the money arrived, Cordotex acted as the group’s internal bank. The company allocated money to various companies that needed funds for investments or to cover losses. However, most of the money was sent to the Rausing family foundations in the tax haven of Liechtenstein. There were two foundations; one, Hansra, was for the benefit of Hans’s family; the other, Gadsra, was for Gad’s family. But so far, there were no profits to deposit in the foundations, it was merely about commissions being transferred to Cordotex.”