Robert Mercer. Photo by Oliver Contrera/ Getty Images
"Leaked documents ... show how the billionaire Mercer family built a $60m war chest for conservative causes inside their family foundation by using an offshore investment vehicle to avoid US tax," The Guardian reports:
"The offshore vehicle was part of a network of companies in the Atlantic tax haven of Bermuda led by Robert Mercer, the wealthy hedge-fund executive and Bannon patron whose spending helped put Trump in the White House and aided a resurgence of the Republican right."
"Mercer, 71, appears as a director of eight Bermuda companies in the Paradise Papers, a trove of millions of leaked documents on offshore finance reviewed by the Guardian, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and other partners."
Why Mercer matters: "Mercer, who declined to comment for this article, has risen from relative obscurity to become one of the most influential figures in US conservatism."
- "He financed ventures including the presidential campaigns of Trump and Senator Ted Cruz [, and] Breitbart News ... Mercer has personally donated $41m to federal election campaigns."
- "The files include a copy of Mercer's US passport and other private data."