Rich list tax haven. The comments come after a huge leak of secret offshore data to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and to tax authorities in Britain, the US and Australia. The data reveals the activities of dozens of accountants, lawyers and financial advisers who have assisted in the establishment of companies in tax havens. The Herald is not suggesting, however, that the firms and individuals identified in the material have acted illegally, or have assisted their clients to avoid tax, as there can be legitimate reasons for the establishment of offshore companies. On the list are blue-chip companies including Abbott Tout Solicitors, ANZ and Blake Dawson Waldron as well as Sydney lawyers Kevin Munro and Rodney Rosenblum.

Other legal firms that have been active in tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and the Cook Islands are: Atanaskovic Hartnell, Horwath Corporate and RSM Financial Services - none of which responded to questions from the Herald. Also mentioned is Donald Junn, the legal adviser to controversial businesswoman Helen Liu. Mr Junn appears in the data assisting a client in Brunei. The ANZ, which has a large offshore network particularly in the Cook Islands, confirmed it had been required by the Tax Office to divulge the details of customers with offshore structures. ''We recently complied with an order to provide the ATO with the details of all customers with a connection to Australia in various offshore jurisdictions,'' said Stephen Ries, a spokesman.

Ashurst (formerly Blake Dawson) says it is its clients' responsibility to ensure they're meeting their tax obligations. ''Our firm actively advises our clients to comply with all applicable taxation laws and regulations,'' said spokesman Glenn Taylor. ''Some clients will establish international structures for a wide variety of legitimate business reasons and, on occasion, they seek our help to assist with this,'' he said. But confidential documents reveal that the secrecy of offshore accounts was paramount. File notes for the late John Anderson, a senior partner with accountancy firm KPMG, reveal his obsession with secrecy. Because of his position, ''he did not want at any stage for there to be a connection between himself and the trust,'' a Portcullis TrustNet file note reveals.

''We can assure him that his records or his confidentiality would never leave these offices.'' Mr Williams blamed accountants and lawyers for making such arrangements possible to begin with. '''I am going to focus in on those people who have got them into it in the first place and enabled this. ''I am going to target the facilitators.'' Leaks help untangle web of offshore havens and those using them Richard Dukes, a tax specialist running his own law firm from his Double Bay mansion, has presumably helped many clients to set up companies domiciled in Australia. But for at least one, Indonesia-born Eng Liang Tan, Mr Dukes has had Portcullis TrustNet, an overseas wealth management firm, help him establish companies in far-flung tax havens.

Mr Tan, 64, who bought his house in Kingsgrove for $260,000 in 1996, took over Indonesian pharmaceutical group Soho in 1997, which now has a turnover of $400 million a year. Emails obtained by the ICIJ show Mr Dukes issuing instructions to Portcullis staff in the Cook Islands on behalf of Mr Tan, who employed a very complicated company framework. He used other entities in Monaco and the British Virgin Islands as the directors of his three companies in the Cook Islands: Dentblanche, Balfrin and Valtourne. The Herald is not suggesting anything untoward, however the effect of Mr Tan's corporate structure has been that it is even more difficult to work out the beneficial owner of these secret companies. The documents reveal Mr Dukes instructed Portcullis to send invoices to three different trustee companies in the Channel Islands, another well-known tax haven. As well as Blake Dawson Waldron and boutique firm Atanaskovic Hartnell, Mr Dukes once worked with Rodney Rosenblum, another solicitor. Mr Rosenblum, too, was familiar with offshore structures, and several of his clients appear in the ICIJ data.

One previously confidential document in the data cache is a file note regarding one company, Kingslea Holdings Limited, which had been set up for one of his clients. ''He will be obtaining passports and references for his clients and keeping them in his office,'' the file note reads. Mr Tan, Mr Dukes and Mr Rosenblum did not respond to the Herald's inquiries. Loading Do you know more? investigations@smh.com.au