Officials from the Lithuanian State Tax Inspectorate confirmed to the news website that Nude Estates 2, the owner of the Aušra mall in Utena, a town 100 kilometres north of Vilnius, had agreed to pay more than 50,000 euros to the state in taxes for the year 2012 following an investigation by the tax authority, but they gave no details.
According to the so-called Paradise Papers leaks, the Irish singer, whose real name is Paul David Hewson, is a passive shareholder in Nude Estates I, a Guernsey-registered company that owns the 3,700-square-meter mall in Utena. Malta-registered Nude Estates 2 sold its Lithuanian business to the Guernsey company in 2012.
Bono has expressed concern that the Lithuanian mall he invested in may have avoided paying taxes and said that he “welcomed the reporting” of the leak.