Barack Obama once described it as “either this is the largest building in the world or the largest tax scam in the world”. That was in 2009. The building was Ugland House in George Town on the Caribbean island of Gran Cayman.

Ugland House was then home to 18,857 corporations. And Ugland House is soon to be home to another one, along with the profits of 43 Australian hospitals, unless Treasurer Josh Frydenberg blocks the deal on grounds of national interest.

No sooner had the Northern Beaches Hospital in Sydney been built at a cost of $2 billion to taxpayers, its operator Healthscope opted to sell it, along with another 42 Australian hospitals also subsidised by taxpayers, to a shadowy group which has a large presence in tax havens.

via From the Northern Beaches of Sydney to the Northern Beaches of George Town, Cayman Islands – Michael West