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Morningstar determined that Janus and Putnam were the two largest "wealth destroyers" during the decade, losing $58 billion and $46 billion, respectively. "Janus and Putnam rode the growth wave more than anyone else," Kinnel says. "They had some very aggressive funds that put up big numbers that got huge inflows." After the tech bubble burst, the funds that were most heavily invested in these types of holdings experienced huge sell-offs, which made it difficult for these funds to attract inflows through the remainder of the decade. According to Morningstar, American Funds created about $191 million in wealth for investors during the decade, followed by Vanguard and Fidelity. Since American Funds generally employs a more value-oriented strategy, the firm was largely able to avert the first bear market of the decade. "The 2000 to 2002 bear market was all growth and tech, and American barely touched that, whereas they had lots of value, dividend payers, and bonds, which did very well," Kinnel says. Recently, the tables have turned for American. In 2009, it lost the most of any fund family (more than $25 billion). No fund family, including American, was able to avoid the bear market of 2008. The same strategy that allowed American to bypass most of the first bear market failed because many well-known dividend-paying companies, like big financial firms, experienced huge losses.

the presence of tax havens, whether specialising in corporate or maritime services, consistently undermines national and international rule-of-law. This was the case with the capitalist apartheid regime in South Africa, who circumvented oil sanctions through the 'socialist' government of Seychelles. The Iranian revolution evidenced the fall of the US-backed Shah, depriving the apartheid regime of secure oil supplies.

By pyramiding holding companies in jurisdictions characterised by secrecy, the corporate beneficiaries of the apartheid regime were able to access resources and labour on the cheap, while easily navigating global sanctions.

Not much has changed when it comes to the use of secrecy jurisdictions as a means of looting African minerals. Until recently, Sierra Leone’s diamond industry was dominated by two firms: SLDC and Koidu Holdings. The latter was wholly owned by two entities based in tax havens, both of which are directly connected to the UK: Guernsey and the British Virgin Islands (BVI) through BSG Resources, recently implicated as a potential funder for Zimbabwe's Marange fields (via Canadile).