The Panama Papers

Anyone caught any of this yet? IMO this might have the potential to de-stabilize the global economy, and governments all over the world.

Leaked Documents Reveal Offshore Activities Linked to Heads of State, Reports Say

Documents leaked from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca going all the way back to 1977 reportedly reveal links to money laundering operations among Vladimir Putin's associates and suggest the Icelandic prime minister hid offshore financial interests.

2.6TB of data. 140 offshore firms. 11.5m leaked documents. 12 national leaders. The hidden wealth of some of the world’s most prominent leaders, politicians and celebrities has been revealed by an unprecedented leak of millions of documents that show the myriad ways in which the rich can exploit secretive offshore tax regimes.

The Panama Papers: how the world's rich and famous hide their money offshore | News | The Guardian

The records were obtained from an anonymous source by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists with the Guardian and the BBC.

Though there is nothing unlawful about using offshore companies, the files raise fundamental questions about the ethics of such tax havens – and the revelations are likely to provoke urgent calls for reforms of a system that critics say is arcane and open to abuse.

The Panama Papers reveal:

• Twelve national leaders are among 143 politicians, their families and close associates from around the world known to have been using offshore tax havens.
• A $2bn trail leads all the way to Vladimir Putin. The Russian president’s best friend – a cellist called Sergei Roldugin - is at the centre of a scheme in which money from Russian state banks is hidden offshore. Some of it ends up in a ski resort where in 2013 Putin’s daughter Katerina got married.
• Among national leaders with offshore wealth are Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s prime minister; Ayad Allawi, ex-interim prime minister and former vice-president of Iraq; Petro Poroshenko, president of Ukraine; Alaa Mubarak, son of Egypt’s former president; and the prime minister of Iceland, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson.
• Six members of the House of Lords, three former Conservative MPs and dozens of donors to UK political parties have had offshore assets.
• The families of at least eight current and former members of China’s supreme ruling body, the politburo, have been found to have hidden wealth offshore.
• Twenty-three individuals who have had sanctions imposed on them for supporting the regimes in North Korea, Zimbabwe, Russia, Iran and Syria have been clients of Mossack Fonseca. Their companies were harboured by the Seychelles, the British Virgin Islands, Panama and other jurisdictions.
• A key member of Fifa’s powerful ethics committee, which is supposed to be spearheading reform at world football’s scandal-hit governing body, acted as a lawyer for individuals and companies recently charged with bribery and corruption.
• One leaked memorandum from a partner of Mossack Fonseca said: “Ninety-five per cent of our work coincidentally consists in selling vehicles to avoid taxes.”

The company has flatly denied any wrongdoing. It says it has acted beyond reproach for 40 years and that it has had robust due diligence procedures.

The document leak comes from the records of the firm, which was founded in 1977. The information is near live, with the most recent records dating from December 2015.

Three hundred and 70 reporters from 100 media organisations have spent a year analysing and verifying the documents.

David Cameron has promised to “sweep away” tax secrecy – but little has been done. He is planning a summit of world leaders next month, which will focus on the conduct of tax havens.

The prime minister set out his line in 2011 when he said: “We need to shine a spotlight on who owns what and where the money is really flowing.”

Keep reading...

More at link.

Raise taxes on the rich! Heavily tax evil corporations!

They just leave your country and hide their assets, dickheads.

But of course this isn't really "news" to many of us who have known for years that the rich and corporations have trillions of capital hidden in overseas markets and shell companies. But this is the first time actual data has leaked, naming names. I saw on facebook, there's already 1000s of posts by Pakistanis to kill their own Prime Minister, his immediate family and anyone else affiliated with this.

I can see this starting violent political coups and destabilizing the entire world.

Stand by.... White cop gonna shoot a black guy and the media will focus solely on that and this will be swept under the rug.

#blacklivesmatter!

Midswat said:

Stand by.... White cop gonna shoot a black guy and the media will focus solely on that and this will be swept under the rug.

#blacklivesmatter!

Keep reading...

No worries there - the press had this for over a year already "studying" it, and are already saying they plan to spoonfeed more names and details slowly over the next several months. They say May is when the next big expose' on this is scheduled.

Milking it, what better way to influence a US Presidential election.

But I can already hear Bernie saying "See? What have we been saying about these evil rich bastards for years?"

Watch the stock market crash and burn tomorrow over fears of this.

#slacklivesmatter

Here we go.... Quote from Australian Labor Party candidate Sophie Ismail:

Tax evasion and avoidance facilitates the exploitation of our environment and the world's poorest to benefit a small but powerful global elite. It robs governments of the revenue needed to reduce inequality and protect the health and wellbeing of ordinary people through investment in public services and sustainable development.
It is often illegal and always immoral.
Australian companies and individuals must be made to pay their fair share of tax and comply with applicable regulations.
Tax justice now!

Keep reading...

Hmm...

It robs governments of the revenue needed to reduce inequality and protect the health and wellbeing of ordinary people through investment in public services and sustainable development.

Keep reading...

The above - is that the job of government?

"Robs governments." Yeah, "robs" them of the ability to rob earners and productive people?

Here's the German newspaper's site devoted to this:

Panama Papers - All articles by Suddeutsche Zeitung

I'm not reading all that unless someone wants to lay it out in a few bullet points.

1. What?

2. When?

3. How and who stands to gain/lose the most political steam in this election from this.

Answer those 3 and I'll read it if I find it interesting.

kthanx

Read something elsewhere saying George Soros heavily involved.

Please let the Clinton foundation be knee-deep in this shit.

I guess I don't see why this would be any kind of a big deal. People of all income levels don't want to pay any more taxes than they have to. Maybe if you're an avowed socialist and you're on the list it makes you look hypocritical, and that could be a little embarrassing. But beyond that, why is this such a surprise?

ThoughtExperiment said:

I guess I don't see why this would be any kind of a big deal. People of all income levels don't want to pay any more taxes than they have to. Maybe if you're an avowed socialist and you're on the list it makes you look hypocritical, and that could be a little embarrassing. But beyond that, why is this such a surprise?

Keep reading...

The only surprising thing for me would be if a political figure is involved and questions arise as to the source of the money. I mean, was Putnin a successful bisiness man prior becoming a politician? This would have had to have happened after he left/retired from the KGB.

If it's legal money, I couldn't give two shits. Wealthy folks will always find a way to minimize their tax liability.

Putin is a known kleptocrat along with the few others who carved up the country after the fall of the USSR, but I doubt the people care. And even if they did or do, there's nothing they can do about it...

I think it says more about the political guys than the corporate guys.

Politicians these days act like corporations are the most corrupt things on the planet, when in reality politicians are more corrupt. Did anyone really think Putin wasn't into some shady shit? All the while his country is trending more and more toward the USSR that crumbled.

But corporations are trying to avoid oppresive taxing schemes? What else is new? It's ludicrous to think that will ever not be the case.

peplaw06 said:

Politicians these days act like corporations are the most corrupt things on the planet, when in reality politicians are more corrupt.

Keep reading...

QFMFT

Chicken versus egg kinda deal. Politicians are often paid by corporations to be corrupt. I don't think many politicians would legislate against those they represent just for the hell of it. Plenty will do just that because it makes cents....get it.....it makes cents, derp, derp.

Anyway, doubt anything becomes of this list.

Maybe some fines and then they'll do a better job covering it all up.

ThoughtExperiment said:

I guess I don't see why this would be any kind of a big deal. People of all income levels don't want to pay any more taxes than they have to. Maybe if you're an avowed socialist and you're on the list it makes you look hypocritical, and that could be a little embarrassing. But beyond that, why is this such a surprise?

Keep reading...

Not surprising because everyone knows this stuff occurred, but now that the proof is out there it's gonna be interesting to see if anything is done about it.

I'm sure that there is plenty in that 2.6TB of data that almost everyone here would find problematic, such as money laundering of proceeds from criminal activities.

In that 2.6TB of data, certainly there will be many instances of people who legally set up shell accounts, but who later failed to disclose potential conflicts of interest when mandated to do so.

I gotta believe there will be plenty of cases in which nothing illegal took place ... that the shell accounts were legally established using legally obtained funds and that the people benefiting from the accounts made appropriate disclosures if/when mandated to do so.

Another data dump that could be especially interesting (if it happens) - the D.C. Madam records. Somehow it seems fitting that escort service records would impact this year's bizarre presidential election.

Evidence from cell phones is leading to the undoing of the Governor of Alabama.

Welcome to the information society!