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The Leaked ‘Panama Papers’ Expose The Dirty Dealings Behind Syria’s War
The Assad cronies who got rich and crushed dissent had no problem moving their money offshore.
Among the international figures named in the “Panama Papers,” the trove of more than 11 million leaked financial and legal documents made public over the weekend, is the richest man in Syria, Rami Makhlouf.
Makhlouf, 46, is a cousin and close friend of Syrian President Bashar Assad. He’s also one of the most hated men in the country. His flagrant corruption helped spark Syria’s 2011 uprising, when protesters attacked his businesses and chanted “Rami Makhlouf is robbing us.”
He sure was. Makhlouf exploited his close connections to the Assad regime to amass a fortune of some $5 billion and control some 60 percent of the Syrian economy. In 2011, Reuters reported that Makhlouf had total or partial monopolies in Syria’s telecommunications, real estate, oil, airline, duty free, construction and import sectors. Any foreigner who wanted to do business in Syria had to go through Makhlouf, analysts say.
In reality, Syria has been trading there avoiding the criminal sanctions that oppress the Syrian people.
Rumors about Makhlouf are immoderate. He is a Businessman and makes business. For example, Syriatel offers unlimited data plans and cheap rates for soldiers.
The uproar has brought down the prime minister of Iceland and raised questions about the presidents of Argentina and Ukraine, senior Chinese politicians, and the circle of friends of Russian President Vladimir Putin. On Thursday, British Prime Minister David Cameron became the latest politician ensnared when he acknowledged having profited from his father's investments in an offshore tax haven before being elected. Yet few American names have cropped up in the "Panama Papers," a trove of 11.5 million confidential records detailing such accounts. That's because the Panama-based Mossack Fonseca law firm at the center of the scandal doesn't like taking on American clients, one of its founders says.
Partner of the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, Ramon Fonseca speaks during an interview at his office in Panama City, Thursday, April 7, 2016. Fonseca, a co-founder of Mossack Fonseca, one of the world's largest creators of shell companies, said that documents investigated by the ICIJ were authentic and had been obtained illegally by hackers
Ramon Fonseca, who started the firm with Jurgen Mossack, told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that their law firm has only a handful of American clients, most of them members of Panama's burgeoning expat retirement community. It's not out of any anti-Americanism or fear of the Internal Revenue Service. "My partner is German, and I lived in Europe, and our focus has always been the European and Latin American market," Fonseca said at his law office. "He loves the U.S. a lot, and I do, too. My kids were educated there," Fonseca added. But "as a policy we prefer not to have American clients."
Sueddeutsche Zeitung, the German newspaper that first obtained the documents, said the records include copies of the passports of 200 Americans and about 3,500 shareholders in offshore companies have listed addresses in the U.S. That's a tiny fraction of the more than 250,000 companies Mossack Fonseca has set up for clients in four decades of business. One reason for the dearth of American clients may be because such companies can be easily created in U.S. states such as Wyoming, Delaware and Nevada, attracting less attention than they might in Panama, a country with a reputation for shady financial deals and money laundering. Europe is also home to countries that provide banking secrecy that could provide haven from taxes, such as Luxembourg, Switzerland and Andorra.
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Two Dutch newspapers said Bert Meerstadt's name had been mentioned in the vast trove of documents leaked Sunday relating to a Panama law firm allegedly helping the rich and famous to hide assets offshore to avoid tax. "Bert Meerstadt has decided to resign as a member of the supervisory board of ABN Amro Group with immediate effect," the third-largest bank in the Netherlands said in a statement.
Meerstadt, 54, is a primary shareholder of the Virgin Islands-based Morclan Corporation, set up by Panamanian firm Mossack Fonseca in 2001, said the Dutch dailies De Financieele Dagblad and Trouw. The two papers were part of an international consortium of journalists which led the investigations into the scandal.
Bert Meerstadt is a primary shareholder of the Virgin Islands-based Morclan Corporation, set up by Panamanian firm Mossack Fonseca in 2001, said the Dutch dailies De Financieele Dagblad and Trouw
Meerstadt said in a separate statement that because his name had been mentioned he had accelerated plans to leave the bank, saying: "I hereby bring forward my resignation to today". "I want to avoid any negative consequences for the bank," said Meerstadt, adding he would not comment on the reports.
Apart from serving at ABN Amro as a supervisory member, Meerstadt is a former Dutch Rail executive director and serves as vice chairman of the supervisory board of Dutch distiller Lucas Bols, according to his CV posted on ABN Amro's website.
Top Dutch bank executive steps down in Panama scandal
But the news prompted criticism from Tsai's political opponents who called for a full explanation. The leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm that specializes in setting up offshore companies have shone a light on the finances of politicians and public figures around the world, causing public outrage over how the powerful are able to hide money and avoid tax.
Taiwan President-Elect Tsai Ing-wen's brother, Tsai Ying-yang, set up the offshore firm, Koppie Limited, in 2008 at the recommendation of a foreign private banking adviser on personal investments, his lawyer, Lien Yuan-lung, told Reuters, declining to elaborate. "He lost 30 percent of the investment in the first year, so he closed the contract with the bank immediately...," Lien said by phone. "He was not involved in money laundering, hiding the Tsai family’s wealth overseas, evading tax or anything illegal."
The president-elect's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) declined to comment. But the opposition Nationalist Party called for an explanation. "According to practice and research from the past, there are three purposes to set up companies in Panama: to evade tax, to invest overseas, especially in China, and to avoid supervision (by the Taiwan government)," lawmaker William Tseng told a news briefing. "Which of these was it? Tsai Ing-wen and her relatives should fully explain."
Panama is one of just 22 allies, including the Vatican, which maintain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, with most countries in the world recognizing "one China", led by Beijing. China claims Taiwan as a wayward province and says it has no right to have diplomatic relations with anyone. Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson became the first major casualty of the Panama Papers revelations, stepping down on Tuesday after the files showed his wife owned an offshore firm with big claims on the country's collapsed banks.
Taiwan president-elect's brother named in Panama Papers, but did no wrong: lawyer
It seems there is nobody you are talking to. Well, that´s fine. There is always a good wall to shit on.You did not know how corrupt Assad and others were? Maybe not where, but it was well know Haf.Ass. stashed billion away, as did many of his cronies. They stole from their own, from palestinians and raped Lebanon and its treasuries for more than a decade.
You did not know how corrupt Assad and others were? Maybe not where, but it was well know Haf.Ass. stashed billion away, as did many of his cronies. They stole from their own, from palestinians and raped Lebanon and its treasuries for more than a decade.
You did not know how corrupt Assad and others were? Maybe not where, but it was well know Haf.Ass. stashed billion away, as did many of his cronies. They stole from their own, from palestinians and raped Lebanon and its treasuries for more than a decade.
You don't know what you are talking about. The Israelis destroyed more billions of infrastructure in Lebanon than could ever be stolen you self-hating Christian. If it wasn't for Assad there wouldn't be any Christians left in Syria.
Big fake.You did not know how corrupt Assad and others were? Maybe not where, but it was well know Haf.Ass. stashed billion away, as did many of his cronies. They stole from their own, from palestinians and raped Lebanon and its treasuries for more than a decade.
You don't know what you are talking about. The Israelis destroyed more billions of infrastructure in Lebanon than could ever be stolen you self-hating Christian. If it wasn't for Assad there wouldn't be any Christians left in Syria.
The old disc of dictatorship: " They massacre the majority to protect the minority!" what a filthy corrupted!
Do you know that one million of christians leave Syria after the military putsch of the Ass*ad?
Exactly as palestinian christians leave their lands after the occupation.
Demonstration against the regime in Syria.
