Panama Papers: The secret offshore world of the global elite

[barryqwalsh]

Millions of documents show heads of state, criminals and celebrities using secret hideaways in tax havens


The leak also provides details of the hidden financial dealings of 128 more politicians and public officials around the world.

The cache of 11.5 million records shows how a global industry of law firms and big banks sells financial secrecy to politicians, fraudsters and drug traffickers as well as billionaires, celebrities and sports stars.



Panama Papers: The secret offshore world of the global elite

 

[Wyatt earp]

Good for them.




.

 

[barryqwalsh]

Good for them.




.

Who, the investigative journalists, or the super-wealthy tax dodgers?

 

[Billy_Kinetta]

Hmmmm ...

A smart man would seek out such law firms and big banks.

 

[TheOldSchool]

Millions of documents show heads of state, criminals and celebrities using secret hideaways in tax havens


The leak also provides details of the hidden financial dealings of 128 more politicians and public officials around the world.

The cache of 11.5 million records shows how a global industry of law firms and big banks sells financial secrecy to politicians, fraudsters and drug traffickers as well as billionaires, celebrities and sports stars.



Panama Papers: The secret offshore world of the global elite

That's a huuuuuuge leak. I'm sure anything juicy in there will get buried though.

 

[barryqwalsh]

Panama Papers

• 
  
  Revealed The $2bn trail that leads to Vladimir Putin
  • Putin's best friendCellist who holds the key to hidden fortune
  • Fifa implicatedNew credibility crisis for ethics committee
  • Our investigationExposing the offshore financial industry
  • Mossack FonsecaLaw firm responds to leak of documents
  The $2bn trail that leads to Vladimir Putin

• 
  
  Hidden wealth How the world’s rich and famous exploit tax havens
  How the world’s rich and famous exploit tax havens
• 
  
  The Australian connectionHow Mossack Fonseca worked with clients linked to tax investigations
  How Mossack Fonseca worked with clients linked to tax investigations
• Iceland turmoil PM under pressure over secret tax deal
  PM under pressure over secret tax deal
• What are the Panama Papers? Biggest leak in history
  Biggest leak in history

News, sport and opinion from the Guardian's Australia edition | The Guardian

 

[WheelieAddict]

Holy shit that is huge. I wonder who from the US will be implicated. Big scandal.

 

[waltky]

Uh-oh Vlad, you been a naughty boy...

International Journalists Say Putin Associates Ran $2 Billion Through Offshore Accounts
April 04, 2016 - A team of international journalists, working with leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm, published a report Sunday with some of its findings into the offshore financial dealings of the rich and famous, and politically-connected.

An anonymous source provided the 11.5 million documents from Panama's Mossack Fonseca law firm to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists - ICIJ - a Washington-based organization. Ramon Fonseca, one of the founders of the Panamanian firm, told the French News Agency the leaking of the information to the journalists is "a crime, a felony." "Privacy is a fundamental human right that is being eroded more and more in the modern world. Each person has a right to privacy, whether they are a king or a beggar," Fonseca said.

Parking money in offshore accounts is not necessarily illegal, and can be used to establish legal tax shelters or ease international business deals. But the report said "the documents show that banks, law firms and other offshore players have often failed to follow legal requirements that they make sure their clients are not involved in criminal enterprises, tax dodging or political corruption." The Kremlin last week did not answer questions posed by the journalists about the transactions, and it publicly accused the group of preparing a misleading "information attack" on the Russian leader and people close to him.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, DC. Sueddeutsche Zeitung, based in Munich, said Sunday it received the data from an anonymous source more than a year ago. It says the amount of data it obtained is several times larger than the U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks in 2010, and the secret intelligence documents given to journalists by Edward Snowden in 2013. Australia's tax office told Reuters Monday it is investigating more than 800 wealthy clients of the Panama law firm for possible tax evasion.

Along from the links to Putin, ICIJ says these documents:

 

[ScienceRocks]

They should be taxed and taxed hard!

 

[ScienceRocks]

Millions of documents show heads of state, criminals and celebrities using secret hideaways in tax havens


The leak also provides details of the hidden financial dealings of 128 more politicians and public officials around the world.

The cache of 11.5 million records shows how a global industry of law firms and big banks sells financial secrecy to politicians, fraudsters and drug traffickers as well as billionaires, celebrities and sports stars.



Panama Papers: The secret offshore world of the global elite

That's a huuuuuuge leak. I'm sure anything juicy in there will get buried though.

I hope Ted Pooz's name is in there!

 

[waltky]

World figures deny wrongdoing as 'Panama Papers' turn spotlight on tax evasion...

World figures deny wrongdoing as 'Panama Papers' reveal offshore wealth
April 4, 2016 - Governments across the world began investigating possible financial wrongdoing by the rich and powerful on Monday after a leak of four decades of documents from a Panamanian law firm that specialized in setting up offshore companies.

The "Panama Papers" revealed financial arrangements of global politicians and public figures including friends of Russian President Vladimir Putin, relatives of the prime ministers of Britain, Iceland and Pakistan, and the president of Ukraine. While holding money in offshore companies is not illegal, journalists who received the leaked documents said they could provide evidence of wealth hidden for tax evasion, money laundering, sanctions busting, drug deals or other crimes. The law firm, Mossack Fonseca, which says it has set up more than 240,000 offshore companies for clients around the globe, denied any wrongdoing and called itself the victim of a campaign against privacy.

The Kremlin said the documents contained "nothing concrete and nothing new" while a spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron said his late father's reported links to an offshore company were a "private matter." Financial prosecutors in France announced the opening of a preliminary investigation for aggravated tax fraud. Germany would also “pick up the ball” in the case, a Finance Ministry spokesman said on Monday. Financial market watchdog Bafin is looking into the matter, said a source close to the regulator, which reports to the ministry.

Australia, Austria, Sweden and the Netherlands were among other countries which said they had begun investigating the allegations based on more than 11.5 million documents. Banks came under the spotlight over allegations that they helped clients hide their wealth offshore. A White House spokesman said that while he had no specific comment on the leaked papers, "greater transparency allows us to root out corruption." The documents, covering a period from 1977 until last December, were leaked to more than 100 news organizations around the world, cooperating with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a Washington, D.C.-based network.

MORE

See also:

Data trove offers glimpse of how the rich hide their money
Apr 4,`16 -- A leak of 11.5 million documents from a Panama-based law firm offers a glimpse into the shadowy world where the rich and powerful hide their money, raising sharp questions about the use of shell companies that obscure the identities of their true owners.

Leaders of the Group of 20 - representing about 80 percent of the global economy - have vowed to crack down on the practice, which is blamed for helping conceal money laundering, corruption and tax evasion. By themselves, shell companies aren't illegal. Countries have tightened rules on using them - but not enough to satisfy anti-corruption activists. News organizations working with the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists have been processing the legal records from the Mossack Fonseca law firm that were first leaked to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper based in Munich, Germany.

In reports that began Sunday, they said the document dump that they dubbed the "Panama Papers" shows the hidden offshore assets of politicians, businesses and celebrities, including 12 current or former heads of state. Among the countries with past or present political figures named in the reports are Iceland, Ukraine, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Argentina. The law firm said in a statement it observed all laws and international standards covering corporate registrations.

Ramon Fonseca, a co-founder of Mossack Fonseca - one of the world's largest creators of shell companies - confirmed to Panama's Channel 2 that documents investigated by the ICIJ were authentic and had been obtained illegally by hackers. But he said most people identified in the reports were not his firm's direct clients but were accounts set up by intermediaries. One of the most prominent subjects of the report is Russian President Vladimir Putin, although his name does not appear in the documents. ICIJ said on its website that the documents show how complex offshore financial deals channeled as much as $2 billion to a network of people linked to Putin.

One focus was Sergei Roldugin, a professional cellist and childhood friend of Putin. Roldugen was listed as the owner of companies that obtained payments from other companies worth tens of millions of dollars, and of a stake in Bank Rossiya, described by the U.S. Treasury as "designated for providing material support to government officials." "The evidence in the files suggests Roldugin is acting as a front man for a network of Putin loyalists - and perhaps for Putin himself," the consortium said. Roldugin was unavailable for comment Monday. A receptionist at the St. Petersburg House of Music, where he is artistic director, said he was not in.

MORE

 

[TNHarley]

When the dumbfucks get their wish and we become a globalized world, they wont have to hide it anymore..

 

[barryqwalsh]

PM David Cameron said: "Ask my mother? I think I know what my mother would say. I think she would look across the despatch box and she would say 'Put on a proper suit, do up your tie and sing the national anthem'."

Wednesday 24 February 2016
Prime Minister's Questions

Would mother not find it more patriotic if people paid their fair share of tax?

Are we really all in this together?

 

[TNHarley]

PM David Cameron said: "Ask my mother? I think I know what my mother would say. I think she would look across the despatch box and she would say 'Put on a proper suit, do up your tie and sing the national anthem'."

Wednesday 24 February 2016
Prime Minister's Questions

Would mother not find it more patriotic if people paid their fair share of tax?

Are we really all in this together?

No, we are not all in this together.
If we could do all this together without social barriers and govts, it could work. But that won't happen until humans evolve to use more than a fraction of their brain. Cause we are dumb. We are letting all these corrupt elite assholes take over GLOBALLY.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

When the dumbfucks get their wish and we become a globalized world, they wont have to hide it anymore..

a friendly globalized world at trade is our policy and it is far better policy than a globalized world at war. Do you understand?

 

[barryqwalsh]

PM David Cameron said: "Ask my mother? I think I know what my mother would say. I think she would look across the despatch box and she would say 'Put on a proper suit, do up your tie and sing the national anthem'."

Wednesday 24 February 2016
Prime Minister's Questions

Would mother not find it more patriotic if people paid their fair share of tax?

Are we really all in this together?

When Prime Minister Cameron is appointed to the House of Lords, his title should be Lord Blairmore of Panama.

 

[oldfart]

PM David Cameron said: "Ask my mother? I think I know what my mother would say. I think she would look across the despatch box and she would say 'Put on a proper suit, do up your tie and sing the national anthem'."

Wednesday 24 February 2016
Prime Minister's Questions

Would mother not find it more patriotic if people paid their fair share of tax?

Are we really all in this together?

"Only little people pay taxes".