[Midnight Marauder]

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.”

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.

[moomin]

Originally Posted by Midnight Marauder

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.

Mmm. I was just about to say "how can anybody be surprised"? I mean, about the only surprise is that Hugo Chaves' estate isn't there. This will not have any significant impact on markets or the economy - the only backwaters where there's enough rubes that didn't know how their glorious leaders are skimming them are hellholes like Pakistan, and those guys don't need no scandals to ape out anyway.

Still, I bet the Icelandic guy is mildly discomfited by finding himself on that list

[Midnight Marauder]

Originally Posted by moomin

Mmm. I was just about to say "how can anybody be surprised"? I mean, about the only surprise is that Hugo Chaves' estate isn't there. This will not have any significant impact on markets or the economy - the only backwaters where there's enough rubes that didn't know how their glorious leaders are skimming them are hellholes like Pakistan, and those guys don't need no scandals to ape out anyway.

Still, I bet the Icelandic guy is mildly discomfited by finding himself on that list

This is only the tip of the iceberg as far as lists of people involved goes. The press has had this for a year and plan to meter this out over months, spoonfeed it so to speak.

No doubt they know it there's Trump or Clinton involvement, and other US luminaries, and are holding back this info until they see how they can use it to best advantage as far as affecting election results in the US.

[moomin]

No way they'll use it if it's Clinton. No way.

[Midnight Marauder]

Originally Posted by moomin

No way they'll use it if it's Clinton. No way.

Depends on if the DNC decides it wants Bernie.

[moomin]

The odds are long. Not only the Clinton machine, but the amount of dirt they could hit the Obama faction with if they went down.

[Midnight Marauder]

Originally Posted by moomin

The odds are long. Not only the Clinton machine, but the amount of dirt they could hit the Obama faction with if they went down.

Had same amount of dirt in 08, didn't hit with it. O took the party further left than ever, Bernie is doing the same thing, taking it further left.

There's more dirt O has on HER, now. It's a wash.

[walruskkkch]

Unless you can show Trump took government money and put it there, which is what is shocking about how rich some long time world leaders have become, then his name is meaningless. As a private businessman he can keep his money where ever he wants. Now Clinton would be another kettle of fish.

[Midnight Marauder]

Originally Posted by walruskkkch

Unless you can show Trump took government money and put it there, which is what is shocking about how rich some long time world leaders have become, then his name is meaningless.

Meaningless from a legal standpoint, but not from a howling standpoint.

As a private businessman he can keep his money where ever he wants.

You really think this fact matters to the typical reactionary moron?

Now Clinton would be another kettle of fish.

Even if there's nothing illegal there for Hitlery either, Bernie will milk it - his loon followers will eat it up and the DNC might decide as they did in '08, to throw her under the bus.

[walruskkkch]

If you are going to howl then everything becomes a Moon, don't it?