Panama Papers thread

[Cain]

Very money.  So offshore.  Much corrupt.

[LMNO]

NPR's bit on it this morning really left a lot to be desired.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

I wish I had the mental energy to get into this right now. It looks like it should be so much fun.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Something about Cameron's dad mentioned on news at 6.

[Lenin McCarthy]

The PM of Iceland seems to have been involved in some really shady business:

1. Sigmundur Davið and his wife started an offshore company in 2007 which had bonds in three Icelandic Banks: Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Glitnir. *Owning bonds means you are lending money to the bank, which makes the Prime Minister and his wife "creditors" or lenders to the bank.
2. In 2008, the economic crash happened. Those three banks go into insolvency–meaning they collapsed and had to start paying off their debts as best they could–starting with people's savings and then bonds.
3. In 2009, Sigmundur Davið became the chairman for the Progressive Party and was elected into parliament in April of 2009. New transparency laws stated that Members of Parliament had to reveal any shareholding in a company that was over 25%. At that time Sigmundur Davið was still 50% owner of Wintris inc. with his wife owning the other 50%.
4. On December 31, 2009, Sigmundur Davið sold his wife his half of the company for $1 USD.
5. After the crash in 2008, creditors who took their money out of Iceland were charged a 39% "stability tax."
6. Last year, in 2015, Sigmundur Davið's government removed the 39% "stability tax" in favour of a deal which only asked for a "stability contribution,"effectively removing 2 billion Euros that would have gone to the state, but now goes to creditors: Wintris inc., his wife's company, Wintris inc., being one of those creditors.

And here's how he first reacted when confronted with it in an interview. 

Reports of more than 20000 (though I've also read 8000, but still impressive for a country with 330000 inhabitants) protesting in Iceland today. demanding new elections. And who has been leading the polls for months already? The Pirate Party. This could get really exciting.

[Junkenstein]

Posting mainly to ensure I follow the coming fun.

So, who else is shocked by all this so far? I'm fucking not. Well, in one way I am: I thought the UK would have been a larger contributor. Also, has anyone seen much relating to Indian involvement yet? I'm guessing that's a sizeable chunk too but I've not seen anything specific yet.

[Junkenstein]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2016/apr/03/icelands-prime-minister-walks-out-of-interview-over-tax-haven-question-video

More on Iceland. This is a masterclass in "how to fail to handle the press". They weren't even going that hard at him and he fucks it up completely and bails.

[Faust]

That was painful to watch. He would have been better off not giving an interview at all till he knew what he was going to say.

[Junkenstein]

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/04/panama-papers-briton-set-up-firm-allegedly-used-by-north-korea-weapons-sales

A British banker who spent two decades living in communist North Korea set up a secret offshore finance company allegedly used by the Pyongyang regime to help sell arms and expand its nuclear weapons programme.

This shit is going to be hilarious in a few days.

Edit to add:

The Panama Papers reveal Mossack Fonseca failed to notice Cowie's companies were linked to North Korea – even though he gave an address there.

The level of due dilligence ignored here is impressive.

[Junkenstein]

Something about Cameron's dad mentioned on news at 6.

Naturally, that's just the start:

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/04/tory-donors-links-to-offshore-firms-revealed-in-leaked-panama-papers

It get funnier. My favourite so far is:

Arron Banks

Banks, who has given Ukip more than £1m and is spearheading the anti-EU referendum campaign, appears as the shareholder of a BVI company called PRI Holdings Limited. Shares from PRI were also transferred to Elizabeth Bilney, the chief executive of Leave.eu. PRI Holdings is in turn the sole shareholder of African Strategic Resources Limited, which is a British Virgin Islands company managed in Gibraltar.

Banks declined to comment.

[Cain]

Oh, there are levels of hilarity here that could topple governments.

In fact, it's almost too good.  UBS, Credit Suisse, HSBC and a couple of other private Swiss banking outfits no-one has ever heard of have been caught red-handed creating legal entities for the purposes of tax evasion, going by a cursory reading of the files.

On top of elected officials and current/former heads of state, the information also includes members of the civil service, here and in Europe.

What really clinches this for me, aside from the civil service information, is the vast amount of information on the UK.  UK banks use British Carribbean territories as tax havens for work of a dubious legality, and while everyone focuses on the Cayman Islands etc, what they always conveniently forget is how those cash transfers almost invariably end up in the City of London.

[Junkenstein]

Somewhat related article mainly posting as it will give a fair idea of the likely reactions of governments:

http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2016/04/04/failing-to-provide-the-resources-hmrc-needs-to-tackle-tax-abuse-is-in-itself-a-form-of-corruption/

In short, acknowledge a problem then cripple any kind of investigation or reform. Cameron will do fuck all about this, it'll be amusing to see the coming proposals of others. I doubt many will even state the extent of the problem openly.

First, it is admitted that HMRC did not run this campaign well.

Second, it is admitted that was because they did not give the campaign the required coverage, which must be down to resources.

Third, it is now admitted that HMRC cannot in any event work the additional cases that the disclosure is giving rise to because they do not have the resources to do so.

And fourth, the message is that very clearly we'd rather lose more than £700 million than invest to beat criminal activity. After all, why worry about beating crime when cuts imposed on people with disability can pick up the slack whilst the dogma of cuts can be kept intact?

The result of this is however all too obvious: all the other announcements on tax abuse will fail for exactly the same reason unless HMRC is given the resources it needs to do its job. But there is no sign that will happen. And so the crooks win, and those in need in this country will lose, yet again.

[Cain]

The other thing that makes me think this was done by someone who knew what they were doing is that it circumvented Assange and Wikileaks.  Whatever your opinion of him, the fact he's on the Russian government's payroll, by way of Russa Today, and that this information quite clearly indicates close friends of Putin are laundering billions, does represent a conflict of interest.

The person who leaked the information also suggested their life was being threatened.  I'd like to know more about that.

[Junkenstein]

Oh, there are levels of hilarity here that could topple governments.

In fact, it's almost too good.  UBS, Credit Suisse, HSBC and a couple of other private Swiss banking outfits no-one has ever heard of have been caught red-handed creating legal entities for the purposes of tax evasion, going by a cursory reading of the files.

On top of elected officials and current/former heads of state, the information also includes members of the civil service, here and in Europe.

What really clinches this for me, aside from the civil service information, is the vast amount of information on the UK.  UK banks use British Carribbean territories as tax havens for work of a dubious legality, and while everyone focuses on the Cayman Islands etc, what they always conveniently forget is how those cash transfers almost invariably end up in the City of London.

Indeed, or the related fuckery with the channel islands and such noted above.

What's going to be funny as hell is the bullshit that the various leadership candidates are going to have to spew now. This has fucked most of their planned PR to bits now. How could you possibly talk about anything austerity related in the aftermath of this crap? But they will both likely have to do so anyway.

Here's hoping the public remember treat them with the kindness they clearly deserve.

[Junkenstein]

The other thing that makes me think this was done by someone who knew what they were doing is that it circumvented Assange and Wikileaks.  Whatever your opinion of him, the fact he's on the Russian government's payroll, by way of Russa Today, and that this information quite clearly indicates close friends of Putin are laundering billions, does represent a conflict of interest.

The person who leaked the information also suggested their life was being threatened.  I'd like to know more about that.

As would I, I would think it's probably being threatened by multiple parties at this point. It's rather hard to pick a likely suspect given the potential list but it would make me smile to have the police talk to the lot as possible persons of interest in the matter.

What's your gut feeling to criminal charges? I'm hoping for many but I'm not counting on it. Those who have given comments so far have stuck to the "reported everything relevant to relevant authorities" line which is most certainty written by lawyers. I'd guess that those with no comments are still finding appropriate counsel.