• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The Panama Papers - Massive leak of secret documents about offshore companies

Status
Not open for further replies.

MrKaepora

Member
That icelandic prime minister...

tumblr_o546wj18de1tjkfe1o1_400.gif


Sweating bullets indeed.
 
I already know that water is wet... can we please move on and find out if holy oil is wet too or just greasy? this Putin obsession is getting nonsensical. Why are people so obsessed with showing how evil he is? we already know that, there is pretty much nothing to expose left. It just takes away attention from stuff we don't knowm for certain yet, stuff that's detrimental to our own lives. Unless you live in Russia, stashing away rubels somewhere probably isn't going to effect you. Cutting on public spending because there wasn't enough tax revenue is (even if you don't notice it)
I think this is all to do for both economic and ideological reasons.

An enemy for NATO justification and arms sales on the economic side. Just read this piece by Evelyn Farkas (she's the former US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia). It's basically an advert for NATO expansion and shameless plug for the weapon manufacturers.

Ideologically, there is a lot of disdain for the Soviets among many of the neocons in the US (most notably Zbigniew Brzezinski and several others). It's official US policy to not allow another nation to grow powerful enough to challenge the US politically and/or militarily - which Russia has been doing - successfully. And Russia not following the rules in Ukraine and actively cockblocking US ambitions in Syria (along with other things like billion dollar energy deals in rubles/yuan - bypassing the dollar - and granting asylum to Snowden when any other country would've done what they were told and extradited him back to the US).

The West want Putin out. But the Russian people support him and all attempts to turn public opinion against him has been a failure. He kick out many NGOs, which would be used as launch pads for color revolutions. The least they can do is get all of us in the West to hate him, but it's so transparent that it's become quite comical at this point.
These people have all the money they could ever need. Why go to such elaborate steps just to avoid tax. They are never going to run out anyway. Sick sociopaths.

They are scumbags of the highest orders. And they have the gall to impose austerity and tax on normal people who can barley make ends meat.

Face it we live in a world where someone is "too big to go to jail".
Here's a video of Eric Holder basically saying just that - banks are too big to jail (beginning at 1:50). After the outcry from this statement, he did some damage control in this video.
 

The Boat

Member
This is from wiki leaks, but apparently it's the transcript from an FMI teleconference that shows they pretty much pretty much want countries like Greece to default in order to reap interest later.

https://wikileaks.org/imf-internal-20160319/transcript/IMF Anticipates Greek Disaster.pdf

Now, I'm in the midst of a tremendous migraine so I haven't read it all and I'm relying on interpretations from other people, which might be completely wrong, but I'm sure some would like to read it and chime in.
 

Walpurgis

Banned
I don't know man... the Gaurdian says a lot of information will be kept secret. Seventh paragraph down:

So what info will be published exactly? And what info will be kept private? This Craig Murray guys seems to have an idea (in his piece linked to and quoted earlier in the thread):


I hope he's wrong about this but I don't doubt this.
This makes me sick and furious. Since a single Canadian politician hasn't been caught, there is no doubt in my mind that they are holding back. I'm not an anarchist but I want to tear everything down right now. I hope all of this somehow gets out to expose the media and the tax thieves.
I already know that water is wet... can we please move on and find out if holy oil is wet too or just greasy? this Putin obsession is getting nonsensical. Why are people so obsessed with showing how evil he is? we already know that, there is pretty much nothing to expose left. It just takes away attention from stuff we don't knowm for certain yet, stuff that's detrimental to our own lives. Unless you live in Russia, stashing away rubels somewhere probably isn't going to effect you. Cutting on public spending because there wasn't enough tax revenue is (even if you don't notice it)
Agreed. It's way past old right now. I am at a point where that kind of propaganda has the opposite effect on me. I don't like being manipulated.
 
Just because hiding money in offshore tax havens and shell companies may technically be legal today doesn't mean it should have ever been legal in the first place; these laws should be overturned, and these people should be treated as the criminals they are. When you actively try to shelter trillions of dollars owed to the people of a country of which you are a citizen, a country whose infrastructure and labor pool enabled you to make the money in the first place, you deserve to rot in jail for a very, very long time.

For comparisons sake, a desperate poor person who robs a liquor store or fast food joint for a couple hundred bucks because they are trying to obtain the basic necessities of life required for survival many times will spend the rest of their life in prison.

Neither is right, but this shit with insanely rich capitalists exploiting billions of people needs to stop. Now.
 

chadskin

Member
Oops

“It’s clear that the level of Putinphobia has reached a level at which it is impossible a priori to speak well of Russia, and it’s required to speak ill of Russia,” [Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov] said. He also denied his wife had been the beneficial owner of a company registered in the British Virgin Islands.

Speaking in Moscow, Peskov insisted to reporters: “My wife does not and has never owned any offshore companies. Based on this I am inclined to doubt the authenticity of other claims.”

But the Guardian can reveal that Peskov’s wife, Tatiana Navka, a former Olympic ice skater, was the registered beneficial owner of a secret offshore firm. Documents from the Panama Papers show that Navka set up the company, Carina Global Assets Ltd, in 2014. She used agents in the Isle of Man who wrote in emails that the company was to be used for investments.
Last week Navka denied that she had an offshore company. She told reporters from the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project: “I’ve never had any offshore companies or accounts. I don’t know who could have done it. I would like myself to understand what happened.”

The leaked files, however, include a copy of Navka’s Russian passport. To register her company she also provided six months’ worth of utility bills, from April, August, September, October, November and December 2013, with her home address in Moscow. They are stamped by the “VIP private banking” department of the Bank of Moscow.
A British firm on the Isle of Man, Bridgewaters, administered Navka’s company. The Panama Papers reveal the firm has numerous wealthy Russian clients, including the Arsenal FC shareholder Alisher Usmanov.
http://www.theguardian.com/news/201...utin-dmitry-peskov-panama-papers-putinphobia?
 

Durante

Member
So once again we have proof that FIFA is basically one of the largest money laundering and tax evasion operations on the planet.

Call me cynical, but I predict that once again nothing fundamental will change and business will continue as usual.
 

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
This is from wiki leaks, but apparently it's the transcript from an FMI teleconference that shows they pretty much pretty much want countries like Greece to default in order to reap interest later.

https://wikileaks.org/imf-internal-20160319/transcript/IMF Anticipates Greek Disaster.pdf

Now, I'm in the midst of a tremendous migraine so I haven't read it all and I'm relying on interpretations from other people, but I'm sure some would like to read it and chime in.

No, it says they think only a crisis will make the Germans and Greece agree, but don't know what crisis could do it. Don't read Zerohedge and its likes.
 

Famassu

Member
This makes me sick and furious. Since a single Canadian politician hasn't been caught, there is no doubt in my mind that they are holding back. I'm not an anarchist but I want to tear everything down right now. I hope all of this somehow gets out to expose the media and the tax thieves.

Agreed. It's way past old right now. I am at a point where that kind of propaganda has the opposite effect on me. I don't like being manipulated.
They aren't giving out everything because not everything is something that people should know. Not everyone in these files is guilty of immoral, obscene tax evasion or criminal activities and someone said these files also include personal information (social security numbers & such), so just throwing everything out there without any kind of restraint isn't the right way to go through this thing. Besides, yesterday was day 1. We've still got weeks or even months to go before we've gotten most of the relevant information (let alone some smaller, interesting tidbits).
 

Famassu

Member
So no Western countries on the list or are the being hidden?
Pretty much every western country is in there (some with thousands of parties with offshore shenanigans going on, some with "only" hundreds) and many local authorities are already taking actions to go through these files to see if they can nail any people of tax fraud or other criminal activities. Again, yesterday's reveals were just day 1, they've got plans to reveal a lot more within the span of the coming weeks/months.
 
So once again we have proof that FIFA is basically one of the largest money laundering and tax evasion operations on the planet.

Call me cynical, but I predict that once again nothing fundamental will change and business will continue as usual.

Exactly. While these leaks are great, the criminals at the heart of them are shielded by among other things just the sheer volume of leaks.
 
What kind of excuse is that? "Yeah, we were doing illegal shit and helping people with tax evasion, but we totally stopped that years ago, so it's all OK." No, even if you stopped, you should be fined for that bullshit you did years ago. And nobody believes a bank stops illegal stuff until they are caught. And even after that they will try to continue, but hide it better.
They're not even really saying that they've stopped. They start by saying that they've stopped, continue with saying that it wasn't illegal anyway, and that for some customers it's still being used, but that they're not serving such customers. And anyway helping customers pay "the taxes they should pay" is not a crime!

Their customer service must have the worst job in the world right now, can't wait for their message to change as the situation gets worse. Must feel awful.
 

Minamu

Member
There are more than 200000 shell companies on the list, some are bound to be western :) Fake edit: You probably mean *west* west, like UK and US, yes?
 

Pedrito

Member
This makes me sick and furious. Since a single Canadian politician hasn't been caught, there is no doubt in my mind that they are holding back. I'm not an anarchist but I want to tear everything down right now. I hope all of this somehow gets out to expose the media and the tax thieves.

Agreed. It's way past old right now. I am at a point where that kind of propaganda has the opposite effect on me. I don't like being manipulated.

No canadian politician named = media are lying and/or supressing the story!

Yeah, totally logical except that:

1. The fiscal paradise of choice for canadians is Barbados, not Panama
2. In the grand scheme of things, canadian politicians are dirt poor compared to their colleagues from developping countries where in most cases, only the top of the elite reach the upper echelons of power. In Canada, you're better off staying in the private sector if you want to make bank.
3. Most politicians named so far are from some of the most corrupt countries in the world.

The whole media suppression storyline is amusing. Like it's one big monolithic bloc. Don't you think Fox News wouldn't be delighted to destroy a democrat politician involved in a tax avoidance scheme? Or MSNBC with a republican?

It's ironic that questioning the motives behind a news article of the lack of a news article is a tactic constantly used by russian state media. For example, in this case, they'll say that the whole thing is about discrediting Putin and Russia, ignoring the fact that 90% of the people named are not russian.
 

The Boat

Member
No, it says they think only a crisis will make the Germans and Greece agree, but don't know what crisis could do it. Don't read Zerohedge and its likes.
That's why I posted it here, since I'm not very functional right now, I didn't want to jump to conclusions ;)
 

curls

Wake up Sheeple, your boring insistence that Obama is not a lizardman from Atlantis is wearing on my patience 💤
This makes me sick and furious. Since a single Canadian politician hasn't been caught, there is no doubt in my mind that they are holding back. I'm not an anarchist but I want to tear everything down right now. I hope all of this somehow gets out to expose the media and the tax thieves.

Agreed. It's way past old right now. I am at a point where that kind of propaganda has the opposite effect on me. I don't like being manipulated.

A lot of Guardian journalists have been threatened after the Snowden affair. The public should know this.

You think that they are going to incriminate a lot of western politicians / powerful people without grave consequences this time around?

Im not surprised at specific nations being targeted with a drip release of info. The Guardian is covering their backs big time. Iceland corruption is a non issue as that country post 2008 does not toe the western line anymore (kicking the bankers out).

Get it all out. I would love to be totally wrong btw!

Apparently it's coming in the next few days in a big, big way. 13 more days of leaks.

Fingers crossed. x
 

Jezbollah

Member
Apparently it's coming in the next few days in a big, big way. 13 more days of leaks.

I think I saw in a tweet or two that the reason nothing to do with the States had been announced was due to some legal issue - but I would expect it to come.

13 days of more leaks. Amazing.
 

Famassu

Member
So the U.S. isn't involved in this in any capacity?

That's... genuinely surprising. In a good way, of course.
Umm.. the company which this leak originated from is a US one, isn't it? So they are VERY MUCH a part of this. There's even a diagram that shows how many people are involved in these things per nation and US is close to the top with how much shit is being done.
 

Walpurgis

Banned
The whole media suppression storyline is amusing. Like it's one big monolithic bloc. Don't you think Fox News wouldn't be delighted to destroy a democrat politician involved in a tax avoidance scheme? Or MSNBC with a republican?

It's ironic that questioning the motives behind a news article of the lack of a news article is a tactic constantly used by russian state media. For example, in this case, they'll say that the whole thing is about discrediting Putin and Russia, ignoring the fact that 90% of the people named are not russian.
Is there a list of the media outlets that have been given access?
Can you imagine a twist where Bernie has an offshore account?

hooboy, what a mess that would be.
Shama lama ding dong.
 
Argentina, México, Spain, Bolivia.... those are what exactly?
I would only consider Spain to be "Western" on that list.
Umm.. the company which this leak originated from is a US one, isn't it? So they are VERY MUCH a part of this. There's even a diagram that shows how many people are involved in these things per nation and US is close to the top with how much shit is being done.
Right, but will we get articles about it? Time will tell. But I anticipate the juicy bits will remain private. I hope I'm wrong.
 
Wow just read a little more on Mexico and Jesus Christ the corruption is beyond absurd, governors, the president's friends, the CEO of the two (and only) media outlets and mind you all right wing people. And the all of their collective response has been to attack the leader of the left opposition AMLO with hit pieces like comparing him to Trump (when the guys is Mexican Bernie) its both hilarious and sad.
 

chadskin

Member
Right, but will we get articles about it? Time will tell. But I anticipate the juicy bits will remain private. I hope I'm wrong.

You are but it doesn't really matter because the conspiracy theory train will then just move on to question if the leaker released all the "juicy bits" to the journalists in the first place, followed by a "thorough" RT investigation "outing" the leaker as former CIA/Mossad/MI6/Rothschild/Bilderberg/FED, followed by even more nonsensical claims and theories that ultimately take away the anger that should be directed at those named in the leak, not the journalists who broke this story and/or the source.
 

Platy

Member
So the U.S. isn't involved in this in any capacity?

That's... genuinely surprising. In a good way, of course.

From what I saw Brazil only has like 3 politicians there ... and those are the "ORLY ?" politicians so ... not being there does not mean your country is free of corruption
 

Kinokou

Member
So no Western countries on the list or are the being hidden?

Norway

Apparently none of the politicians in Norway were part of this, but the biggest bank DnB handled many of the transactions from other other country's politicians.

Nothing is gonna happen which is frustrating.

Then the 200 Norwegians are just regular rich joes? Norway wants that money home enough not to punish them if they move them back it seems. Though I will admit my reading up on this subject isn't quite on fleek.
 

diablos991

Can’t stump the diablos
Most US would use Cayman Islands and other places and Trump is so vain and weird about his visible money he's probably too dumb to hide a lot of it.

So it's only the smart rich people who use tax havens?
No room for the ethical rich person?
 

norinrad

Member
I'm really enjoying this. Absolutely nothing will happen in the end, in a months time we would have moved on to something else or some sex tape news. heh humanity lol
 

AndyD

aka andydumi
but I was convinced the lame stream media was not going to cover it!!!

They are mostly articles about Argentica, Putin and FIFA and such. But it seems it's a graduated rollout, so we'll see if there will be Western politicians/companies under scrutiny. This caveat at the bottom is pretty clear they have no access to the papers "CNN is unable to independently verify the reports"
 

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
So it's only the smart rich people who use tax havens?
No room for the ethical rich person?

A truly ethical rich person wouldn't use tax havens. So it's moot. Don't get me wrong, if I could legally use a tax shelter "product" and I was mega rich, I'm sure it would be tempting. But I'm "lucky" enough to know that if I were that rich, I'd be satisfied with the legal and ethical onshore options available to me.
 

FlyinJ

Douchebag. Yes, me.
CNN finally has this as their headline. But, of course, the byline is:

Law firm tied to massive document leak denies wrongdoing

Yeah, like that's what anyone gives a fuck about.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom