A more extensive article on the Panama papers featured on an SLL post yesterday, “Panama Papers: Mossack Fonseca leak reveals elite’s tax haven.” From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:
An unprecedented leak of more than 11 million documents, called the “Panama Papers”, has revealed the hidden financial dealings of some of the world’s wealthiest people, as well as 12 current and former world leaders and 128 more politicians and public officials around the world.
More than 200,000 companies, foundations and trusts are contained in the leak of information which came from a little-known but powerful law firm based in Panama called Mossack Fonseca, whose files include the offshore holdings of drug dealers, Mafia members, corrupt politicians and tax evaders – and wrongdoing galore.
The law firm is one of the world’s top creators of shell companies, which can be legally used to hide the ownership of assets. The data includes emails, contracts, bank records, property deeds, passport copies and other sensitive information dating from 1977 to as recently as December 2015.
It allows a never-before-seen view inside the offshore world — providing a day-to-day, decade-by-decade look at how dark money flows through the global financial system, breeding crime and stripping national treasuries of tax revenues.
Here is the brief summary of how these documents have been revealed, via the Sueddeutsche Zeitung:
Over a year ago, an anonymous source contacted the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) and submitted encrypted internal documents from Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian law firm that sells anonymous offshore companies around the world. These shell firms enable their owners to cover up their business dealings, no matter how shady.
In the months that followed, the number of documents continued to grow far beyond the original leak. Ultimately, SZ acquired about 2.6 terabytes of data, making the leak the biggest that journalists had ever worked with. The source wanted neither financial compensation nor anything else in return, apart from a few security measures.
The data provides rare insights into a world that can only exist in the shadows. It proves how a global industry led by major banks, legal firms, and asset management companies secretly manages the estates of the world’s rich and famous: from politicians, Fifa officials, fraudsters and drug smugglers, to celebrities and professional athletes.
A quick snapshot of the scale of the leak in context:
To continue reading: “Unprecedented Leak” Exposes The Criminal Financial Dealings Of Some Of The World’s Wealthiest People
I smell a rat – or two……..
The “effect” of the release of this data, being selectively turned into public information, is the important fact upon which to keep your eye. It will result in further “justification” for the elimination of cash.
The average American, fed up with the status quo as he pulls the lever for either Trump or Sanders, will correctly (but already mis-informed on the issue of privacy) will only see this entire situation as but a part of the corruption with which “normal” politicians and corporate cronies engage.
Should Trump or Bernie announce they support the idea of eliminating cash as a means to end this disgusting evasion of public scrutiny, then ALL of the candidates will climb aboard.
Regardless of who ultimately wins, we will have further established in the minds of the public, the nefarious practices the use of cash allows, further assuring the political support of its attempted elimination.
Dave
Let no good “disclosure” go to waste, right?