The Panama Papers are 11.5 million leaked documents that detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. The documents, some dating back to the 1970s,were created by, and taken from, Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca.
e journalists on the investigative team found business transactions by many important figures in world politics, sports and art. While many of the transactions were legal, since the data is incomplete, questions remain in many other cases; still others seem to clearly indicate ethical if not legal impropriety. Some disclosures – tax avoidance in very poor countries by very wealthy entities and individuals for example – lead to questions on moral grounds.
Other offshore shell company transactions described in the documents do seem to have broken exchange laws, violated trade sanctions or stemmed from political corruption, according to ICIJ reporters. ndividuals and entities may open offshore accounts for any number of reasons, some of which are legal but ethically questionable.
The documents contain personal financial information about wealthy individuals and public officials that had previously been kept private. While offshore business entities are legal (see Offshore Magic Circle), reporters found that some of the Mossack Fonseca shell corporations were used for illegal purposes, including fraud, tax evasion, and evading international sanctions.
The Panama Papers, the giant leak of documents, exposes offshore holdings of about 150 kings, crown princes, presidents, prime ministers, politicians, public officials, industrialists, bureaucrats, arms dealers, ganglords, businessmen, tea traders, jute giants, celebrities, film stars and players – all are players in the infamous world of property.
The leak, a collective investigation by hundreds of journalists, specifically the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), of more than 11 million records of about half-a-century, reveals the extent of big property holders’ use of shell companies to conceal their amassed wealth, launder money considered illegal even in the eyes of the laws their political arrangements enact, and their evasion of taxes with the help of “more than 214,000 offshore entities connected to people in more than 200 countries and territories”.
The Panama tax haven leaks reveal a lot about the lawlessness of the rich, as well as the ideological bias of the western press. “Vladimir Putin’s name appears nowhere, but the corporate media used his image repeatedly to drum up interest in what is an otherwise newsworthy story.” Americans are conspicuous by their absence from the story. That’s because rich people in the U.S. can avoid taxes “legally in Wyoming, Delaware or Nevada.”
2016-04-16 Freedom Rider: The Panama Papers Problem
2016-04-03 Panama Papers: Denials Expose More Than the Original Exposé
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