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 companies 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. (read more)
8 comments:
A niche industry.
Mossack Fonseca: for when you're not ballsy enough to hide the spoils of your graft in plain sight, say with a "global foundation" like the Clintons.
The Clinton Foundation is worse, is also a favor buying scheme.
Panama Papers video
I love that photo of bags to start the video.
Cool Hawaiian shirt.
"Generally speaking, owning an offshore company is not illegal in itself. In fact, establishing an offshore company can be seen as a logical step for a broad range of business transactions."
It looks like they didn't find as much evidence of criminal activity as they had hoped so they went with guilt by association and spooky music.
It sounds like the tax rates are too high.
There's not a lot of American participation revealed in the leak. Why would that be? Well, that would be because the US taxes the offshore income of its citizens and few if any other countries do so. This minimizes the advantages of the foreign, tax sheltering "shell" companies, unless you are a crook of course.
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