Surely there will be much criminal or unethical activity brought to light. Distinguishing between what is illegal and what is encroaching on tax evasion but is really just legitimate avoidance will be too difficult a concept for most to grasp.
If you havent been following, a few terabytes of documents was leaked from a Panamanian law firm that identifies over 200,000 legal structures (holdcos or similar vehicles) and names names of people who own or are the officers of those companies as well as showing several billions of dollars of payments or transfers while also naming names of the sending and receiving entities.
This includes transfers to North Korea or other sanctioned nations. Imagine being someone who can now be proven to have funded nations contrary to UN or US sanctions or showing a definitive trail of funding terrorism?
Iceland’s PM resigned over the leak already.
He transferred $4M in bank stock from his name into his wife’s name for $1 on the deadline before having to disclose his asset portfolio as a part of the vetting for public office. It is a legal transaction but not something that is politically desirable
Putin seems to be over-hyped here since no one is saying he was explicitly involved. Rather, people who are known associates of his are heavily features and people are suggesting the movement of money benefits Putin directly or indirectly.
as with commenting or engaging in conversation on the Trump campaign i’m finding the hardest thing to do is to be really articulate about this stuff.
The firm who was hacked here did a good job in their official release though:
Statement Regarding Recent Media Coverage
Recent media reports have portrayed an inaccurate view of the services that we provide and, despite our efforts to correct the record, misrepresented the nature of our work and its role in global financial markets.
These reports rely on supposition and stereotypes, and play on the public’s lack of familiarity with the work of firms like ours.
Read our complete Statement Regarding Recent Media Coverage#PanamaPapers#MossackFonseca http://www.mossfon.com/media/
This is such a good read and whoever put it into words deserves the fistiest of fist-bumps:
So What Do We Actually Do?Mossack Fonseca helps companies incorporate and provides registered agent services for our clients (e.g., lawyers, banks, and trusts). The registered agent function is a well-established service offering in our industry, and exists in jurisdictions around the world – including the United States and United Kingdom.
Under Panamanian law, newly formed corporations must have a resident agent, and that agent must be a lawyer or law firm that’s based in Panama. The role of the resident agent is limited to the preparation and filing of documents to be recorded at the Public Registry. The resident agent is not involved in managing the business in any way.
Our business is regulated by several different oversight and enforcement agencies, including the Banking Superintendence of Panama and the Intendency of Non-financial Regulated Services Providers. In addition, we have always complied with international protocols such as the Financial Action Task Force and the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).
Under Panamanian law, lawyers have the responsibility to identify their customers and report unlawful activity to the relevant authorities. The resident agent is obligated to work with these authorities in cases in which individuals are linked to an entity under investigation.
CBC is doing a lot of reporting on the Paradise Papers… a leak on par with the Panama Papers and hitting a lot of world leaders… particularly Canada. this leak is through Appleby in Bermuda.
I call it ‘biased crock of shit opinion article masquerading as fact.’ Interesting. In the financial post nonetheless, definitely an unbiased audience. The more I work with the big banks the more I see that everything you hear is true, and there’s a lot more behind it that you haven’t. Just one more in a slew of shady Russian connections from this mess of a US administration and this author decides not to point out the newest revelations such as the Secretary of Commerce lying under oath about his ties to Russia, a federal crime worthy of impeachment, but to slam Trudeau, an actual legitimate leader. Go figure.
At what point will your personal morality force you to stop working with the big, bad, evil banks? Or do you like money too much?
… slew of shady Russian connections from this mess of a US administration … Secretary of Commerce lying under oath about his ties to Russia, a federal crime worthy of impeachment…
lol, impeachment. He never failed to disclose his investments:
Ross has kept investments in Navigator Holdings, a shipping firm which has supplied services to Sibur. Stakeholders in Sibur include an associate of Russian Vladimir Putin who is subject to U.S. sanctions.
Shit man if you can claim that this many degrees of separation is “ties” to Russia I’m sure I probably have ties to Russia too. You better check your investments to see if you have any ties to Russia… or worse, what if you have ties to Trump!!! Maybe you have shares in a company that does business with The Trump Organization! Wouldn’t that be somethin’.
i like the fact that the article takes the opposite position of most media about this that everyone involved is a tax cheat.
these are all legal structures and the money moved in to them may very well be after-tax dollars.
if i held an off-shore investment that formed a small fraction of my network and another shareholder was a putin associate close enough to be sanctioned i would be concerned, but whether or not it is an actionable connection would depend on much more information than what you have to go on thus far.
how many shareholders there are, who had the opportunity to become a shareholder and who he was at the time of setting up the company. it implies something worth looking at but in absolutely no way is it something to be as upset about as you appear to be without much more information.
Ross was a shareholder in a shipping company, Navigator. That shipping company (Navigator) had business with another company, Sibur. Sibur had a sanctioned shareholder.
Ross did NOT have shares in the same company as the sanctioned person.
I appreciate how much detail you guys get into when trying to disassociate people you like from ill intent. But when someone tells you Hillary flew to Russia with Uranium in her backpack and sold it to Putin himself, that’s believable. :lol:
I don’t see a valid connection with this either. My main concern is that the people who actually are identified are somehow held accountable.
I think you’re thinking I’m Sean Hannity again, lol. That story is definitely another loose connection ruse, but illustrates how media can be selective in what they consider a “conspiracy”.
… My main concern is that the people who actually are identified are somehow held accountable.
Won’t happen. Nothing done was illegal, and even if laws are changed there will always be new ways to minimize tax exposure.
dude i dont care about Ross. i thought he was partnered in with a sanctioned russian dude based on the headlines… my only fault here is not reading more thoroughly.
