Panama Papers

 Panama Papers(leak,  Modified Limited Hangout?)

Date	April 2016
Exposed by	Daphne Caruana Galizia
Interest of	Daphne Caruana Galizia
Description	A huge (2.6TB) cache of confidential documents created by the Panamanian corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca that provide detailed information on more than 214,000 offshore companies, including the identities of shareholders and directors. Those identified include numerous wealthy and powerful political figures and organisations of many countries.

2016 US Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders opposed the 2011 Panama Free Trade Agreement claiming he was worried it would increasingly allow wealthy Americans and large corporations to evade US taxes by stashing their cash in offshore tax havens.

Now with the release of the Panama Papers it appears he was right. They show that over 214,000 offshore companies are using Panama to evade taxes. That is unacceptable, and that has got to change.

History

More than a year before the Panama leaks in 2016, the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung received documents related to Mossack Fonseca from an anonymous source.

Responses

In a striking illustration of the maxim that the initial response to any event fixes the main outlines of the Official Narrative in the public mind, western media, almost wthout exception, majored on the names of Vladimir Putin (though struggling a bit because only "his cronies" were immediately implicated), Syria's Bashar al Assad, Iceland Premier Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson and Chinese prime minister Xi Jinping. The Sydney Morning Herald coverage was typical .

Professor Tatiana Yugay: "It’s clear that the Panama Leaks are part of the West’s hybrid war against Russia"

Policy makers including German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen said the leak will strengthen the resolve of governments to combat tax avoidance and evasion. In a statement reminiscent of Benjamin Netanyahu's notorious remarks in the immediate aftermath of 9-11, Wolfgang Schaeuble said: “Even though it’s not surprising, it helps us. It increases the pressure to halt abuse.”

Noting that the papers were in the hands of commercially-controlled media funded by big money, Craig Murray cautioned "Do not expect a genuine expose of western capitalism. The dirty secrets of western corporations will remain unpublished."

Edward Snowden described the leak as the "biggest leak in the history of data journalism".

The Chinese Global Times observed that "...a powerful force is behind the Panama Papers"

Dr Tatiana Yugay, a Russian professor and former advisor to the Presidential Administration and Security Council, concluded "It’s clear that the Panama Leaks are part of the West’s hybrid war against Russia. During the last two years, Russians have survived the devaluation of the rouble, a fall in oil prices, inflation, mutual sanctions and so on. We’re not likely to go to the barricades over Western gossip."

Secrets of the Super Rich

On 4 April 2016, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Four Corners broadcast "The Panama Papers: Secrets of the Super Rich" which Craig Murray praised for having "named and shamed Australia’s biggest company and Australia’s biggest foreign investor. BBC Panorama by contrast found a guy who sold one house in Islington. The Australians also, unlike the BBC who deliberately and knowing hid it, pointed out that the corruption centred on the British Virgin Islands, and even went there. All in all an excellent job."

 

A Panama Papers victim on Wikispooks

Title	Description
Louise Blouin	Canadian magazine editor. WEF/Global Leaders for Tomorrow 1993

 

Related Quotation

Page	Quote	Date
Australian Broadcasting Corporation	“The Australian Broadcasting Corporation shamed the BBC by putting out a Four Corners documentary on the Panama leak that had real balls. In stark contrast to the BBC, the Australians named and shamed Australia’s biggest company and Australia’s biggest foreign investor. BBC Panorama by contrast found a guy who sold one house in Islington. The Australians also, unlike the BBC who deliberately and knowing hid it, pointed out that the corruption centred on the British Virgin Islands, and even went there. All in all an excellent job.”	April 2016

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Appleby launches legal action against ICIJ’s UK partners	Article	18 December 2017	Gerard Ryle	"This is a potentially dangerous moment for free expression in Britain" – Gerard Ryle
Document:Jeremy Corbyn's speech to the United Nations in full	Speech	8 December 2017	Jeremy Corbyn	Jeremy Corbyn at the United Nations in Geneva upstages Theresa May at the European Union in Brussels
Document:Was EU Tax Evasion Regulation The Reason For The Brexit Referendum	Blog post	26 September 2017	Josh Hamilton	The EU's new anti-abuse measures coming into force in 2019 would tighten up restrictions on UK-based intermediaries that take part in off-shoring and tax avoidance, of which Britain is a global leader
File:THE PRICE OF OFFSHORE REVISITED.pdf	paper	July 2012	James S. Henry	Study on the "offshore" private banking market.

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References

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