Panama Papers Source Breaks Silence Over 'Scale Of Injustices' (theguardian.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The whistleblower behind the Panama Papers broke their silence on Friday to explain in detail how the injustices of offshore tax havens drove them to the biggest data leak in history. The source, whose identity and gender remain a secret, denied being a spy. The whistleblower said the leak of 11.5m documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca had triggered a "new, encouraging global debate," thanks to the publication last month of stories by an international consortium of newspapers, including the Guardian. The source gave Suddeutsche Zeitung leaked documents from Mossack Fonseca's internal database in real time installments. The papers included details of the beneficial owners of offshore companies, passport copies, and emails. The source said they decided to act after understanding the "scale of the injustices" the documents described. Mossack Fonseca denies wrongdoing and says its operations in Panama and elsewhere are "beyond reproach." Intriguingly, the source said they originally offered the documents to "several major media outlets." Editors reviewed the Panama Papers but in the end "chose not to cover them," they alleged. It is unclear which media organizations declined the material. The anonymous whistleblower also approached WikiLeaks -- again without success. "Even WikiLeaks didn't answer its tip line repeatedly," the source complained, adding: "The media has failed." The source used the name "John Doe" when they approached Germany's Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

Comments

Pirate party

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's follow the example of the Icelanders, who jailed their corrupt bankers, and who come next election will vote in the Pirate Party. They promote transparancy and government accountability. You can't be corrupt if everything you do is public. Moreover, the big governments tell us, if we don't have anything to hide, we should give up our privacy but how about we turn that argument right around onto them?

Re:Pirate party

[ShanghaiBill]

You can't be corrupt if everything you do is public.

One of the reasons that few Americans were on the Panama Papers list, was because super PACs and the revolving door patronage system make it easy for American politicians to get rich legally, and our regressive taxes make it easy for them to keep it. Transparency helps, but it is obviously not a panacea.

Re:Crusader for taxes?

[tsotha]

The story here isn't that some people haven't paid taxes. We don't know, after all - just because you have money in a foreign bank account doesn't mean you haven't paid your taxes. The real story is how some of these people managed to accumulate such large sums of money on a relatively small official salary.

Re:Why so many media didn't publish this?

[JaredOfEuropa]

Also note that there isn't actually any evidence that any crimes were committed by anyone mentioned in any of the documents in question.

Like hell there isn't. The documents themselves do not mention crimes but they certainly are proof of crime. There is no law against setting up anonymous corporations and sticking your money in there, but you still have to declare that money to internal revenue. Hiding your money by using this construction is tax evasion, not avoidance.

The wealthy benefit heavily from my taxes

[rsilvergun]

I pay about 27% Fed & State alone (single male, no house, decent income). Meanwhile they get subsidies, bail outs and a military that protects their overseas factories and investments.

Here in the States our infrastructure is crumbling. Flint, Mi just poisoned their entire city to save a buck on their Water bill. There've been several bridge collapses and we've got dams all over the place in danger. Our roads are clogged with cars because there aren't enough roads. It's a mess, and the rich just fly jets & helicopters over it or drive in their limos. Meanwhile I pay for the airports their private jets use.

So yeah, screw that noise. They're benefiting from civilization they should bloody well chip in. They're not doing that. I say bully for this guy.

Re:The trouble is jobs

[PopeRatzo]

I miss clean air.

Man, don't even talk about clean air. I'm in New England now and my math professor wife just got a job offer at Rice University in Houston. It's a good position and a great opportunity for her, but I dread going to Huston because it's one of the smoggiest cities in the US and hot as hell on top of that.

Plus, they have Zika mosquitoes, so I'll just end up going down there and dying from some weird tropical disease.

On the plus side, I'll finally be able to wear my Nudie suit on the street.

http://cf.collectorsweekly.com...