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Panama Papers Affair Widens As Database Goes Online (bbc.com)
In late April, it was reported there would be a huge new 'Panama Papers' data dump on May 9th. The report did not disappoint as today the Panama Papers affair has widened, with a huge database of documents relating to more than 200,000 offshore accounts posted online. The database can be accessed at offshoreleaks.icij.org. The papers were leaked by a source known as "Jony Doe," and the papers belonged to the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) decided to make the database public despite a "cease and desist" order issued by the law firm.
Not really. The point of having an "offshore account" is to keep money somewhere financially better than one's own country, primarily to avoid taxes.
Quite right, but they are also used as safe havens for folks with more than one pile of money needing a stash haven.
Let's say you are Head of State (or even a VIP) in a nation where it's possible you'll be deposed one day. Keeping all your wealth in a domestic account, or in accounts abroad that can be frozen, doesn't seem like the safest plan for your retirement. Welcome to the allegedly secret, offshore banking industry!
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
There is no such thing as a cease and desist order, except when it comes from a competent court of appropriate jurisdiction. A C&D letter from a law firm is nothing more than a formal request to stop doing something -- granted, a sharply worded, hostile, threatening request, but a request nonetheless.
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
Which explains why the leaders of China and Russia, while apparently all but destitute, appear to have many wealthy relatives. It's pretty clear that a number of even larger nations are using offshore havens to squirrel away significant amounts of money.
Of course, there is more than one kind of haven as well. Vancouver and London are cities that are becoming notorious for the number of people from Russia and China buying up real estate. The amount of real estate being bought up in Vancouver by Chinese nationals, many of which who do not even live here, is becoming a significant political issue. London, of course, is home to many properties owned by Russian oligarchs, again looking for a way of protecting their wealth. The amount of financial activity going on with these property schemes is actually distorting real estate prices in these two markets.
A lot of this is happening now, I think, because the more traditional place for oligarchs, criminals and the more generically wealthy to hide their cash (ill gotten or otherwise), Switzerland, was forced, largely by the US, to end the practice of secret bank accounts. When that happened, it forced many people to look elsewhere, and that is how these other somewhat lesser known tax shelters have become so popular.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
In the US, this only applies to evidence illegally obtained by law enforcement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Relevant quote: "Evidence unlawfully obtained from the defendant by a private person is admissible. The exclusionary rule is designed to protect privacy rights, with the Fourth Amendment applying specifically to government officials"
Companies employ people when the employees add value and contribute to profit. They don't employ people because they can afford the spend the money.
True, but it is also becoming more and more popular for companies in the US to tell their employees that the company simply cannot afford to give them a cost-of-living raise, even though the company is raking in record profits. Especially if those profits are hidden in "secret" off-shore tax dodge accounts. This is one reason why the gap between the highest and lowest paid people in a corporation is widening every year. Company boards of directors routinely vote themselves big fat pay raises for themselves and the shareholders, but won't pay their workers much of anything. You know, those same workers that are doing the work producing all those corporate profits.