The Panama Papers.

[privateinvestors]

www.theguardian.com/news/live/2016/apr/04/panama-papers-global-reaction-to-huge-leak-of-offshore-tax-files-live

[Old Chap]

panamapapers.icij.org/20160403-panama-papers-global-overview.html

[Old Chap]

Just out of fair play...


Corporate Media Gatekeepers Protect Western 1% From Panama Leak 213
3 Apr, 2016 in Uncategorized by craig

www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/04/corporate-media-gatekeepers-protect-western-1-from-panama-leak/

Whoever leaked the Mossack Fonseca papers appears motivated by a genuine desire to expose the system that enables the ultra wealthy to hide their massive stashes, often corruptly obtained and all involved in tax avoidance. These Panamanian lawyers hide the wealth of a significant proportion of the 1%, and the massive leak of their documents ought to be a wonderful thing.

Unfortunately the leaker has made the dreadful mistake of turning to the western corporate media to publicise the results. In consequence the first major story, published today by the Guardian, is all about Vladimir Putin and a cellist on the fiddle. As it happens I believe the story and have no doubt Putin is bent.

But why focus on Russia? Russian wealth is only a tiny minority of the money hidden away with the aid of Mossack Fonseca. In fact, it soon becomes obvious that the selective reporting is going to stink.

The Suddeutsche Zeitung, which received the leak, gives a detailed explanation of the methodology the corporate media used to search the files. The main search they have done is for names associated with breaking UN sanctions regimes. The Guardian reports this too and helpfully lists those countries as Zimbabwe, North Korea, Russia and Syria. The filtering of this Mossack Fonseca information by the corporate media follows a direct western governmental agenda. There is no mention at all of use of Mossack Fonseca by massive western corporations or western billionaires – the main customers. And the Guardian is quick to reassure that “much of the leaked material will remain private.”

What do you expect? The leak is being managed by the grandly but laughably named “International Consortium of Investigative Journalists”, which is funded and organised entirely by the USA’s Center for Public Integrity. Their funders include

Ford Foundation
Carnegie Endowment
Rockefeller Family Fund
W K Kellogg Foundation
Open Society Foundation (Soros)

among many others. Do not expect a genuine expose of western capitalism. The dirty secrets of western corporations will remain unpublished.

Expect hits at Russia, Iran and Syria and some tiny “balancing” western country like Iceland. A superannuated UK peer or two will be sacrificed – someone already with dementia.

The corporate media – the Guardian and BBC in the UK – have exclusive access to the database which you and I cannot see. They are protecting themselves from even seeing western corporations’ sensitive information by only looking at those documents which are brought up by specific searches such as UN sanctions busters. Never forget the Guardian smashed its copies of the Snowden files on the instruction of MI6.

What if they did Mossack Fonseca database searches on the owners of all the corporate media and their companies, and all the editors and senior corporate media journalists? What if they did Mossack Fonseca searches on all the most senior people at the BBC? What if they did Mossack Fonseca searches on every donor to the Center for Public Integrity and their companies?

What if they did Mossack Fonseca searches on every listed company in the western stock exchanges, and on every western millionaire they could trace?

That would be much more interesting. I know Russia and China are corrupt, you don’t have to tell me that. What if you look at things that we might, here in the west, be able to rise up and do something about?

And what if you corporate lapdogs let the people see the actual data?

UPDATE

Hundreds of thousands of people have read this post in the 11 hours since it was published – despite it being overnight here in the UK. There are 235,918 “impressions” on twitter (as twitter calls them) and over 3,700 people have “shared” so far on Facebook, bringing scores of new readers each.

I would remind you that this blog is produced free for the public good and you are welcome to republish or re-use this article or any other material freely anywhere without requesting further permission.

[privateinvestors]

In what has been described as the largest data leak in history, over 11M confidential files leaked to Germany's Suddeutsche Zeitung have revealed how the world's rich and powerful hide their wealth through tax havens. The trove includes offshore shell companies linked to 12 current and former world leaders, as well as hidden financial dealings by more than 128 politicians and public officials. The so-called "Panama Papers," came from local law firm Mossack Fonseca, and cover a period of almost 40 years, from 1977 until as recently as last December.

[Old Chap]

Since ABC….XYZ agencies are behind the Panama leak through the help of hundreds of companies and journalists, chances are the leak has a highly political intent and certain names won’t be released. As someone noticed, if this is an orchestrated attack i.e. on the Russians and their associates, there will be only some small US and German fish thrown in just to "keep it real". We’ll see in May when more names are poised to be published!

No US Names in Panama Papers Leak- Why Not?
By: EoinH April 3, 2016
eoinhiggins.com/no-us-names-in-panama-papers-leak-why-not/

The Panama Papers leak is still in its infancy, but one thing is clear: the largest data leak in the history of investigative journalism promises to have repercussions for the rich and powerful around the world. Already, leaders in Iceland and Russia are facing questions about their use of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca to squirrel their money away in offshore dummy corporations. And there is more information coming. But one country has been absent from the discussion: the United States of America. No American politicians have been named (yet) in the leak. Is this because, to paraphrase media critic Adam Johnson, American politicians are “pure and good and incorruptible?”

Unlikely. What’s more probable is that US- Panamanian relations over the 39 years that MF has existed have contributed to a culture where Americans do not feel comfortable storing their ill-gotten gains in the Central American country. Mossack Fonseca was formed in 1977 by Jurgen Mossack and Ramon Fonseca. The two Panamanians formed the company as a provider of shell corporations to the rich and powerful around the world.

1977 was also the year that the US and Panama signed the Torrijos–Carter Treaties, which provided for the transfer of the Panama Canal from US sovereignty to Panamanian. The treaty was decried in some right wing circles of the US as an abdication of US territory and the treaty’s actual purpose was murky at best. In other words, 1977 was not the peak of good US-Panamanian relations. It is doubtful that anyone wanting to shield their finances from the IRS would have chosen a country under intense scrutiny from elements within the US government.

Further, Panama’s leadership from 1977 until 1989 was dominated by a military dictatorship. In 1989, the US invaded Panama to depose former CIA asset Manuel Noriega, who had ceased to be useful for his patrons in Washington. Storing cash, data, and legal information in a country that could easily become the target of a US intervention was not a prudent move. Making matters worse for Americans wanting to store their ill-gotten gains offshore, the 2010 United States—Panama Trade Promotion Agreement included a taxation clause that effectively shut down any chance of the rich in the US using Panama as a shelter. The Tax Information Exchange Agreement includes a clause, Article 5, that specifies the terms of information sharing between the two countries on tax related matters:

The competent authority of the requested Party shall provide upon request by the competent authority of the requesting Party information for the purposes referred to in Article 1 of this Agreement. Such information shall be exchanged without regard to whether the requested Party needs such information for its own tax purposes or the conduct being investigated would constitute a crime under the laws of the requested Party if it had occurred in the territory of the requested Party. The Article goes on to make clear that Mossack Fonseca’s type of services would particularly be included in the information request:

Each Party shall ensure that it has the authority, for the purposes referred to in
Article 1 of this Agreement and subject to Article 2 of this Agreement, to obtain and provide, through its competent authority and upon request:

(a) information held by banks, other financial institutions, and any person, including nominees and trustees, acting in an agency or fiduciary capacity; and
(b) information regarding the ownership of companies, partnerships, trusts, foundations, and other persons, including…. ownership information on all such persons in an ownership chain; in the case of trusts, information on settlors, trustees and beneficiaries; and in the case of foundations, information on founders, members of the foundation council and beneficiaries.

If Panama had ever been an attractive destination for American offshore storage of funds, this agreement shut the door on that possibility. It’s quite possible that as the leak unfolds, American names will be uncovered in the files of Mossack Fonseca. It’s equally possible that Americans are using one or more of the other three top firms involved in this kind of work. If Americans are not named or implicated in this leak, it will have more to do with the uniqueness of the US- Panamanian relationship and less to do with the morality- real or perceived- of the US and its power brokers.
I’ve reached out to a Latin American expert in Argentina and will update this post when he replies.
This post will also update as the story unfolds.

The following anonymous comment seems to be more of an excuse than a reality. I have a hard time to think some of the US elite to be sentimental to the point of avoiding Panama because of past disagreement...

World's Favorite Tax Haven is now the United States

Nevada, Wyoming, and South Dakota are the new Switzerland and Cayman Islands. That is why there aren't any Americans on the list. There are newer strict penalties for Americans caught using unreported offshore accounts to hide money from the tax man. It is simply easier and safer for them to use one of these states. Maybe soon some of the wealthy tax dodgers with accounts in these states will be leaked too. This is probably where the Americans and even more international elites are hiding their wealth from the tax man. Still, the U.S. is one of the few places left where advisers are actively promoting accounts that will remain secret from overseas authorities.

The U.S. was determined to put an end to such practices. That led to a 2010 law, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or Fatca, that requires financial firms to disclose foreign accounts held by U.S. citizens and report them to the IRS or face steep penalties. Inspired by Fatca, the OECD drew up even stiffer standards to help other countries ferret out tax dodgers. Since 2014, 97 jurisdictions have agreed to impose new disclosure requirements for bank accounts, trusts, and some other investments held by international customers. Of the nations the OECD asked to sign on, only a handful have declined: Bahrain, Nauru, Vanuatu—and the United States. I'm sure it would be good for business and negotiation tactics if the world's wealth was stored right here in the United States. Potential civil asset forfeiture taken to the extreme. There is still a lot to be digested with the leak.

[Old Chap]

Some 600 Israeli companies and 850 Israeli shareholders are listed in the 11.5 million documents leaked from a Panamanian law firm detailing offshore dealings.
www.timesofisrael.com/600-israeli-companies-850-shareholders-listed-in-panama-data-leak/

The trove was published Sunday after a year-long investigation into the material. According to the probe by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) with the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and other media, including Haaretz, the leaked data from Mossack Fonseca, from 1975 to the end of last year, provides what the ICIJ described as a “never-before-seen view inside the offshore world.” The documents, from 214,000 entities, detail the offshore holdings of a dozen current and former world leaders, as well as businessmen, criminals, celebrities and sports stars.

Names figuring in the leak included the president of Ukraine, the king of Saudi Arabia and the prime ministers of Iceland and Pakistan, the ICIJ statement said. Although Russian President Vladimir Putin’s name is not mentioned in the documents, his close associates “secretly shuffled as much as $2 billion through banks and shadow companies,” the ICIJ said.

Among the Israeli names found in the leaked documents are that of top attorney Dov Weisglass, former bureau chief of the late prime minister Ariel Sharon, Jacob Engel, a businessman active in the African mining industry, and Idan Ofer, a member of one of Israel’s wealthiest families, according to Haaretz.

The appearance of their names does not necessarily imply wrongdoing, only that they are linked to offshore companies mentioned in the documents. Weisglass’s name appears as a sole owner of one of four companies set up by his business partner Assaf Halkin. The company, Talaville Global, was registered in the British Virgin Islands in May 2012, according to Haaretz, and seven months later, all of its shares were mortgaged against a loan from a Vienna bank. Weisglass and Halkin told Haaretz that the company “was registered for the purpose of receiving a loan from the bank in order to invest in European properties. The bank would only allow a loan to a corporation… [the] “company activity is reported to the tax authorities in Israel. The required tax on the said activity is paid in Israel.”

Bank Leumi’s branch in Jersey in the Channel Islands, which provides a tax shelter to its customers, is also mentioned in the leak. It includes correspondence between the bank and the Panamanian law firm. In October, Bank Leumi announced that it was closing the branch. This came after the bank, Israel’s second largest, paid $400 million in a settlement reached in December 2014 over an investigation into tax evasion schemes that involved American clients. The bank paid the US Department of Justice and the State of New York $270 million and $130 million respectively. Last year, three former Bank Leumi executives were forced to repay the company a total of 5.1 million shekels (approximately $1.3 million) in the wake of the scandal.

According to Haaretz, the documents also show that Bank Hapoalim used the Panamanian law firm to manage activity for various trust funds until 2011. Others mentioned in the leaks include Mohammad Mustafa, a senior financial official and confidant of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas who used offshore accounts to funnel money from Arab states to the Palestinians, according to the documents.

The trove of documents was reviewed by a team of more than 370 reporters from over 70 countries, according to the ICIJ. The German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which first received the data more than a year ago, said it was confident the material was genuine. The Munich-based daily was offered the data through an encrypted channel by an anonymous source who requested no monetary compensation and asked only for unspecified security measures, said Bastian Obermayer, a reporter for the paper.
Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela issued a statement saying his government would cooperate “vigorously” with any judicial investigation arising from the leak of the law firm’s documents. He said that the revelations shouldn’t detract from his government’s “zero tolerance” for any illicit activities in Panama’s finance industry.
“These findings show how deeply ingrained harmful practices and criminality are in the offshore world,” said Gabriel Zucman, an economist at the US-based University of California, Berkeley, cited by the consortium.
e > World News

Panama Papers: Hundreds of Israeli Companies, Shareholders Listed in Leaked Documents Detailing Offshore Holdings

Leaked documents of Panamanian law firm reveal shell companies linked to prominent Israeli lawyers and business persons
Uri Blau, Daniel Dolev and Shuki Sadeh Apr 03, 2016 9:00 PM Updated: 2:17 AM
www.haaretz.com/world-news/1.712497

Some 600 Israeli companies and 850 Israeli shareholders are listed in the leaked documents of Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, a leader in creating shell companies that often serve to conceal ownership of assets.

The leaked files, which were obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists with Haaretz and other media organizations, provide a glimpse of the economy that until now had been hidden from the Israeli public.
There is a number of prominent names among the shareholders. It is important to note that as long as holdings in the companies and their revenues — if any — are reported as required to Israeli tax authorities, owning the company is not against the law.

Mossack Fonseca’s branch in Israel is headed by attorney Amir Maor. Callers to the branch are informed by a voicemail message that they have reached the offices of “The Company for Establishing Companies.”

Reached by telephone, Maor stated that Mossack Fonseca informed its Israeli branch last week that files had been stolen after its computer systems were breached. “Any information you use [from these files] is like using stolen data,” he said, refusing to give further comment.

The leaked files mention Sapir Holdings, a company registered in 2002 in the Virgin Islands. The owner and its only director was top-ranking lawyer Jacob Weinroth. He was indicted for money laundering in late 2009 and acquitted two years later of all charges against him. During the trial, it emerged that the company had received 30 million shekels ($7.95 million) for services rendered from Uzbek-Israeli entrepreneur Michael Cherney and Russian-Israeli businessman Arcady Gaydamak.
The fraudulent real estate deal of 2002 with the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate was also brought up in the trail. The failed deal, in which expensive lands in Jerusalem were offered to the State of Israel for a 999-year lease, was intended to be carried out by Christian Lands of Israel, a company created by Mossack Fonseca, which Weinroth represented. Company documents, like those requesting power of attorney for Weinroth, are among those found in the leaked files.

Another top Israeli lawyer who appears in the Mossack Fonseca documents is Dov Weisglass, who was also Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s bureau chief. Weisglass’s business partner, attorney Assaf Halkin, registered four companies through the Panamanian legal firm. Weisglass was the sole owner of one of these companies, Talaville Global, which was registered in the British Virgin Islands in May 2012. Its declared goal, according to the company’s registration form, was promoting real estate deals in Eastern Europe. Seven months later, all of Talaville Global’s shares were mortgaged against a loan from Vienna-based Raiffeisen Bank.

In response to a Haaretz inquiry, Weisglass and Halkin explained that the company “was registered for the purpose of receiving a loan from the bank in order to invest in European properties. The bank would only allow a loan to a corporation. They added that the “company activity is reported to the tax authorities in Israel. The required tax on the said activity is paid in Israel.”

Another business that Halkin established abroad is GFI Technologies. It was registered in May 2013 in the island of Anguilla in order to invest in Albanian high-tech companies. According to records, Halkin, an Albanian citizen named Ismail Mulati and a Canadian firm called Global Fluids International S.A. are the company’s owners. Halkin did not respond to an inquiry by Haaretz regarding what kinds of investments the company made, if any, but commented that the goal of the company is “selling fuel technology.” He added that “all of the Israeli shareholders’ revenue is reported to Israeli tax authorities.”

Although most of the Israeli public is unfamiliar with his name, one of the prominent Israeli businessmen appearing in the leaked documents is Jacob Engel. He is primarily active in African mining through the Elenilto and Engelinvest Groups. Last year TheMarker reported that Elenilto won the government of Togo’s international tender for constructing and developing a phosphate mine and fertilizer factory that would cost $1.4 billion. Elenilto won a huge tender in 2010 for an iron ore mine in Liberia, but sold the concession after a year and a-half to India’s Sesa Goa company for $90 million.

The Engelinvest Group registered five companies through Mossack Fonseca. Engel, or companies he owns, directly controls some of them. However, the connection is more blurred with some of the companies. For example, in 2012 Engelinvest registered a company called TDNN in Anguilla, whose only owner and director was Col. (res.) Olivier Rapowitz. The company’s declared goal was mining activity in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rapowitz, who in recent years served as an emissary of the Jewish National Fund in Belgium, refused to respond to a Haaretz inquiry on the matter.

Another company registered by Engelinvest in Anguilla is Irisgianman. Besides the registration itself, it is hard to identify the connection between the subsidiary and the parent company. The goal of the new company, which was established in October 2011, is mining activity in Ethiopia. Its shareholders, according to the registration documents, are two Israelis, one named Iris Levenstein and the other identified as Y., and Valona Giancarlo, an Italian national residing in Addis Ababa.
Levenstein told Haaretz that although she is registered as a shareholder, she has nothing to do with the activities of the company. “The shares are registered in my name, but they are not mine,” she said. “They are held by Y.” In response to a Haaretz inquiry, Levenstein added that the shares are registered for “historic reasons,” but did not elucidate further. Haaretz was unable to locate Y. before press time, and Jacob Engel refused to comment.

Israeli businessman Idan Ofer is also mentioned in connection to some of the companies in the documents. In 2008 he was appointed the sole director and shareholder of a company called Golden Glade Properties Ltd, which was established in the British Virgin Islands. The name of the company was later changed to Golden Aviation, and Ofer was replaced by John Frank Megginson and David Upton Tugman as co-directors and president and vice president, respectively.

According to the documents, Ofer’s shares were transferred in 2013 to Peymas Enterprises, a company which signed a mortgage to purchase a plane with JP Morgan Bank. In addition, Ofer was registered as owner and director of Joleam Ltd, which was registered in 2009 in the British Virgin Islands, as well as Compass Aviation Ltd, which was also registered there in 2008.

Udi Angel, Ofer’s business partner and shareholder in Israel Corp., one of Israel’s largest holding companies, is registered as company director. Ofer’s spokesperson did not respond to questions about his holdings in these companies, nor about their operations.

There are many correspondences linking Bank Leumi to the Panama-based law firm. Most of them discuss Bank Leumi’s branch in Jersey in the Channel Islands, which provides a tax shelter to its customers. This is the same island on which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a bank account with the local branch of The Royal Bank of Scotland. There are also messages to clerks in various Israeli banks who manage their clients’ affairs in tax shelters or keep in touch with Israeli lawyers who represent them. Last October, Bank Leumi announced that it was closing the Jersey branch.

Bank Leumi is in a vulnerable position on the subject of international taxation after being investigated by U.S. tax authorities last December. The bank was forced to pay a 1.5 billion shekel fine for assisting American clients in income tax evasion. The investigation was not connected to the bank’s Jersey branch.
One of the Israeli customers of Leumi’s Jersey branch is billionaire Teddy Sagi, who made his fortune developing online gambling technology in England and other places worldwide. Sagi lives between Israel and England. In recent years he has developed Camden Market as a commercial real estate space. Sagi is registered as the sole shareholder of at least 16 offshore companies established through Mossack Fonseca, most of which deal with real estate.

Bank Leumi’s Jersey branch provides services to a number of these companies. Documents reveal that some of the branch’s officers also serve on the board of directors of some of Sagi’s offshore companies.

Darren Toudic and Chris Lees are both defined, according to emails, as board members of Bank Leumi’s Jersey branch. Lees is also on the board of directors of Meadow Property. Toudic serves on the board of the Camden Market Holding Corporation, which, based on its name, one can assume is connected to the Camden project.
Another correspondence related to the branch describes social and business meetings between people from Mossack Fonseca and bank representatives. During golf games or barbecues, they discussed the bank’s deals with the Panamanian law firm.

Associates of Teddy Sagi said that the he did not establish the companies, but purchased them. As for the board members, the associates said that their activities were part of the services provided by Bank Leumi.

Bank Leumi said that its Jersey branch was operating within the law and regulation as required by the Jersey Financial Services Commission. "Naturally, we are unable to address specific costumer issues due to banking confidentiality," a representative said in response. Bank Leumi also noted that the sale of the operations of the Jersey branch was a "part of the bank's policy to diminish its international activity."

[privateinvestors]

RBC denies wrongdoing after being named in Panama Papers

'There are a number of legitimate reasons' to set up foreign holding companies, bank spokesman says CBC News Posted: Apr 04, 2016 10:53 AM ET Last Updated: Apr 04, 2016 11:18 PM ET

Royal Bank of Canada said Monday it has "high standards" to ensure none of the foreign corporations it helps set up for its clients are being used to evade taxes in Canada or anywhere else.

The bank is one of thousands named in a massive data dump known as the Panama Papers, which appear to outline how Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca has helped countless international power brokers set up foreign corporations.

The full scale of the data has yet to be revealed. But CBC News can confirm that the documents show Canada's biggest lender used Mossack Fonseca's services to set up at least 370 such entities for its clients over the years.

There's nothing illegal about foreign incorporations, something a bank spokesman was quick to note in a request for comment from CBC News on Monday.

"There are a number of legitimate reasons to set up a holding company," Tanis Feasby said. "If we have reason to believe a client is seeking to commit a criminal [offence] by evading taxes, we would report the offence and not do business with the client."

"We have an extensive due diligence process to ensure we understand who the client is and what their intentions are, and will not proceed with a transaction until we do."


"RBC works within the legal and regulatory framework of every country in which we operate," Feasby continued. "Tax evasion is illegal, and we have established controls, policies and procedures in place to detect it and prevent it occurring through RBC. We have high standards, and our internal policies build on the regulatory requirements in each jurisdiction."

"We make sure our clients have the information they need to properly file their taxes and we advise them of their obligation to do so. We also advise them to seek independent professional tax advice."

The sheer size of the data dump — at 2.6 terabytes of data, the Panama Papers are exponentially larger than WikiLeaks' massive release of diplomatic cables in 2010 — is "striking," Christians acknowledges, considering they come from just one law firm. But, she says, they point to "something that looks like it has global proportions."

Christians draws a firm line between tax avoidance and tax evasion, with the former being a valid practice but the latter in need of stamping out. The distinction between the two is admittedly hard to decipher and, as she says, "if it was easy to solve we would have solved it."

It remains to be seen if any of the documents will produce a paper trail to any illicit activity, but "if that's the case, there's a lot of parties involved in perpetuating this fraud on the public."

[privateinvestors]

MEET SOME OF THE US CRIMINALS REVEALED IN THE “PANAMA PAPERS”


PANAMA 1


fusion.net/story/287775/panama-papers-leak-american-lawsuits/



The so-called Panama Papers reveal a secret network of holding companies designed to shield owners from public scrutiny. The anonymity afforded by these companies makes them prime vehicles for hiding dirty money.

Fusion and its media partners located at least 22 U.S. court cases that involve companies tied to Mossack Fonseca, the law firm that helped powerful clients across the world hide money in offshore companies — and whose internal documents comprised the Panama Papers leak. These are seven of the most salient Fusion reviewed. In most cases, the shell companies were used to carry out crimes. In others, there’s no way to know what the shells were used for.

JOHN CRIM

John Crim was found guilty in 2008 for conspiracy to defraud the US, and for interfering with the IRS. Crim was the co-founder of a Texas group that encouraged investors to place their assets offshore to evade taxes, according to a statement by the Department of Justice. Crim claims that out of his 14,000 clients, only 23 were abusing the system.He was ordered to pay $17.2 million in restitution and serve eight years in prison. He was released to a halfway house in 2014. In an interview with Fusion, he maintained his innocence and denied responsibility for any of his clients’ wrongdoing: “I didn’t want to spend all my time investigating what they’re doing.” He shows up in the Panama Papers as an intermediary who registered one company with Mossack Fonseca, through their office in Malta.

ANDREW MOGILYANSKY

Andrew Mogilyansky incorporated a company with Mossack Fonseca in 1995. He later was convicted by a federal court in 2009 for traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, and for engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places, after traveling to Russia and hiring underaged prostitutes. He was sentenced to eight years in prison and ordered to pay $15,000 in restitution to the victims. It was additionally alleged that Mogilyansky had close ties to a sex-trafficking ring in Russia, and a civil complaint implicated one of his U.S.-based businesses in laundering the profits. It was never proven, and Mogilyansky denied the claims in an interview with Fusion.

Authorities in the British Virgin Islands approached Mossack Fonseca in 2014 looking for background information on Mogilyansky, the Panama Papers show; Mossack scrambled to pull something together and came across his conviction. “Yes, he was convicted for being a pedophile,” one Mossack employee wrote in an email. Another employee responded: “I don’t see how this company could have made money from the client’s pedophilia.” Fusion reached out to Mossack Fonseca requesting comment and received no response. The firm continued working with him.

JEAN ‘RICHARD’ CHARBIT

Jean “Richard” Charbit, a Frenchman living in Miami, was charged with securities fraud, pleading guilty in 2010. The scheme also intended to“defraud the investing public” by manipulating stock prices. Charbit was released from prison in 2012. Documents reveal that Mossack Fonseca continued to work with Charbit on at least 12 corporate entities, despite knowledge of his financial crimes. In response to concerns over Charbit’s arrest and conviction record, one Mossack employee wrote: “The customer has generated significant revenue for the firm.”

MAURICIO COHEN ASSOR & LEON COHEN LEVY

Mauricio Cohen Assor & Leon Cohen Levy were found guilty of “conspiracy to defraud the United States and filing false tax returns.” A criminal trial revealed that the father-and-son developers were hiding more than $150 million in assets in shell companies — from cars and Miami Beach mansions to yachts, luxury cars, and bank accounts. The Panama Papers reveal that Assor and Levy are indeed the true owners of these shells. The pair maintained at least 13 offshore accounts through Mossack Fonseca, many of which were named in the case against them. Both remain in prison today. Neither man had responded to Fusion’s request for comment by publication time.

IGOR OLENICOFF

Igor Olenicoff is listed among Forbes’ 10 most infamous tax cheats. He pled guilty to lying on his tax returns in 2007 after claiming he held no foreign companies or accounts. In reality, he was stashing $200 million in offshore accounts. After settling with the IRS for $52 million and managing to avoid jail time (only serving two years probation), he sued the bank UBS in 2008, claiming that he had been duped into these schemes without any prior knowledge. He appears in the data as a shareholder in the company Olen Oil Management Limited.

MUKHTAR SYED KECHIK & ROBERT MIRACLE

Robert Miracle and Mukhtar Kechik were involved in a $65 million ponzi scheme out of Seattle. Both maintained offshore accounts through Mossack Fonseca, and the Panama Papers reveal Miracle even opened one in the name of his daughter as he awaited trial. Miracle was eventually caught and sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2011. Kechik remains a fugitive.

MARTIN FRANKEL

Martin Frankel was convicted of looting $200 million of insurance companies’ assets, diverting them into private offshore accounts to fund his own lavish lifestyle. The scam was finally exposed when insurance regulators in Mississippi placed three Frankel-connected insurers under supervision. In 2004, he was sentenced to 17 years in prison. The criminal complaint against him cited one of his Mossack Fonseca-organized companies; a separate fraud suit against him by insurance commissioners from five states listed two more companies that Frankel had incorporated through Mossack.

[Old Chap]

Geopolitics of corruption: George Soros and the Panama Leaks
katehon.com/article/geopolitics-corruption-george-soros-and-panama-leaks
… …

Journalists employed by Soros

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists is a project of the American liberal Non-Governmental Organization Center for Public Integrity. It is the largest American non-profit organization that is dedicated to investigative journalism. In 1996, it launched a campaign against paleo-conservative US presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan, which was performed by Soros to force his withdrawal from the electoral campaign. Among the official sponsors of independent journalists: "Open Society" Foundation (Soros Foundation), Sunlight Foundation (receives most of their funding from Soros), the MacArthur Foundation, Knight Foundation, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Carnegie Endowment, Omidyar Network of the founder of eBay - ultra-liberal and globalist Pierre Omidyar etc. The United States Center for Public Integrity and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists participate in a multi-year media war, which Soros launched against the Koch-brothers, billionaires associated with right-wing Republican circles. Periodically, during the campaign, Soros’ journalists were convicted of outright fraud, violating US law, and distorting facts. The nature of the majority of exposés of the Consortium of Investigative Journalists shows that this structure primarily serves as a propaganda tool in the hands of Soros. For example, see the anti-Koch brothers and EU leadership-directed Luxembourg leaks. After Soros started the game against the Swiss franc, “independent journalists” investigated "money laundering" in Swiss banks. Interestingly, Heinz Endowments, headed by wife of US Secretary of State Teresa Heinz Kerry, was previously listed as a sponsor of both structures. Soros once financed her husband when he was a candidate for the post of US President (as well as Obama and Hillary Clinton today). So, the connection between the current administration and the financial speculator is very strong. Do you remember Kerry’s mysterious suitcase at his recent visit to Moscow?

In alliance with the US Department of State

The list of the world leaders that have fallen out of favor shows that the offshore scandal is the result of a public-private partnership. All persons involved are Soros’ opponents, but when they are also the US’ geopolitical enemies, the most serious charges are put forward. On the contrary, in the case of Cameron and Macri, it implicates their family business, and at first glance is not related to their work as leaders of their respective countries. Liberal Left figures associated with Soros himself, who actively use offshore companies for financial speculation, do not appear anywhere on the lists. When Soros bought Kerry, and is currently buying Hillary Clinton, massively investing in their campaign budgets, or gives money to the US Democratic party, it is not considered corruption as well as dark schemes that liberal politicians use worldwide.

To depoliticize the world

Interestingly, the new revelation of the century is directed primarily against the politicians. In essence, it massively discredits the global political class as such. The liberal ideology of Soros’ "Open Society" aids the rejection of politics; it is replaced by economic transactions and deals. The final barrier, in some cases a barrier to the establishment of the power of money, is liquidated. That is why Soros, for example, is funding leftist movements directed against the political establishment across the world, and the aforementioned Pierre Omidyar, another sponsor of the Consortium of Investigative Journalists, has put forward the project of a post-political world.

[congregatio]

There are a couple of dimensions in the Panama Papers

1. Someone took the data from the law firm. Thats actually illegal, happened before to other firms and it reveals a lack of care to some degree but its still a theft. Claiming its in the publics interest does not change that.
2. Legal services are well defined and regulated, so far I have not seen that they have done anything illegal, some data shows a lack of perspective and some could questions their morals but lawyers have never been tasked to enhance their or their clients morals.
3. Tax planning and avoiding is legal, tax fraud and lying on your tax papers is not.
4. When money is wired into an account the banks handling the sending and receiving are tasked with compliance and due diligence, not the lawyer
5. Client attorney privilege applies, lawyers talking publicly without the ok from the client about the clients business are criminal in most countries. Just because the client does not want them to talk does not make the law-firm secretive. Not everybody follows the anglo-american system and advertising what you do can be seen as illegal in some jurisdictions.
6. Just because some actions are politically incorrect or questionable, does not make them illegal.
7. The whole industry is nothing new, why now the brouhaha? Political reasons, pushing the business out of existence? Given that 98% of the offshore business of selling, establishing and handling offshore companies does not create anything and actually is contraproductive for the interest of the client, that move will just clean up.
8. anyone who thinks transparency laws like beneficiary registers etc will help to avoid all this, I have a piece of land available in the hinterlands of Afghanistan where you can build a luxury resort, very cheap, best deal. Lets not kid ourselves, politics and laws always leaves a loophole, they may make it more expensive, but there is always a legal solution.

the arguments against offshore are always come back every decade when a scandal blows up.

[privateinvestors]

If taxation was at a fair rate, corporations would gladly pay their fair share. But, in USA, taxation can be as high as 35% of net income. The money taken from our hard earned efforts go to fund, wars, terrorism, feed and house lazy people who make it a career to have children, consume alcohol and drugs and depend on the working calls Americans to support their life styles. And now, Democrat presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, wants to increase the tax rate on US corporations to continue with this unfair and unethical taxation.

And people wonder why we moved out of the state of California. Taxes: Too high. Basic labor rate: Now, it will be $15.00 per hour, for people who were lazy and refused to attend school and if and when they went to school, all they did was waste everyone's time. Those who used to hang around behind the gym smoking pot and bullying the weaker (smaller) students.

And the same group of young people who grow-up with no education, complain about "unfair social scales" and about "their poor living conditions."

Amazing. Isn't it?!

Offshore banking will survive this investigation and will continue for as long as it is needed to protect our hard earned money from the lazy predators.

[Old Chap]

Offshore banking per se is not illegal. Many cases will come out clear of any wrongdoing and at the end most of the investigation will prove only to have answered a precise poltitical and geopolitical agenda at higher level, and to have answered the pruriginous and gossiping nature of humans at lower level. There is though, a good point being made: most legal systems around the world - if not all - were designed over times with so many loopholes which in certain cases do indeed facilitate some individuals and gangs to use offshore banking for totally questionable, abusive and unethical activities. The fact such loopholes allow questionable, abusive and enethical activities to be legal and florish is a matter of moral concern to those whose goal in life is not just to accumulate riches at all cost.

As for the remarks about political incorretness, this is a matter of subjective interpretation. What is political correct to some, may be considered completely damaging to others. I stick to my initial feeling that the all event does represent more of an attack of some aristocracies against others (see Asian vs. European ones), of some elite against others where geopolitical interests are at stake.

The Panama Papers: Is their release a coup attempt between Soros and Rothschild?
www.roguemoney.net/stories/2016/4/4/the-panama-papers-is-their-release-a-coup-attempt-between-soros-and-rothschild

Over the weekend we saw a disclosure bombshell that makes Edward Snowden and Julian Assange's data dumps seem like a drop in the ocean. This is because the revelations discovered within the 'Panama Papers' reach some (but not all) of the highest levels of elites within global governments. In fact, information revealed from the capture of over 11 million documents shows that not only did the law firm of Mossack Fonseca function in the capacity of hiding wealth for the rich and powerful, but they also acted as a conduit for government accounts which were used for performing off-book activities ranging from money laundering, funding political coups, ways for nations to bypass sanctions, and even paying off burglars involved in the now infamous Watergate break-in. “The files include a convicted money launderer who claimed he’d arranged a $50,000 illegal campaign contribution used to pay the Watergate burglars, 29 billionaires featured in Forbes Magazine’s list of the world’s 500 richest people and movie star Jackie Chan, who has at least six companies managed through the law firm. The files contain new details about major scandals ranging from England’s most infamous gold heist to the bribery allegations convulsing FIFA, the body that rules international soccer. In the “Operation Car Wash” case in Brazil, prosecutors allege that Mossack Fonseca employees destroyed and hid documents to mask the law firm’s involvement in money laundering. A police document says that, in one instance, an employee of the firm’s Brazil branch sent an email instructing co-workers to hide records involving a client who may have been the target of a police investigation: “Do not leave anything. I will save them in my car or at my house.”

In Nevada, the leaked files show, Mossack Fonseca employees worked in late 2014 to obscure the links between the law firm’s Las Vegas branch and its headquarters in Panama in anticipation of a U.S. court order requiring it to turn over information on 123 companies incorporated by the law firm. Argentine prosecutors had linked those Nevada-based companies to a corruption scandal involving an associate of former presidents Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Today, Mossack Fonseca is considered one of the world’s five biggest wholesalers of offshore secrecy. It has more than more than 500 employees and collaborators in more than 40 offices around the world, including three in Switzerland and eight in China, and in 2013 had billings of more than $42 million. Yet perhaps what is most intriguing in all of this is who is behind this massive whistle blowing, and what they have to gain by taking on some of the most powerful elites that run the world. It starts when you look at the 'innocuous' logo that resides on the webpage of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

Open Society Foundations is a George Soros managed foundation that is used for all sorts of sovereign manipulations such as acting as controlling media, and impacting political elections. And USAID is long believed to be a front for the Central Intelligence Agency, and the many NGO's they control. So one of the most important questions behind the revealing of information on the tax evasion habits of the powerful elites is why members of the oligarchy would rat out their own peers, and in the end, what is the ultimate goal of such a scandal? It is here that I'm going to throw out a theory, and one that has been evidenced before by other investigative sources, and that is, there has always been a power struggle among the older elite (Rothschild's), and the newer elite (Soros's) for dominion over global affairs and the control over the future.

But is this really the case? Can we really just dismiss signs of disagreement and division amongst the power elite as little more than a grubby squabble for control of world government or an elaborate charade to deceive the public? I think not. In this study it is my contention that the power elite are divided not just on the issue of who will control the world, but also on how it is to be controlled. Meaning that there are other significant factions within the power elites of the West who do not support the globalist vision – as recently described by David Rockefeller – of ‘a more integrated global political and economic structure – one world…’[31] In fact, there are those who seek quite a different model of international order, in which the world is to be openly governed by one country, on behalf of its own elite, rather than by a world government representing an international combination of the privileged. — Conspiracy Archive, Will Banyan - 2008
And for validation that the disclosure of the 'Panama Papers' may have been used just for this purpose is how we see that one powerful elite is named within the discovery, and of their culpability in providing secret tax havens both in the U.S. and abroad for members within their oligarchy. “And, to top it off, there is one specific firm which is spearheading the conversion of the U.S. into Panama: Rothschild. Rothschild, the centuries-old European financial institution, has opened a trust company in Reno, Nev., a few blocks from the Harrah’s and Eldorado casinos. It is now moving the fortunes of wealthy foreign clients out of offshore havens such as Bermuda, subject to the new international disclosure requirements, and into Rothschild-run trusts in Nevada, which are exempt. For financial advisers, the current state of play is simply a good business opportunity. In a draft of his San Francisco presentation, Rothschild’s Penney wrote that the U.S. “is effectively the biggest tax haven in the world.” The U.S., he added in language later excised from his prepared remarks, lacks “the resources to enforce foreign tax laws and has little appetite to do so.”

As we look forward, more and more information will come as to the full extent of the Panama Paper disclosure, and the consequences that will assuredly take place for governments, individuals, and strongholds of political power because of these document's public release. And in fact, one is already taking place in Iceland where the current Prime Minister is being asked to resign for his part in using the Mossack Fonseca law firm to hide his wealth and avoid paying taxes. But the most important thing to watch for now is how these disclosures will affect the balance of power at the highest level of control, and if time will tell whether this investigative juggernaut was in fact an attack by one sect of elites on another, and if this coup for supremacy wins out for the new elites against the old guard.

[privateinvestors]

Additional Names added to the Panama Papers.


MOSSACK FONSECA & CO: SOME OF ITS PAST AMERICAN CLIENTS


www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/04/06/panama-papers-americans-with-past-financial-crimes/82704788/

The names of hundreds of Americans have surfaced in the Panama Papers, including a handful of U.S. businessmen accused or convicted by U.S. authorities for ties to financial crimes or Ponzi schemes.

The identities of the Americans emerged from the treasure trove of documents obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, the U.S.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and hundreds of other media organizations.

The consortium has so far identified more than 200 people with U.S. addresses who own companies in the leaked data from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. Some appear to be retirees purchasing real estate in places like Costa Rica and Panama, according to the consortium. But there are at least a few Americans in the leaked files who have faced charges for serious financial crimes in the U.S.

Here are some of the Americans who have been charged or convicted of financial crimes that have surfaced in the massive data leak, according to the media consortium. Their identities were first reported by McClatchy Newspapers.


Benjamin Wey

Benjamin Wey , a Wall Street financier, was charged in September with securities fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy and money laundering for using family members to help him stealthily amass ownership of larger blocks of stock in companies through so-called “reverse merger” transactions between Chinese companies and U.S. shell companies. In the process, he reaped tens of millions of dollars of illegal profit by manipulating the companies’ stock prices, the indictment charges. Prosecutors say he was aided by his banker in Switzerland, Seref Dogan Erbek, who was also charged in the alleged scheme.

The shell companies were incorporated offshore, according to the indictment. McClatchy reports Mossack Fonseca helped set up the offshore companies used in the stock manipulation. Wey in a message via Twitter said that there is no evidence that he’s ever owned a foreign account, controlled a foreign account or been a signatory of any account set up by Panamanian law firm.

“Ben Wey fashioned himself a master of industry, but as alleged, he was merely a master of manipulation,” said Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District Attorney of New York, in announcing Wey’s indictment.

Wey, president of the New York Global Group, also made headlines last year when a jury awarded an $18 million verdict to a former intern who had accused Wey of sexual harassment and stalking. (A judge last week said he would give Wey a new damages trial if the plaintiff, Hanna Bouveng, did not agree to reduce damages to $5.65 million, Reuters reported.) The young woman said Wey coerced her into four sexual encounters and then fired her after finding out that she had a boyfriend.

Wey denies that he ever had sex with Bouveng, and says her lawsuit, in which she initially sought $850 million, is an extortion attempt.


Igor Olenicoff

Igor Olenicoff, the Russian-born billionaire and commercial real estate mogul, was listed as a shareholder of Olen Oil Management Limited in the leaked data. He was sentenced in 2007 to two years of probation for tax evasion and forced to pay a $52 million fine for failing to declare more than $200 million stashed in offshore shell companies. Olenicoff’s California-based firm owns thousands of residential and commercial properties.

In 2014, the real estate tycoon was ordered to pay $450,000 to sculptor Don Wakefield in damages after Olenicoff and his company were found to have cloned several large-scale, abstract sculptures from the artist that were used to decorate various properties.

Robert Miracle, of Bellevue, Wash., was sentenced in 2011 to 13 years in prison and three years of supervised release for mail fraud and tax evasion for his part in a $65 million Ponzi scheme involving an Indonesia oilfield.

Miracle sold shares in Laramie Petroleum, MCube Petroleum, Diski Limited Liability Company, Basilam Limited Liability Company, and Halmahera-Rembang Limited Liability Company. The Washington man and his co-defendents told investors the companies made money from oil field development and services on oil and gas fields in Indonesia. In fact, the proceeds of later investors were being used to pay off the investments of earlier investors, according to the Justice Department.

Between September 2004 and October 2007, Miracle took in more than $65.3 million and paid out $36.7 million in the dividends.

“The bulk of the remaining funds were used to develop oil and gas fields in Indonesia, as well as to pay for a lavish lifestyle for Miracle,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Western District of Washington said in a statement at time of his guilty plea.



John Michael “Red” Crim

John Michael “Red” Crim was convicted in Philadelphia in 2008, along with two associates, for being part of a plot in which he recruited investors to use phony trusts to cheat the IRS out of $10 million in revenue.

Crim, co-founder of the Texas-based Commonwealth Trust Company, “encouraged investors to place income and assets into trusts for the purpose of evading federal income taxes,” according the office of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He was sentenced to eight years in prison.

The consortium also reports Jonathan Kaplan, a former Massachusetts executive implicated in a bribery scheme more than eight years ago, was among those whose names who surfaced in the papers.

Kaplan in 2008 was sentenced to five years of probation for his part in accepting more than $400,000 in kickbacks from a Jordanian national. Kaplan, vice president of iBasis, a Massachusetts company that supplied prepaid calling cards to retail distributors, allegedly gave favorable pricing, credit terms and inside information to Jordanian national Fares Khraisat, the owner and operator of Zam-Zam Telecard, based in Bridgeport, Conn.

[Old Chap]

Panama Papers: The Secret State of Delaware
By Lucy Clarke-Billings On 4/8/16 at 11:50 AM
Cayman
North West Point in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. An offshore dream. David Rogers/Getty

When conjuring up a picture of a tax haven, one generally imagines a faraway, zero-tax, Caribbean land like the Cayman Islands or Bermuda.

President Obama has criticized offshore jurisdictions like these and citing the Panama Papers at the White House, in Washington, earlier this week, he urged leaders around the world to tighten laws and crack down on the “huge problem” of global tax avoidance.

But under 100 miles from where Obama accused lawyers and accountants of “wiggling out” of responsibilities that ordinary citizens are having to abide by, lies Delaware, a small Eastern U.S. state where there are more corporate entities—public and private—than people. The ratio stood at 945,326 to 897,934, at the last count.


Delaware, through its developed legal system and laws protecting shareholder rights, is geared toward the large complex public corporation.

And while it is impossible to know exactly how much underreported income is hidden in the state’s shell companies, the First State’s ability to attract the formation of anonymous companies suggests that it could rival the amount of income hidden in more well-known offshore tax havens.

So what is so attractive about Delaware?

The state’s “business-friendly climate” and dedicated corporate court system (the Chancery Court) combined with an enormous network of corporate lawyers and legislation that favors management over shareholders, makes it a tax avoider’s dream.

A loophole in Delaware’s tax code is responsible for the loss of billions of dollars in revenue in other U.S. states, and its lack of incorporation transparency makes it a magnet for people looking to create anonymous shell companies, which individuals and corporations can use to evade an inestimable amount in federal and foreign taxes.

The Internal Revenue Service estimated a total tax gap of about $450 billion, with $376 billion of it due to filers underreporting income, in 2006.

In fact, in 2009, the Tax Justice Network named the United States as No. 1 on its Financial Secrecy Index, ahead of Luxembourg and Switzerland. It cited Delaware as one of the reasons.

"Our analysis reveals that the United States is the jurisdiction of greatest concern, having made few concessions and posing serious threats to emerging transparency initiatives,” the report says. “Rising from sixth to third place in our index, the U.S. is one of the few whose secrecy score worsened after 2013."

Another part of the appeal is the ease and rapidity with which a business entity can be formed there. Business entities can be set up in a number of hours and, once they are, Delaware law is committed to protect the rights of boards of directors and shareholders.

Last year, 133,297 businesses were set up in the state, making nearly half of all public corporations in the United States incorporated in Delaware.

The faraway, exotic lands of the Caymans are, still, alluring for many reasons. There, businesses can operate in relative secrecy, attract more foreign customers, avoid regulation and enjoy a low tax rate.

In one respect, however, Delaware is even better than the Caymans. At some point, American companies have to bring back their foreign profits from the Caymans and pay federal taxes.

But in Delaware, the state tax savings through the Delaware loophole are permanent.

P.S. For those not familiar with the APF's saga it will be interesting to note that APF used to carry on his business through a system (roll-on program) of multiple capital transfer from one fiscal paradise to another starting from Delaware. This was first noted many years ago in an international investigation called CHEQUE TO CHEQUE.