Panama Papers: Mossack Fonseca leak reveals elite's tax havens

When i first read about it, I thought "oh this will be good". Terabytes, legions of journos poring over it....

Then I read it, and it was pretty much a collection of known crooks/people I had never heard of.

Still waiting for THE BIG REVEAL.

 

I think of it like a musician's musician -- maybe not accessible enough for mass consumption, but journalists, prosecutors, IRS auditors, State Dept officials, and others with a professional interest are going to be eating it up. It can have a big impact without being on CNN every day.

 

The BIG REVEAL already happened. The wealthy ELITE are using existing laws to avoid tax. While not illegal, it is highly unethical when considering the tax burden for the non-elites. Also, unethical when policy makers make decisions without public knowledge of any conflicts of interest.

Just with that news alone it's apparent things have to change.

 

...

So, in actuality it was cap gains taxes on the sale of interests in oil fields around Uganda, and the company in question tried to fight the tax and redistrict to the Mauritius due to double taxation rules and a favorable tax agreement between the two countries.

But, I'm sorry, my complaint is not with corrupt officials--that is what other people brought up. "This can't be that bad! Ugandan officials must steal much more! Like billions or something".

I pointed out the utter irrelevance of that argument when part of the problem is rooted in the same issue: opaque financial infrastructure.

Uganda got its money back after four years suing in a commercial court in London. How many instances of this have slipped away because the amounts were not as large? We're talking about an amount of money that could have changed hundreds of thousands of lives, in a country where the average person earns about $1.25 a day. Victory for the international community indeed--a company that had slipped 4 years in its tax obligations. YOU try delaying your taxes 4 years.

All I'm asking for at this particular point is more transparent financial disclosure laws that can help prevent a system that seems more inclined to laundering than legitimate uses and criminal penalties for those who are now being caught obstructing justice, laundering money, and engaging in massive corruption.

You wouldn't think that'd be a lot to ask for, but apparently rule of law is a fuzzy concept once you can buy your way out of it.

In the long run though, I'd like to see the legal-financial-accounting trifecta replaced by something akin to Google's algorithm for detecting malfeasance, a combination of computational pattern matching, and minute points of human intervention, though that's probably the side of me that precluded law school to get into tech speaking

 

<div id="fb-root"></div><script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><div class="fb-video" data-allowfullscreen="1" data-href="/rob1972/videos/vb.547512999/10154110453578000/?type=3"><div class="fb-xfbml-parse-ignore"><blockquote cite="https://www.facebook.com/rob1972/videos/10154110453578000/"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/rob1972/videos/10154110453578000/"></a><p>The moment the bbc gets put back in the box by a tax expert. What the headlines should read is &quot;man makes a modest investment and pays all his tax&quot;</p>Posted by <a href="#" role="button">Rob Holden</a> on Friday, April 8, 2016</blockquote></div></div>

 

These are what the headlines actually read:

Sounds about right.

 

Currently in Malta:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/panama-papers-malta_us_570a9058e4b0836057a17fbd

 

American prosecutors are "chomping at the bits" to use the information they never would have had if it weren't for one brave leaker.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/pa...bit-use-panama-papers-catch-criminals-n553396

 

So what exactly are you claiming Cameron has done that was not legal, or even improper?

 

He advocated for tax transparency and the lack of crony capitalism, then used his power as Prime Minister to lobby the EU for tax transparency loopholes for offshore trusts...while profiting from funds from an offshore trust he had not disclosed to the British people.

no wonder why he was stuttering all over the place for a week.

This is politics, ATW, like we discussed before. Even if Cameron hasn't done anything illegal (though that may be because he helps set the laws), the conflict of interest is VERY apparent. The British people certainly think it improper enough to protest him en masse.

 

Things aren't getting better for him either lol.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/apr/09/david-cameron-questions-gift-mother

I've never seen a politician so eager to hang himself on his own words.

 

The brave leaker is a hacker who exploited vulnerabilities the MF website didn't patch up...

What I got from the binge reading Times articles about this is that Panama's tax code and infrastructure is based off Delaware's system and is structured very similarly. The reason why there aren't many American fish to fry is that the services offered by these Panamanian firms are already available domestically.

There's been calls internationally for Panama to make their system less opaque, except even if they did, there's still another country that has similarly opaque and slippery ways to funnel money, the United States.

So maybe the collective dismissal by some here is because it hits a little too close to home? Not in the sense of "fat cats" squirreling away hard earned money offshore, but rather the American tax system and it's intricacies are familiar to anyone with a law or finance related profession. The blind spots people in those fields are aware of but have been glossed over after the system's repeated failure to address them.

Corporations, after all, are people too.

It's a bit ironic that if that "brave leaker" pulled off the same **** to an American firm, the feds would be chomping at the bits...to find the hacker and bring him to Aaron Schwartz style justice.

 

I haven't talked as much about that as it is a bit out of scope, but the Economist has put together a really good series of pieces that hits straight at American homes.

http://www.economist.com/news/finan...recy-highlights-american-hypocrisy-mega-haven

 

Lots of conspiracy theories going around that Putin is behind this leak (to make his own dealings look relatively less bad) and the real value isn't on the people who have been "exposed" (if you want to call it that) so far, but rather in blackmailing others who haven't yet been part of the leak.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-wFKNy0MZQ&nohtml5=False

 

does that conflate with the conspiracy theories about this being Soros-lizard-man revenge time

While we're at it, what do you think about the contents of the leaks?

 

Thus there should be mass protests. Makes sense.

I'm all for the castigation of illegal tax cheats and money launderers, etc...but it is a tad amusing to see a subject of the Queen of ****ing England lecture the rest of us about rich people not sharing their caves of gold.

 

*now an American taxpayer thanks to the Canada U.S. Income Tax Convention TM

so far as I can see I'm lecturing a GERMAN and a NEW YORKER, who are equally as unamerican. i have a closer claim to the moral legitimacy of imposing Americaness onto a topic that has nothing to do with it.

 

That conspiracy theory doesn't make any sense to me.