Panama leaks
AN EXPOSE BASED ON A DATA LEAK REVEALS HOW TAX HAVENS FUNCTION GLOBALLY
THE RELEASE of a vast trove of documents and data on offshore financial dealings of wealthy, famous and powerful people around the world is raising questions over the widespread use of such tactics to avoid taxes and skirt financial oversight.
Reports by an international coalition of media outlets on an investigation with the Washingtonbased International Consortium of Investigative Journalists brought to light details of offshore assets and services of politicians, businesses and celebrities, based on a cache of 11.5 million records.
Among the countries with past or present political figures named in the reports are Iceland, Ukraine, Pakistan, Russia and Argentina.
Vladimir Putin’s spokesman claimed that the Russian president was the “main target” of the investigation, which he suggested was the result of ‘Putinophobia’ and aimed at smearing the country in a parliamentary election year. The ICIJ has links to the US government, Dmitry Peskov suggested.
“I don’t consider it possible to go into the details” of allegations that Putin’s friends ran an offshore scheme, Peskov told reporters, “mainly because there is nothing concrete and nothing new about Putin, and a lack of details”. He added that Sergei Rodulgin, a St Petersburg-based cellist allegedly involved in the offshore schemes, was a friend of Putin’s but that the president “has very many friends”.
Peskov, who had last week foreshadowed the disclosure of the documents by warning of an upcoming “information attack” on Putin, said on Monday he expected more reports to follow.
In Russia, where the investigation was published by independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, the scandal faced an effective coverage ban. Russian television on Monday morning made no mention of it.
In Australia, the tax agency said on Monday it was investigating more than 800 wealthy people for possible tax evasion linked to their alleged dealings with Mossack Fonseca, the Panamanian law firm with international offices that provide offshore financial services.
The Australian Tax Office said in a statement that it had linked more than 120 of those people to an offshore services provider in Hong Kong, but did not name the company.
In New Zealand, Prime Minister John Key rejected ICIJ’s characterisation of his country as among 21 tax havens used by Mossack Fonseca.
“Tax havens are where there is nondisclosure of information,” Key said. “New Zealand has full disclosure of information.”
Ramon Fonseca, a co-founder of Mossack Fonseca — one of the world’s largest creators of shell companies — confirmed to Panama’s Channel 2 television network that documents investigated by the ICIJ were authentic and had been obtained illegally by hackers.
But he said most people named in the reports were not his firm’s direct clients but were accounts set up by intermediaries. He said the firm did not engage in any wrongdoing.
Businessmen, criminals, celebrities and sports stars — the ICIJ said the documents involve 214,488 companies and 14,153 clients of Mossack Fonseca. The nonprofit group said it would release the full list of companies and people linked to them early next month.
The Munich-based German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung said it was offered the data more than a year ago through an encrypted channel by an anonymous source. —
11.5 million tax documents leaked from law firm 2.6 terabytes is the size of data leaked 214 thousand entities have links to 200 countries 40 years of financial data in leaks, from 1977 to 2015 140 politicians from nearly 50 countries involved 29 billionaires from Forbes rich list mentioned in leaks 12 former and current heads of state cited in expose