The Panama Papers

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Larry B.
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The Panama Papers

#1 Post by Larry B. » Sun Apr 03, 2016 3:38 pm

Are you following this? Fascinating stuff.

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perkana
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Re: The Panama Papers

#2 Post by perkana » Tue Apr 05, 2016 9:16 am

Here's what our government have said about it:
Comunicado en relación al artículo publicado en la revista Bloomberg

En relación al artículo que será publicado en la revista Bloomberg Businessweek, el 4 de abril de 2016, la Coordinación General de Comunicación Social de la Presidencia de la República expresa lo siguiente.

En relación al contenido de un artículo que será publicado en la revista Bloomberg Businessweek, el 4 de abril de 2016, la Coordinación General de Comunicación Social de la Presidencia de la República expresa lo siguiente:

1. Rechazamos cualquier relación entre el equipo de la campaña presidencial de 2012 con Andrés Sepúlveda, o que se haya contratado al consultor J.J. Rendón.

2. También rechazamos el uso de la información y metodologías planteadas por dicho artículo.

3. La planeación, dirección y ejecución de dicha campaña presidencial fue realizada por dirigentes, militantes y simpatizantes del Partido Revolucionario Institucional

4. Las acciones de dicha campaña se sujetaron a los lineamientos y restricciones establecidos en la legislación electoral vigente para aquel proceso.

5. El triunfo de nuestro candidato presidencial obedece, única y exclusivamente, al respaldo libre, informado y mayoritario del electorado mexicano.
Just trying to cover their asses...

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Artemis
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Re: The Panama Papers

#3 Post by Artemis » Tue Apr 05, 2016 9:47 am

I'm trying to get up to speed on what's going on. So far, one of the big banks and Canada has been named - Royal Bank of Canada. Of course, they are defending their practises.

Just read the Icelandic PM has resigned.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/a ... ?CMP=fb_gu

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Larry B.
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Re: The Panama Papers

#4 Post by Larry B. » Tue Apr 05, 2016 11:21 am

Artemis wrote:I'm trying to get up to speed on what's going on. So far, one of the big banks and Canada has been named - Royal Bank of Canada. Of course, they are defending their practises.

Just read the Icelandic PM has resigned.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/a ... ?CMP=fb_gu
Yup. This can be as little or as big the population of each country want it to be.

blackcoffee
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Re: The Panama Papers

#5 Post by blackcoffee » Mon Apr 11, 2016 4:46 pm

Didn't get much coverage today by National Public Radio here int he US (at least while I was listening). I thought this story would have a lot more legs, and be the topic for some time to come.

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Hype
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Re: The Panama Papers

#6 Post by Hype » Tue Apr 12, 2016 3:07 pm

One reason the story isn't getting much coverage in the US is that relatively few Americans are implicated -- the reason: many US states have better protections/privacy for these sorts of accounts than offshore havens. So this is mostly a world corruption story, and Americans, as a rule, care far less about the rest of the world. :lol: :waits:

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Larry B.
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Re: The Panama Papers

#7 Post by Larry B. » Wed Apr 13, 2016 2:22 am

Hype wrote:One reason the story isn't getting much coverage in the US is that relatively few Americans are implicated -- the reason: many US states have better protections/privacy for these sorts of accounts than offshore havens. So this is mostly a world corruption story, and Americans, as a rule, care far less about the rest of the world. :lol: :waits:
You're an idiot.

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Stickyfingers
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Re: The Panama Papers

#8 Post by Stickyfingers » Wed Apr 13, 2016 4:42 pm

Larry B. wrote:
Hype wrote:One reason the story isn't getting much coverage in the US is that relatively few Americans are implicated -- the reason: many US states have better protections/privacy for these sorts of accounts than offshore havens. So this is mostly a world corruption story, and Americans, as a rule, care far less about the rest of the world. :lol: :waits:
You're an idiot.
No, he's right.

Have you ever heard about Delaware, or Nevada?

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Hype
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Re: The Panama Papers

#9 Post by Hype » Wed Apr 13, 2016 5:14 pm

:lol:

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Larry B.
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Re: The Panama Papers

#10 Post by Larry B. » Thu Apr 14, 2016 6:33 am

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/a ... vens-oxfam
US corporations have $1.4tn hidden in tax havens, claims Oxfam report

Charity analysis of the 50 biggest US businesses claims Apple have $181bn held offshore, while General Electric has $119bn and Microsoft $108bn



US corporate giants such as Apple, Walmart and General Electric have stashed $1.4tn (£980bn) in tax havens, despite receiving trillions of dollars in taxpayer support, according to a report by anti-poverty charity Oxfam.
Tax havens don’t need to be reformed. They should be outlawed
Richard Brooks
The Panama Papers demonstrate that for all the fine words about transparency on tax, the world’s kleptocrats are still getting away with it
Read more

The sum, larger than the economic output of Russia, South Korea and Spain, is held in an “opaque and secretive network” of 1,608 subsidiaries based offshore, said Oxfam.

The charity’s analysis of the financial affairs of the 50 biggest US corporations comes amid intense scrutiny of tax havens following the leak of the Panama Papers.

And the charity said its report, entitled Broken at the Top was a further illustration of “massive systematic abuse” of the global tax system.

Technology giant Apple, the world’s second biggest company, topped Oxfam’s league table, with some $181bn held offshore in three subsidiaries.

Boston-based conglomerate General Electric, which Oxfam said has received $28bn in taxpayer backing, was second with $119bn stored in 118 tax haven subsidiaries.

Computing firm Microsoft was third with $108bn, in a top 10 that also included pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer, Google’s parent company Alphabet and Exxon Mobil, the largest oil company not owned by an oil-producing state.
In defence of ‘tax havens’: offshore banking is not the same as dodgy dealing
Nigel Green
Read more

Oxfam contrasted the $1.4tn held offshore with the $1tn paid in tax by the top 50 US firms between 2008 and 2014.

It pointed out that the companies had also enjoyed a combined $11.2tn in federal loans, bailouts and loan guarantees during the same period.

Overall, the use of tax havens allowed the US firms to reduce their effective tax rate on $4tn of profits from the US headline rate of 35% to an average of 26.5% between 2008 and 2014.

The charity said this had helped firms spend billions on an “army” of lobbyists calling for greater state support in the form of loans, bailouts and guarantees, funded by taxpayers.

The top 50 US firms spent $2.6bn between 2008 and 2014 on lobbying the US government, Oxfam said.

“For every $1 spent on lobbying, these 50 companies collectively received $130 in tax breaks and more than $4,000 in federal loans, loan guarantees and bailouts,” said Oxfam.

Robbie Silverman, senior tax adviser at Oxfam said: “Yet again we have evidence of a massive systematic abuse of the global tax system.

“We can’t go on with a situation where the rich and powerful are not paying their fair share of tax, leaving the rest of us to foot the bill.

“Governments across the globe must come together now to end the era of tax havens.”

Oxfam estimates that tax avoidance by US corporations costs the world’s largest economy some $111bn a year, but said it was also fuelling the global wealth divide by draining $100bn from the poorest countries.

“Tax dodging practised by corporations and enabled by federal policymakers contributes to dangerous inequality that is undermining our social fabric and hindering economic growth,” the report said.

Oxfam also singled out British overseas territories such as Bermuda for their popularity with US firms seeking to slash their tax bill by “profit-shifting”.

In 2012, said Oxfam, US firms reported $80bn of profit in Bermuda, more than their combined reported profits in Japan, China, Germany and France, four of the world’s five largest economies.

The charity called on the US government to pass the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act, including a requirement for firms to report their tax contribution on a country-by-country basis.

Country-by-country reporting has been recommended by a host of non-governmental organisations and charities to prevent companies from artificially shifting their income out of the poorest countries.

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Hype
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Re: The Panama Papers

#11 Post by Hype » Thu Apr 14, 2016 9:42 am

I can post random articles too!
https://www.rt.com/news/339457-panama-l ... operation/
Financial whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld, who helped expose American tax evaders hiding assets in Swiss banks, has little doubt the Panama leaks scandal was crafted and orchestrated by the CIA.
Trends
Panama Papers
In an exclusive interview from Munich, Birkenfeld told CNBC on Tuesday that the leak of over 11 million documents from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca is most likely not a whistleblower job, but rather an “intelligence agency operation.”

“The CIA I'm sure is behind this, in my opinion,” Birkenfeld said, citing as evidence selective management of the information exposed to the public domain that “doesn't hurt the US in any shape or form.”

“The very fact that we see all these names surface that are the direct quote-unquote enemies of the United States: Russia, China, Pakistan, Argentina… and we don't see one US name. Why is that? Quite frankly, my feeling is that this is certainly an intelligence agency operation,” CNBC cited Birkenfeld as saying.

“That's wrong. And there's something seriously sinister behind this,” Birkenfeld said.

The former banker acknowledged that years ago, when he worked in a Swiss bank, he was aware that Mossack Fonseca was an integral part of a worldwide offshore financial network used to avoid domestic taxes.



Birkenfeld also pointed out that the Panama firm was a relatively minor player in the tax evasion scheme.

"We knew that very well in Switzerland. I certainly knew of it," Birkenfeld said.

Quite a number of firms in Panama are still offering similar services, Birkenfeld revealed.

“The cost of doing business there was quite low, relatively speaking,” he said. “So what you would have is Panama operating as a conduit to the Swiss banks and the trust companies to set up these facilities for clients around the world.”

Read more
Reuters / Soe Zeya TunWhistleblower gets $104mln for helping detect tax evasion at UBS AG
Birkenfeld, an American citizen once employed by UBS AG, a Swiss bank, is famous for helping to expose the bank’s tax evasion schemes in 2009.

Birkenfeld was convicted in 2008 for helping a former client at UBS AG to hide his wealth from the Internal Revenue Service and spent over two years behind bars. Nevertheless, Birkenfeld did well. As part of the same case, the IRS awarded the former banker $104 million for aiding the investigation that resulted in UBS being fined $780 million. The bank was also forced to disclose the names of 4,700 American clients, who held secret overseas accounts in Switzerland.

American pressure finally put an end to the ‘golden era’ of Swiss banks’ dodgy financial dealings. Many of the country’s banking institutions were fined billions of US dollars for providing tax evasion assistance to US citizens.

Birkenfeld is now living privately in Bavaria, Germany, and is unwilling to speak to journalists. However, in the case of the Panama Papers, he made an exception.

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Larry B.
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Re: The Panama Papers

#12 Post by Larry B. » Tue Apr 19, 2016 6:51 am


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