Quote:Millions of documents show heads of state, criminals and celebrities using secret hideaways in tax havens. A massive leak of documents exposes the offshore holdings of 12 current and former world leaders and reveals how associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin secretly shuffled as much as $2 billion through banks and shadow companies. The leak also provides details of the hidden financial dealings of 128 more politicians and public officials around the world. The cache of 11.5 million records shows how a global industry of law firms and big banks sells financial secrecy to politicians, fraudsters and drug traffickers as well as billionaires, celebrities and sports stars. These are among the findings of a year-long investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists including The Irish Times, German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and more than 100 other news organisations.

Stories of Irish interest arising from this investigation will be published by The Irish Times over the coming days. Included in the leaked documents are sales promotion agreements an Irish-registered company with an address in Drumcondra, Dublin, has signed in relation to arms and other deals in India, the Philippines and elsewhere, often involving commission-sharing deals with offshore companies. The files expose offshore companies controlled by the prime ministers of Iceland and Pakistan, the king of Saudi Arabia and the children of the president of Azerbaijan. They also include at least 33 people and companies blacklisted by the US government because of evidence that they’ve done business with Mexican drug lords, terrorist organisations such as Hezbollah or rogue states like North Korea and Iran.

Quote:Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) has released the biggest leak in journalistic history, posting 11.5 million documents from a Panamanian law firm online and providing “rare insights into a world that can only exist in the shadows.”

SZ said it received the law firm’s documents a year ago from an anonymous source who “wanted neither financial compensation nor anything else in return.”

The German paper obtained further documents in an investigation that followed, involving “400 journalists from more than 100 media organizations in over 80 countries.”

SZ said it decided to analyze the data in cooperation with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

Quote:Editor's note: Earlier on Sunday, Süddeutsche Zeitung, a German newspaper working with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, released the "Panama Papers," an online data journalism project of leaked documents that claims to reveal the offshore links of some of the world’s most prominent people. According to the Guardian, the leak is one of the biggest ever, comprising 11.5 million documents and 2.6 terabytes of information drawn from Mossack Fonseca’s internal database. Mossack Fonseca, according to the Guardian, is a Panama-based law firm whose services include incorporating companies in offshore jurisdictions such as the British Virgin Islands. The firm is the world’s fourth biggest provider of offshore services and has acted for more than 300,000 companies. We're following the story on this arc, and we will post updates, reactions and fallout. - Rebecca

Quote:Iceland’s prime minister is this week expected to face calls in parliament for a snap election after the Panama Papers revealed he is among several leading politicians around the world with links to secretive companies in offshore tax havens.

The financial affairs of Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson and his wife have come under scrutiny because of details revealed in documents from a Panamanian law firm that helps clients protect their wealth in secretive offshore tax regimes. The files from Mossack Fonseca form the biggest ever data leak to journalists.

Quote:On Tuesday, Zero Hedge released some of the American names from the leak, yet no recognizable politicians were listed. However, it at least sheds light on what the Western media machine has been reticent to release to the public—that some Americans were involved in the Panamanian scandal.

Mossack Fonseca has at least 400 American clients, yet none of them are being revealed by "trusted" media outlets who were given access to the documents. Thankfully, the team at McClatchyDC released a shortlist earlier this week.

One high-level American not named by McClatchy, but who played an instrumental role in fostering the trade deal with Panama, was presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton. 



In 2011, the Panama-United States Trade Promotion Agreement was proposed in Congress and later ratified in 2012. Bernie Sanders warned that the bill would create tax havens in Panama, which already had a history of being a tax shelter for wealthy Americans.

Clinton's involvement in the deal that enabled tax havens to flourish could end her presidential bid in 2016. One wonders if this is by design or reveals how turbulent the current climate of worldly power is—because apparently last year, the Bilderberg group backed Clinton.

Clinton has already been implicated in several scandals that would have ended her career if not for the cooperation of the media. It seems that they are also doing their best to hide her involvement in the Panama Papers, suggesting that she is the establishment-anointed candidate for 2016. 

The German newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung, intends on releasing a more robust list of Mossack Fonseca clients at the end of this month that could implicate more Americans for wrongdoing.

(06-03-2016, 07:13 PM)Mystic Wanderer Wrote: Updating this thread with this information: Panama Papers: Vancouver is Canada’s hotspot for secret tax haven firms, with hundreds of addresses in leaked papers


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(05-24-2016, 08:38 AM)Wrabbit2000 Wrote: ...Right now? We're just seeing the political window dressing and corporate side shows.
The REAL and lasting damage comes with NON-Journalists start cross referencing raw data and names with entirely
different lists and databases to make connections several levels beyond the obvious. 

This story hasn't even begun yet, is my general take. The layers run like an onion for each just exposing another, so far.

Quote:Deutsche Bank headquarters raided over money laundering.

'The Frankfurt headquarters of Deutsche Bank have been raided by prosecutors in a money laundering investigation.
Germany's public prosecutor alleged that two staff members have helped clients launder money from criminal activities.
Police cars were seen outside the tower blocks that house the headquarters of Germany's biggest bank.



Other Deutsche offices in the city were searched in an operation involving about 170 police and officials.
Prosecutors are looking into whether Deutsche Bank staff helped clients set up off-shore accounts to "transfer money
from criminal activities".

The investigation was sparked by revelations in the 2016 "Panama Papers" - an enormous amount of information leaked
from one of the world's most secretive companies, a Panamanian law firm called Mossack Fonseca.
Other banks, including Sweden's Nordea and Germany's Handelsbanken have been fined as a result of information
contained in the Panama Papers.

Deutsche Bank shares fell 3% after news of the raid emerged. The company confirmed that police had raided
several locations in Germany and that it was co-operating fully with the probe.
Paperwork and electronic documents were seized by officials during the raids on the bank's properties...'