/ world today news/ Inside are heads of state, athletes, billionaires: the first revelations of the “Panama Papers” (Panama Papers) about the global offshore system, published by “Mond”, as well as other media around the world.
The French newspaper “Mond” and 106 other publications in 76 countries united in the “International Consortium of Investigative Journalists” have gained access to a large, never-before-seen information array that sheds a revealing light on the opaque world of global offshore finance and tax havens.
The 11.5 million files are from the archives of the Panamanian office of Mossack Fonseca, which specializes in settling payments to offshore companies between 1977 and 2015. It is the biggest leak ever. got the media.
The “Panama Papers” or “Panama Papers” reveal that, in addition to the thousands of anonymous people involved, there are many heads of state, billionaires, big names in sports, celebrities or individuals covered by international sanctions who used the offshore system to hide its assets.
This is the largest data leak in the history of journalism. It is also the most spectacular breakthrough ever made in the dark world of offshore finance.
“Mond”, together with the International Consortium for Investigative Journalism in Washington and the German daily “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), which received the information array, have access to 11.5 million documents that reveal the assets hidden in the dark financial shelters of world political leaders, criminal networks, football stars or billionaires.
Among them are those close to Russian President Vladimir Putin or Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunlagsson, as well as many other names of heads of state and politicians. Argentinian footballer Leo Messi and former UEFA president Michel Platini are among the many individuals whose cases we have covered throughout the past week. These secret documents, quite fresh, reach the end of 2015.
1500 times more than WikiLeaks
In total, this is over 2.6 terabytes of classified data that has been disclosed, studied and analyzed by Mond and its 106 media partners. The investigation lasted a year, mobilized 370 journalists all over the world – France, India, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, USA, Brazil, Japan.
At the center of this new investigation is Mossack Fonseca, one of the world’s champions in financial services for shell companies in offshore jurisdictions.
They serve to cover the identity of their true owners and are locked from the inside. “Mossac Fonseca” was founded in Panama, one of the most hidden financial centers on the planet, defined as a distributor of money laundering, where the money from crime and tax fraud enters to be cleaned.
Offshore Trade Register
The Panama Papers reveal an incredible list: over 214,000 offshore entities created or served in 21 different financial havens or clients from over 200 countries by Mossack Fonseca from its founding in 1977 until 2015.
A planetary reach that spans continents and oceans, from Luxembourg to Panama, from Switzerland to the British Virgin Islands, from the Samoan Islands to the Seychelles, from Monaco to the Bahamas.
It is not just the case of a single bank, as in HSBC’s Swiss Leaks scandal (2015) or UBS Leaks (2016), nor the role played by a single financial center in an organized tax optimization scheme for multinational companies , as in Luxembourg Leaks (2014). The Panama Papers offer mapping, in near real time, of an entire section of global finance, hitherto hidden from foreign eyes.
All this information would have remained secret without the intervention of an anonymous source who began in early 2015 to pass on this “gold mine” to Süddeutsche Zeitung journalists. It then went on to investigate Mossack Fonseca’s role in tax fraud allegations against Commerzbank, Germany’s second largest bank. Faced with the scale of the data, the German newspaper decided to turn to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and its usual partners for the exchange of information, precisely because of the valuable experience gained by the Consortium in cross-border financial investigations.
The authenticity of the documents, which was beyond doubt with their number, was double-checked by the Munich Gazette and the Mond.
It was confirmed by several letters sent to clients of Mossack Fonseca and consulted by Mond, who referred to “unregulated access to the server through which some information was obtained from a third party”.
Grey, black and dirty money
All of the Panama Papers offshore companies are not illegal or opaque, some have genuine economic activity or are specifically created to facilitate international investment. But the majority of them are used as front companies to hide assets through the use of pseudonyms.
In this way, in “Mossack Fonseca” there is clean money next to dirty money, such as “grey” (from tax evasion), “black” (from corruption and organized crime), just as the great riches and football stars are next to criminal networks and corrupt government officials heads.
After many months of work on this extremely large-scale investigation, the ICRC and its partners were able to establish that 12 heads of state and government (including six acting), 128 senior politicians and high-ranking officials from the world’s elite were involved with offshore companies, as well as 29 members of the world ranking of the 500 richest people of “Forbes”.
The most “sensitive” clients, those who want to hide and make their assets untraceable, are guarded by three or four companies located one after the other, created on the four corners of the planet, which hide inside each other like Russian matryoshka dolls, for to complicate the work of the tax and judicial authorities, who often fail to track them.
The thousands of internal communications between Mossack Fonseca employees targeted by Mond and its partners confirm that offshore companies still manage to stay one step ahead of global attempts at regulation.
Thus, when, in 2011, the British Virgin Islands were forced, under international pressure, to abandon the “(anonymous) bearer shares” system, the pendulum swung in favor of Panama or the Seychelles, where such practices still are allowed.
Thus, with transfers from one tax haven to another, and with the use of loopholes in the regulatory framework and with increasingly complex mechanisms, Mossack Fonseca and its intermediaries respect the controllers.
“Is the car manufacturer responsible for the behavior of the drivers?”
In a recent interview with Panamanian television, the company’s co-founder Ramon Fonseca compared it to a “car manufacturer” that is not liable for crimes committed by thieves using the vehicles it has manufactured. In most jurisdictions, however, the company has an obligation to informs itself of the copyright holder of the companies it manages and, if it sometimes fails in this duty, internal correspondence shows that it is often aware of their identity.
Asked about its role and responsibilities, Mossack Fonseca denies offering these services directly to its clients and refers responsibility to about 14,000 intermediaries (major global banks, law firms, trustees and other wealth management companies) who provide the interaction with the ultimate beneficiaries.
What is the solution?
Panama, a “toxic” financial center, refuses to cooperate with foreign countries in the fight against fraud and tax evasion, and maintains an iron fist against the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which coordinates the fight. Given that the issue has become highly politicized and could undermine the effectiveness of the fight against money laundering, the OECD warned finance ministers of the G20 (the group of the twenty richest countries) meeting on February 27 in Shanghai, China.
What the Panama Papers prove is above all a concomitant of financial globalization, and despite successive revelations and the desire of countries to regulate tax havens, it always remains an easy way for banks and clients to circumvent national regulations. There is no lack of anti-money laundering laws, and there is no control over their implementation, which needs to be strengthened, everywhere in the world.
The financial system as a whole must regulate the large offshore structure. He has what it takes to win.
Among those named in the “Panama Papers” are Nawaz Sharif, King Salman of Saudi Arabia, the children of the President of Azerbaijan, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, President of Argentina Mauricio Macri, former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, Prime Minister of Iceland Sigmundur David Gunlagsson, former Prime Minister of Ukraine Nikolay Azarov. /”Mond”,
Paris / France
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