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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| The Pandora Papers Reveal How the Super-Rich Shaft the Rest of Us |
| 2021-10-06 |
| [The Nation] A just-released "Panama Papers on steroids" show how the US has become a major tax haven and destination for illicit wealth. The Pandora Papers, a massive leak of secret data about the illicit financial activities of the super-wealthy, will be supplying revelations for weeks and probably months to come. The Pandora Papers undertaking involved 600 journalists from 117 countries and was coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in what they describe as the "largest-ever journalistic collaborative." (You can follow rolling releases at The Washington Post, the US partner in the collaboration, and The Guardian, the UK partner.) Five and a half years ago, the ICIJ released the Panama Papers, which focused on a leak from a single Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca. According to Gerald Ryle, director of the ICIJ, the Pandora Papers are "the Panama Papers on steroids." The Pandora leaks come from confidential records at 14 different offshore wealth service firms in Switzerland, Singapore, Cyprus, Samoa, Vietnam, and Hong Kong, as well as wealth managers in well-known tax havens such as Belize, Seychelles, The Bahamas, and the British Virgin Islands. These firms help wealthy individuals and corporations to form trusts and foundations, incorporate companies, and establish other entities in low- or no-tax jurisdictions. The Pandora team analyzed almost 12 million files from these firms, including leaked e-mails, memos, tax declarations, bank statements, passport scans, diagrams of corporate structures, secret spreadsheets, and clandestine real estate contracts. Some reveal the real owners of opaque shell companies for the first time. In the coming weeks, we will learn more about the 130 global billionaires with ownership entities in secrecy jurisdictions (100 with total assets worth more than $600 billion in 2021). US citizens are so far underrepresented in these leaks, largely because of where the wealth service providers were located. No US wealth-advisory firms were part of the leaks. Nonetheless, more than 700 companies revealed in the Pandora Papers have ties to real human owners in the US. The big news for rest of the world is how the United States has become a major tax haven and global destination for illicit wealth. Earlier leaks, such as the Panama and Paradise papers, reinforced the misperception that most of these financial shell games take place "offshore," in secrecy jurisdictions and tax havens in small countries with weak banking laws. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #6 The use of the term "illicit" begs the question. |
| Posted by: Bubba Lover of the Faeries8843 2021-10-06 14:18 |
| #5 What makes the wealth "illicit"? As far as I can see, they're using it (incorrectly) as a synonym for "confidential" and trying to make it all sound corrupt. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2021-10-06 13:39 |
| #4 All the dirt on the Biden Crime Family is on display, no secret documents or exposes needed. All there in that f--ker's laptop and their CEO Tony Bobulinski's affidavit and public interviews. |
| Posted by: Sheba tse Tung4690 2021-10-06 11:38 |
| #3 US citizens are so far underrepresented in these leaks, largely because of where the wealth service providers were located. Translation: We just can't find any dirt on Trump. |
| Posted by: Matt 2021-10-06 11:33 |
| #2 They shoulda taken up painting, like Hunter B. The art market is the best, most effective money laundry on earth. |
| Posted by: Sheba tse Tung4690 2021-10-06 09:36 |
| #1 But your $600. ATM withdrawal or check MUST be monitored. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2021-10-06 09:05 |