The "Panama Papers" aka "Pandora Papers"

[Dottie Atwater]

I have a lot of information about the "Panama Papers" on my Delphi Forum. http://forums.delphiforums.com/panamaexpats/ Under the Crime Issues folder, Panama Papers VI gives just one instance in which Mossack Fonseca engaged in criminal activities--despite their insistence that they "have done nothing wrong."

And in Panama Papers VII are allegations that the US is behind (and financed) the "leak" in order to discredit the East. (I believe this; I don't put anything past the US government in their attempt to draw attention away from the fact that the US is cratering.)

The "Panama Papers" have nothing to do with Panama other than Mossack Fonseca having offices here. They have offices in a lot of other countries as well, including the US.

Edited April 9, 2016 by Dottie Atwater
correction

[Roger B]

A couple of years ago I wrote a post at BN about my personal opinion of some lawyers.  I do have family and friends that are professionals of the law but I always express them my personal feelings about some of their colleagues.  They could be working something that is legal.... but that doesnt mean that it is moral or ethic.  

 

I posted this picture that Lee Seltzer liked very much.  Remember, this picture dont show lawyers from any particular country.   They are almost all the same everywhere.  Their God is the almighty DOLLAR.

 

 

[JudyS]

1 hour ago, Roger B said:

A couple of years ago I wrote a post at BN about my personal opinion of some lawyers.  I do have family and friends that are professionals of the law but I always express them my personal feelings about some of their colleagues.  They could be working something that is legal.... but that doesnt mean that it is moral or ethic.  

 

I posted this picture that Lee Seltzer liked very much.  Remember, this picture dont show lawyers from any particular country.   They are almost all the same everywhere.  Their God is the almighty DOLLAR.

 

 

Why don't sharks attack lawyers?  Professional courtesy.

[WryAwry]

Those of my fellow CL participants whose safe haven no longer seems quite secure, just withdraw all the cash and send it to me -- in non-descript suitcases or other suitable plain-brown wrappings -- and I'll look after it for you. Send it to the PO box in the storefront in that Miami mini-mall.

We're all in this together,

wryawry

[Bud]

A bit of history into how the "Panama Papers" incident started:

Quote

 

‘Hello. This is John Doe’: The mysterious message that launched the Panama Papers

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/hello-this-is-john-doe-the-mysterious-message-that-launched-the-panama-papers/2016/04/06/59305838-fc0c-11e5-886f-a037dba38301_story.html

 

[Bud]

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[On Tuesday, April 12th] Panamanian authorities raided the global headquarters of Mossack Fonseca, the law firm at the center of a massive documents leak scandal.

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/12/americas/panama-papers-raid/index.html

Seems that this story is like an Everready battery -- it just keeps going and going, and keeps growing and growing. I'm still trying to figure out what was illegal. I continue to feel that Panama the country is getting a bad rap here.

When I wrote "Mind-boggling implications" in the post that started this thread, I think I grossly understated those implications. Perhaps I should have added the word 'massively' (borrowing from the lead sentence of the quoted CNN article) before 'mind'.

[JudyS]

What is illegal is the people with the shell companies and secret accounts are avoiding paying millions (billions?) of dollars in taxes.  This affects everybody.  The slack has to be taken up by people like us who aren't rich enough to play this game and have to pay our taxes.  Can you imagine how much those unpaid taxes could be helping the citizens of the countries they are cheating?  Those would pay for all the public benefits like health care and infrastructure repair. 

Panama screaming, "Well they did it too!"  is kind of like Trump saying, "He did it first!" about the name calling and vicious tweets.  The behavior of 5 year olds.

[Keith Woolford]

John Perkins is the author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman. He writes about the Panama Papers in this article.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/04/12/confessions-panama-papers-hit-man

[Marcelyn]

On 4/13/2016 at 8:13 AM, Keith Woolford said:

John Perkins is the author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman. He writes about the Panama Papers in this article.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/04/12/confessions-panama-papers-hit-man

Keith:. I'm glad you are a member of CL. You have access to material that most of us do not read or know about. Always enjoy reading your various and excellent postings. Thanks mucho.

[JudyS]

1 hour ago, Marcelyn said:

Keith:. I'm glad you are a member of CL. You have access to material that most of us do not read or know about. Always enjoy reading your various and excellent postings. Thanks mucho.

 

4 hours ago, Keith Woolford said:

John Perkins is the author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman. He writes about the Panama Papers in this article.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/04/12/confessions-panama-papers-hit-man

Exactly what I said, only more eloquently said by John Perkins.  " Big corporations benefit from infrastructure and social services without having to foot the bill. Instead, average U.S. citizens pay for it with their hard-earned tax dollars, while the very rich and their corporations shelter their incomes in tax havens like Panama."

It is not only illegal (tax evasion), it is immoral.

[Bonnie]

9 hours ago, Keith Woolford said:

John Perkins is the author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman. He writes about the Panama Papers in this article.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/04/12/confessions-panama-papers-hit-man

Great article. (It could be used as an ad piece for the Bernie Sanders campaign.)

[Keith Woolford]

John Perkins is a good writer and a very interesting guy who I now follow on Facebook.

'Confessions of an Economic Hitman' is one of the most informative books I've ever read. It's also pretty exciting.

[David van Harn]

But, but - wouldn't making the rich pay their fair share of taxes  - especially when such efforts are made by governments that provide welfare and aid to the poor and destitute - be considered a "redistribution of wealth?" 

Such obviously communist schemes make American Tea Party members quiver in their skivvies!

The horror of it all - it must be an American Democratic Party plot!  

Please remember that only hard working middle class people should pay taxes. 

/snark

[WryAwry]

33 minutes ago, David van Harn said:

But, but - wouldn't making the rich pay their fair share of taxes  - especially when such efforts are made by governments that provide welfare and aid to the poor and destitute - be considered a "redistribution of wealth?" 

Such obviously communist schemes make American Tea Party members quiver in their skivvies!

The horror of it all - it must be an American Democratic Party plot!  

Please remember that only hard working middle class people should pay taxes. 

/snark

David, I've provided all your info to The Authorities, and they'll be broadening their investigations accordingly ......

 

sinisterly,

 

wryawry

[Bud]

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The Spanish minister of industry, energy and tourism resigned Friday morning after documents in the Panama Papers linked him to offshore investments in the Bahamas, and news reports then connected him to a company in the tax haven of Jersey.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/16/world/europe/panama-papers-spain.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-15/spanish-industry-minister-soria-resigns-over-panama-leaks

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/15/spanish-minister-soria-resigns-alleged-offshore-links-panama-papers

[Keith Woolford]

Panama Papers names to be made public tomorrow

Journalist group plans to publish identities of people behind more than 200,000 offshore accounts

By Zach Dubinsky, CBC News Posted: May 08, 2016 5:00 AM ET Last Updated: May 08, 2016 5:00 AM ET

They hoped to keep their business private, but some of the world's richest citizens will instead have their finances opened to prying eyes.

Confidential details of more than 200,000 offshore accounts in the Panama Papers — including the names of at least 625 Canadians — will be revealed tomorrow, in the hope that public scrutiny of the material will generate hundreds of tips about possible corruption and tax dodging..

• Royal Bank to turn over files on Panama Papers clients
• Panama Papers taunt masses with more proof game is rigged

The new information, to be released online at 2 p.m. ET in a searchable database, will list:

• The name of anyone listed as a director or shareholder of an offshore company in the huge Panama Papers leak.
• The names and addresses of more than 200,000 offshore companies, though in most cases, the ultimate owner is still shrouded in secrecy.
• The identities of dozens of intermediary agencies that helped set up and run those accounts in tandem with Mossack Fonseca, the Panamanian law firm from which the records were leaked.

CBC News and the Toronto Star, who have exclusive access in Canada to the leaked data, will be publishing a series of stories on Canadians named in it. Those include an examination of a lawyer who was known as a "go to" for wealthy people hoping to move money offshore, and of a convicted fraudster who set up 60 corporations in various tax havens.

Until now, only select names of high prominence have been made public since a group of global media outlets, including CBC and the Star, broke news of the Panama Papers last month.

The Panama Papers database being made public Monday allows searching for a person or offshore company by name and then mapping out links between people and offshore entities. (CBC)

"We think this is a logical next step in the investigation," said Gerard Ryle, director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the Washington-based organization that has been co-ordinating reporting on the records.

"We have 370 journalists around the world looking at the data, but it's so vast, I mean 11½ million documents," Ryle said. "We know we've missed things."

Private documents withheld

Among the 2.6 terabytes of information leaked from Mossack Fonseca, the CBC and the Star have identified around 625 Canadians whose names could be exposed.

The ICIJ has said all along it intended to publish the list of names and accounts in the Panama Papers — which it got from two German journalists who obtained the leak from a source — while withholding the actual documents. Those documents include everything from copies of people's passports to telephone numbers, Mossack Fonseca's internal emails and, in some cases, financial records.

Many prominent names have already emerged since news outlets began reporting on the leak early last month.

• Icelandic prime minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson stepped aside amid allegations he had had a secret offshore account that held bonds in his country's banks, which he failed to list in his parliamentary ethics disclosures. He denied any wrongdoing.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin attacked  the data leak as an American plot when records showed his cronies had amassed nearly $2 billion through a miasma of transactions involving accounts and banks closely linked to him.
• China suppressed internet sites mentioning the Panama Papers in connection with its leaders, after reports showed relatives of President Xi Jinping and of several other top officials had been hiding sometimes vast wealth in offshore companies. China's Foreign Ministry called the allegations "groundless."

It is not illegal for Canadians to have an offshore account, but any income must be reported for tax purposes, as well as any offshore assets totalling more than $100,000. Offshore jurisdictions like the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Isle of Man or Liechtenstein often have strict confidentiality rules for bank accounts and shell companies that make it easier to hide assets from tax authorities.

The ICIJ's Ryle said his organization hopes members of the public will scour the new Panama Papers data and flag any potential malfeasance they spot.

 

ICIJ director Gerard Ryle says 'overwhelming public interest' in the Panama Papers justifies publishing certain details. (CBC)

 

But he also said a deeper principle is at stake: that people shouldn't be able to disguise transactions like real-estate purchases or transfers of huge wealth through the opaque conduit of offshore corporations.

"Leaders of the world, including David Cameron, the British prime minister, have said this basic kind of information is the kind of information that should be made public," Ryle said.

Kim Marsh, a Vancouver-based expert on international financial crime who spent 25 years with the RCMP, said concerns over the anonymity of high-end property buyers in Canadian cities shows the issue cuts close to home.

"We only have to look at what's happening in the property market in B.C., Toronto, elsewhere.... They don't want their names associated with properties, so they'll set up a nominee situation," he said, referring to the registration of a corporation using a figurehead to disguise the real owners. "And there's lots of controversy about that."

Journalist group criticized

The effort to publish details from the Panama Papers is not without opposition. Last week in Miami, at an international conference on offshore havens where Ryle delivered a keynote address, his organization and its media partners were publicly chastised by a number of lawyers for dealing in "stolen" data and for cherry-picking stories from the Panama Papers that, the critics said, made offshore havens look especially nefarious.

In particular, Mossack Fonseca co-founder Ramon Fonseca said in a letter read out after Ryle's remarks that "thanks to people like him, privacy — a basic human right — is already on the list of species in danger of extinction."

Ryle shrugged off the critics.

"There's been overwhelming public interest in these documents, and I think that overwhelming public interest outrides anything that Fonseca is actually saying."

 

Contact the writer of this story at zach.dubinsky@cbc.ca

 

[Bud]

I suspect the Panama Papers issue is going to go on for years and years, and result in some questionable changes.

 

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EU plans Panama Meeting on Mossack Fonseca

Posted on June 21, 2016 in Panama, Panama

 

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THE EUROPEAN Union is not intending  to sit on its hands over alleged irregularities related to the Panamanian law  firm Mossack Fonseca.

Following the creation last week  of a  special commission  to investigate   possible cases of tax evasion that were revealed in “The Panama Papers” and leaked to the media, members are ,planning to meet with representatives of the Panama government as part of the investigation.

German Burkhard Balz, a member of the European People’s Party, informed the newspaper Luxemburger Wort about the meeting.

Balz said that they also plan to subpoena representatives of the firm to clarify the role played by several European officials.

A 65-member commission was created last week to investigate possible cases of tax evasion that were outlined in the files of the law firm.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced it was willing to “cooperate vigorously” with any investigation.

Public Ministry officials declined to comment about the reports says La Prensa.

http://www.newsroompanama.com/news/panama/eu-plans-panama-meeting-mossack-fonseca

[Bud]

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Venezuela, Panama team up in Mossack Fonseca probe

Posted on June 27, 2016 in Panama

Luisa Ortega

 Post Views: 94

 

PROSECUTORS in Venezuela and Panama have teamed up  to investigate the law firm Mossack Fonseca, center of the Panama Papers scandal  says Venezuelan Prosecutor General Luisa Ortega.

 

“I sent a communication to the attorney general of Panama and we formed a joint team of prosecutors in Panama and Venezuela to investigate those cases,” said the official in an interview broadcast Sunday, June 26.

 

Ortega said that the findings of her office “involve many people who are being investigated at this time,” one of whom has already been arrested.

 

She  said that 23 properties have already  been seized.

 

On April 15, Venezuelan authorities arrested businessman Josmel Velásquez, who is accused of financial crimes based on information that was leaked from the law firm.

 

Velásquez is the brother of retired Army Captain Adrian Velásquez. He is linked to companies in the Seychelles, Panama and Venezuela.

 

Panama has also has calls from Switzerland, Brazil, and other countries for help in their investigations sparked by the release of The Panama Papers.

http://www.newsroompanama.com/news/panama/venezuelapanama-team-mossack-fonseca-probe

[Bud]

This story is like an EverReady battery, it just keeps going and going and going.

 

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Panama Bank fingered in Brazil bribery probe

Posted on July 8, 2016 in Panama

The Lava Jato operation has revealed how the Brazilian state company handled millions in bribes

Post Views: 162

ANOTHER  PANAMA link to the Lava Jato (car wash) bribery scandal that has led to the collapse of Brazil’s government and economy involves  the Panama firm Mossack Fonseca.

Police raided the Brazil offices of Mossack Fonseca

The law firm whose activities have sent shock waves around the world served as a vehicle to a person identified in Brazil as a representative of FPB Bank to create offshore companies for customers to hide “dubious” activities, Brazilian officials announced on Thursday, July 7 as part of the investigation.

“The financial institution and the office of Mossack Fonseca were used between different clients to move ‘dirty’ money connected to the Lava Jato investigation,” said federal police according to the Brazilian newspaper Folha.

The researchers detailed that FPB Bank, based in Panama, did not have authorization from the Central Bank of Brazil to operate in the country.

“It acted with the objective of creating accounts in the national territory to facilitate the flow of money of dubious origin to the exterior of the national financial system,” added the Brazilian authorities.

This is at least the third Panamanian bank mentioned in the Lavo Jato investigations, joining Credicorp Bank and Multicredit Bank reports La Prensa.

FPB Bank was registered in Panama in 2004 and and has been licensed by the Superintendency of Banks since May 2005. Its capital is $13.6 million.

http://www.newsroompanama.com/news/panama/panama-bank-fingered-brazil-bribery-probe

[Bud]

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Panama Papers hacking report court bound

Posted on July 21, 2016 in Panama

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THE CASE FILE  of the alleged hacking of computer servers of Panama law  firm Mossack, Fonseca.  center of the Panama Papers  scandal, will  be delivered to the court next week says Ricaurte Gonzalez The senior prosecutor specializing in crimes against Intellectual Property and Security,

“After the completion of diligence and ratification of the report of the experts of the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences (IMELFC) we, will be sending the file to the prosecutor hearing the case,” said González .

During the investigation, the prosecutor,  carried out three inspections to servers and computer equipment of  Mossack Fonseca.
The law firm  filed a complaint of hacking in March but by late  April, the prosecution had failed to prove that there was a hack.

http://www.newsroompanama.com/news/panama/panama-papers-hacking-report-court-bound

[Bud]

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Panama Papers – $30 million loan for client on the run

Posted on July 25, 2016 in Panama, World

Foreign funded mines often use slave and child labor

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Offshore companies connected to 44 of Africa’s 54 countries appear in the Panama Papers leak, according to new research

More than 1,400 companies in the files of the offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca have names that indicate mining or resource extraction interests – raising fresh concerns about how tax havens can be used to exploit the natural wealth of the world’s poorest continent reports The Guardian.

The files contain at least 37 offshore companies with operations in Africa that have been named in legal proceedings or criticised by national or international agencies.

The new research was published on Monday (July 25) by African partners of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which coordinated the initial investigation into the offshore law firm’s leaked files.

Across Africa, 18 media organisations have published their findings – including the African Network of Centers for Investigative Reporting, The Namibian and Verdade in Mozambique.

The revelations include:

• Twelve of 17 companies named by Italian prosecutors as being connected to a middleman in an alleged bribery scheme surrounding an Algerian oil and gas deal appear in the files, including one company described as a “crossroads of illicit financial flows”.
• Mossack Fonseca allegedly helped process a $30m loan for a client in Nigeria despite press reports that he had been “on the run” over potentially criminal petroleum deals.
• At least 30 wildlife safari companiesin Africa are identified as being connected to offshore companies, mostly incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.

Mossack Fonseca told the ICIJ in response to the recent findings that it follows “both the letter and spirit of the law”.

It said: “We have not once in nearly 40 years of operation been charged with criminal wrongdoing. We’re proud of the work we do, notwithstanding recent and wilful attempts by some to mischaracterise it.”

The offshore industry has long protested against the charge that it facilitates the theft of Africa’s natural resources.

A report published in 2014 by a lobbying group for Jersey’s financial services sector argued that tax havens facilitated efficient investment in the developing world, a claim that has been echoed by a US group that lobbies in favour of tax havens.

But such claims have been contradicted by other research into illicit financial flows from Africa.According to a 2015 study commissioned by the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, more than $50bn a year is stolen from countries across the continent via fraud and tax avoidance.

Earlier this year an investigation into the leaked files of Mossack Fonseca by about 100 media organisations exposed the role in the offshore industry of facilitating tax avoidance and alleged crime.

The revelations prompted the former prime minister David Cameron to announce a new agreement between the UK and its network of crown dependencies and overseas territories that would allow law enforcement to access information about the true owner of an offshore company.

Further rules on the automatic exchange of beneficial ownership information were agreed at an international summit on anti-corruption in May.

http://www.newsroompanama.com/news/panama/panama-papers-30-million-loan-client-run

[Bud]

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Panama Papers Reveal Wide Use of Shell Companies by African Officials

By SCOTT SHANEJULY 25, 2016

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Police officers in Panama City standing guard outside the offices of the law firm Mossack Fonseca during a raid on April 12. Credit Ed Grimaldo/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Entrepreneurs and corrupt officials across Africa have used shell companies to hide profits from the sale of natural resources and the bribes paid to gain access to them, according to records leaked from a Panamanian law firm.

Owners of the hidden companies include, from Nigeria alone, three oil ministers, several senior employees of the national oil company and two former state governors who were convicted of laundering ill-gotten money from the oil industry, new reports about Africa based on the Panama Papers show. The owners of diamond mines in Sierra Leone and safari companies in Kenya and Zimbabwe also created shell companies.

Some of the assets cycled through the shell companies were used to buy yachts, private jets, Manhattan penthouses and luxury homes in Beverly Hills, Calif., the law firm documents show.

Articles posted on Monday by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and reports being published this week by news media organizations in 17 African countries, underscore the critical role that secret shell companies can play in facilitating tax evasion, bribery and other crimes. In Africa, offshore finance often underlies the exploitation of mineral wealth, with the benefits bypassing the public and going largely to wealthy executives and the government officials they pay off.

The 11.5 million documents taken from the Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca, by a source who has not been identified have been the subject of news coverage around the world since April, shedding new light on the murky world of offshore finance. The Panama Papers project, organized by the international journalists’ consortium, has involved more than 400 reporters around the world and has set off criminal investigations in many countries.

Mossack Fonseca has said it should not be blamed for wrongdoing by its customers. “We merely help incorporate companies, and before we agree to work with a client in any way, we conduct a thorough due-diligence process,” the firm said in a statement. The statement noted that the firm had not been charged with criminal wrongdoing in nearly 40 years of operation.

But the journalists found that Mossack Fonseca had sometimes missed or ignored evidence of criminal investigations or charges against its clients. Though the records show that the law firm did scrutinize many of those who sought its services, its reviews were often belated or incomplete, according to the articles’ main author, Will Fitzgibbon, who works at the consortium’s office in Washington.

Several major figures examined in the new Panama Papers reports have previously been accused of wrongdoing, and some are under criminal investigation or have been charged. But the details of their use of shell companies had not previously been disclosed.

The consortium identified 37 companies created by the law firm that had been named in court actions or government investigations involving natural resources in Africa. All told, Mossack Fonseca’s files revealed offshore companies that were established to own or do business with oil, natural gas and mining operations in 44 of Africa’s 54 countries.

In one major criminal case, Farid Bedjaoui, a nephew of a former Algerian foreign minister, has been accused by Italian prosecutors of arranging $275 million in bribes to help Saipem, an Italian oil and gas services company, win pipeline contracts in Algeria worth $10 billion. Mr. Bedjaoui, called “Mr. Three Percent” in news media reports for his purported share of the payoffs, has denied the charges.

The journalists’ consortium found that Mossack Fonseca had created 12 of the 17 shell companies linked to Mr. Bedjaoui that Italian prosecutors are investigating as possible conduits for bribes from 2007 to 2010. One of them, Collingdale Consultants Inc., was used to divert as much as $15 million to associates and the family of Chakib Khelil, Algeria’s energy minister from 1999 to 2010, according to the charges.

Mr. Bedjaoui, who has Algerian, French and Canadian citizenship, is accused of spinning a complex web to hide his money, with 16 bank accounts in Algeria, Dubai, Hong Kong, Lebanon, London, Singapore and Switzerland. His assets have been seized in Canada and France, where the police reportedly took a 140-foot yacht and paintings by Warhol, Miró and Dalí. United States officials are examining three New York properties bought by Mr. Bedjaoui, including a $28.5 million Fifth Avenue condominium, records show.

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Ramón Fonseca, a partner and co-founder of the law firm Mossack Fonseca, during an interview in April at his office in Panama City. Credit Arnulfo Franco/Associated Press

Though the investigation of Mr. Bedjaoui first made headlines in February 2013, internal emails at Mossack Fonseca suggest that the law firm did not notice the trouble until seven months later, while conducting an internet search on another client.

Pressed by officials in the British Virgin Islands, where most of the shell companies were registered, Mossack Fonseca said it was unable to provide contact details for employees at the law firm who had served as nominal directors for some of the companies under investigation.

The law firm’s managing director in the British Virgin Islands wrote in an internal email that not having “the basic information on employees is totally embarrassing,” and might result in a fine.

While Mossack Fonseca reported Mr. Bedjaoui’s activities to the authorities in the British Virgin Islands in 2013, the law firm continued working with one of his companies, Rayan Asset Management, until at least November 2015.

Offshore middlemen have incentives “not to know what the companies they are forming are going to be used for,” said Heather Lowe, a lawyer at Global Financial Integrity, an anticorruption group in Washington. “If they know too much, they might have to turn away business.”

As a result, she said, “there’s often no gatekeeper to prevent illicit money from entering the financial system.”

Kola Aluko, an oil and aviation mogul and one of four defendants accused of helping to cheat the Nigerian government out of $1.8 billion in proceeds from oil sales, was another jet-setting user of Mossack Fonseca’s services who was examined by the consortium.

The New York Times reported last year that Mr. Aluko had used shell companies to buy two Beverly Hills mansions for $39 million and two others in Santa Barbara, Calif., for $33 million. In May, shortly after one of the Beverly Hills homes was sold for $21 million, a Nigerian court froze Mr. Aluko’s assets, including a yacht once rented by Beyoncé and Jay Z, two Manhattan penthouses, 132 houses and apartments in Nigeria, $67 million in bank accounts, 58 cars and three airplanes.

Mr. Aluko told the journalists’ consortium that he had never been convicted of a crime and that speculation about wrongdoing on his part was “misguided.”

“As a private citizen, I organize my business and family matters to maximize convenience, as well as operational and administrative efficiency,” he said in a statement.

In another case, the consortium found 131 companies set up by Mossack Fonseca for the Israeli mining magnate Benjamin Steinmetz and his holding company. (The holding company, BSG Resources, told the journalists’ consortium that it had “no familiarity” with many of the companies.) One company, Koidu Limited, mines diamonds in Sierra Leone and is the target of protests and complaints from local residents and environmental advocates.

More surprising, perhaps, is the use of shell companies by safari operators in several African countries — at least 30 offshore companies set up by Mossack Fonseca, the consortium found. As in other African ventures, the offshore operations make it possible to conceal money earned in developing countries but moved elsewhere from the tax authorities or the public.

The journalists’ consortium posted with its articles an online quiz to test knowledge about Africa, its natural resources and offshore finance.

A version of this article appears in print on July 25, 2016, on page A9 of the New York edition with the headline: Panama Papers Reveal Wide Use of Shell Companies by African Officials

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/25/world/americas/panama-papers-reveal-wide-use-of-shell-companies-by-african-officials.html

[Bud]

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US prosecutors investigate Mossack Fonseca staff

Posted on August 2, 2016 in Panama

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SEVERAL EMPLOYEES of  Panama firm Mossack Fonseca (MF) are being investigated by  US Federal  prosecutors  to determine if they were involved in criminal activities.

The information was reported in Wall Street Journal,(WSJ) which added that US authorities are looking into cases of money laundering, tax evasion and abetting corruption.

“The investigation will focus on a handful of employees of Mossack Fonseca, but they plan to then expand,” said the publication, which explained that the process is still in its early stages.

Prosecutors want to know whether individuals at  MF., the law firm at the center of the “Panama Papers” scandal, knowingly helped its clients launder money or evade taxes, according to people familiar with the matter.

“Mossack Fonseca has been in the global spotlight since early April, when a consortium of journalists published a trove of leaked documents showing that the Panama-based firm created hundreds of thousands of shell companies and offshore accounts for rich and powerful people around the world,.”says the WSJ

A spokeswoman for Mossack Fonseca directed all inquiries to the firm’s website, which says the firm “has never been accused or charged in connection with criminal wrongdoing.”

The main focus of this process, according to the newspaper, is to determine if the firm committed illegal acts in cases involving Americans.

The firm also said it “does not advise clients on tax issues or how to operate the companies that it creates.”

http://www.newsroompanama.com/news/panama/us-prosecutors-investigate-mossack-fonseca-staff

[Dottie Atwater]

The pot calling the kettle black. The US has ruined the lives of thousands of Panamanian people because of suspected money laundering (but offered no proof), while money laundering/shell companies in the US continue with no consequences.

Expecting rules to tighten around shell companies after Panama Papers? Not likely.

http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/article92679982.html

 

[Bud]

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Panama Papers scandal hits World Bank nomination

Posted on September 5, 2016 in Panama

Soria (left) hats with Maiano Rajoy in Parliament.

Post Views: 130

Panama Papers scandal hits World Bank nomination

THE MOSSBACK FONSECA scandal has raised questions about  the proposed appointment to the World Bank.of Spain’s former  Minister of Industry, José Manuel Soria,

Soria resigned in April after being named  in the “Panama Papers”

The decision has sparked angry reactions against the government of the Popular Party (PP whose image has deteriorated for its  involvement in numerous cases of corruption uncovered in recent years.

On Saturday, Sep 3,  the Socialists and the leftists called for  urgent explanations  in Parliament by the Minister of Economy, Luis de Guindos.

In a statement issued late Friday, the Ministry of Economy announced that it has selected the  former minister of the conservative Popular Party to occupy one of the 25 seats of executive directors  of the World Bank, based in Washington.

The text referred to  his “extensive experience” and his “history of public service.”

The period of office runs from next  November 1  to 31 October 2018.

It  is a position that Spain shares with Mexico, Venezuela and five Central American countries (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua).

The statement points out that the candidacy of Soria and the other executive directors proposed should be voted by the 189 governors of the World Bank.

Soria left the interim government of Mariano Rajoy in April when his name surfaced as manager since 2002  of a firm domiciled in the tax haven of Jersey in the leaked documents  fom Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

The decision has been lambasted by the centrist Citizens, who this week agreed to an unsuccessful investiture agreement with the President of the outgoing government Mariano Rajoy, including anti-corruption measures.

” Rajoy, unashamedly … proposes a  minister who resigned for having money in tax havens” said  the leader of Citizens, Albert Rivera, in an election rally in Vitoria before the Basque regional elections September 25.

He added that “the PP will have to give explanations of the inexplicable in Congress.”

The socialist leader Pedro Sanchez said from Galicia that in view of this, “Rajoy has no remedy,” and accused him of being the “principal responsible for corruption cases that embarrass the whole of the Spain and the Spanish”.

“They have no shame. The punishment of Soria for his roles in Panama, a place of luxury in the World Bank. A total  provocation,” he wrote on Twitter.

Maria Dolores de Cospedal, general secretary of the PP, argued that Soria is “the most suitable person” for his profile  as an economist and his experience.

http://www.newsroompanama.com/news/panama/panama-papers-scandal-hits-world-bank-nomination