'Panama Papers' leak is secretive, with big clients

[humble3d]

'Panama Papers' leak is secretive, with big clients

Panama City (AFP) - Mossack Fonseca, the Panama-based

law firm at the heart of the "Panama Papers" scandal,

is a discreet outfit with a roster of big-name clients

and a quiet reputation for hiding money from the tax

man.

That cloak of secrecy it wrapped around itself was

ripped apart on Sunday when media organizations around

the world began publishing information from a massive

leak from the firm's supposedly secure data center.

Politicians, sports stars, celebrities -- many were

named in the 11 million pages of documents, according

to information starting to be released by the

International Consortium of Investigating Journalists

(ICIJ), which is parsing the data.

So too were the techniques allegedly used by Mossack

Fonseca to make money trails murky, including slavish

use of off-shore havens such as the British Virgin

Islands and some Pacific Ocean nations.

The revelation detailing the off-shore structures of

many wealthy clients is a "crime" and an "attack" on

Panama, the law firm maintains.

"This is a crime, a felony," Ramon Fonseca, one of the

founders of Mossack Fonseca, told AFP.

"This is an attack on Panama because certain countries

don't like it that we are so competitive in attracting

companies," he said.

- Nazi father -

So who runs Mossack Fonseca, whose headquarters are

housed in a fairly non-descript mirrored building in

Panama's business district?

Juergen Mossack, one of the two lawyers who founded

the firm more than three decades ago, was born in

Germany in 1948 and moved to Panama with his family,

where he obtained his law degree.

Mossack's father was a Nazi in World War II, serving

in Hitler's Waffen-SS, according to the ICIJ, citing

US Army records. It said "old intelligence files"

showed the father had offered to spy for the CIA.

The other founder is Fonseca, born in 1952. He, too,

got his law degree in Panama but also studied at the

prestigious London School of Economics, and once said

in an interview he had mulled becoming a priest.

Fonseca had a small business until he merged with

Mossack and the two went after off-shore business by

opening offices in the British Virgin Islands.

The ICIJ said the leak shows that half of the

companies the law firm incorporated -- more than

113,000 -- were done so in that fiscal paradise.

But Mossack Fonseca also branched out to the Pacific,

to a tiny island nation called Niue.

According to the ICIJ, by 2001 the firm was earning so

much from its off-shore registrations on the island it

was contributing 80 percent to Niue's annual budget.

When the British Virgin Islands was forced to clamp

down on some methods that had previously permitted

anonymous ownership of companies, Mossack Fonseca

moved business to Panama and to the Caribbean island

of Anguilla.

- Online scrubbing -

The law firm spent money to try to remove online

references linking it to money laundering and tax

evasion.

But other countries took an increased interest in what

it was doing. In Brazil, it was named as being one of

the parties within a huge bribery scandal unfolding

involving the state oil company Petrobras.

Last month, Fonseca -- who had also been an advisor to

Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela since 2014 --

declared he was taking a leave of absence.

The step was to "defend my honor" he said, as the

Brazilian allegations piled up.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/law-firm-panama-papers-

leak-secretive-big-clients-015610842.html


http://fusion.net/story/287227/famous-presidents-

shell-companies-trove/

RELATED:

 

http://interactive.fusion.net/dirty-little-secrets/


www.taxjustice.net/cms/upload/pdf/Price_of_Offshore_Re

visited_120722.pdf


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTTq65Ij28c


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SznVtpvbGh8


http://fusion.net/story/287382/panama-papers-data-

visualization/

 

[Pequi]

It's all very sad. A data breach that could end a lot of corruption all over the world ends up in the hands of the ICIJ, a group known to be funded by the very corrupt George Soros and that refuses to share the bulk of the data.

 

They were the ones that handled the HCBC scandal, and chose a right wing newspaper to "release the names" here in Brazil. Of course, no names were released at all. The few names that got out were by whistleblowers that worked there (top names included the Frias family, owners of the newspaper).

 

Now they've sent the list to the biggest two right wing papers and these released the name of two people. One a retired judge, the other already politically dead. But not a single name that matters. Billions exchanged hands, and we will be kept in the dark again.

 

Don't be surprised they say no American had an offshore account between 1970 and 2016. Only people in the BRICs.

They ought to call them the X-Files. Where "X" is "eXclude our friends"

:(

[jamesDDI]

So, it's all true. Not only a 'theory'.. 

[pc71520]

5 hours ago, Pequi said:

ICIJ, a group known to be funded by the very corrupt George Soros

Spot on!!!

One needs to be very skeptical

when it comes to these..."leaks".

[flitox]

apprently, nobody from north america in those lists, which can already be very suspicious, but after all, why go to panama when you've got the delaware state!