Plan B Forum

A huge leak of confidential documents has revealed how the rich and powerful use tax havens to hide their wealth.

Eleven million documents were leaked from one of the world's most secretive companies, Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

They show how Mossack Fonseca has helped clients launder money, dodge sanctions and evade tax.

The company says it has operated beyond reproach for 40 years and has never been charged with criminal wrong-doing.

The documents show links to 72 current or former heads of state in the data, including dictators accused of looting their own countries.

Gerard Ryle, director of the ICIJ, said the documents covered the day-to-day business at Mossack Fonseca over the past 40 years.

"I think the leak will prove to be probably the biggest blow the offshore world has ever taken because of the extent of the documents," he said.

Panama Papers - tax havens of the rich and powerful exposed
Eleven million documents held by the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca have been passed to German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, which then shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. BBC Panorama is among 107 media organisations - including UK newspaper the Guardian - in 78 countries which have been analysing the documents. The BBC doesn't know the identity of the source
They show how the company has helped clients launder money, dodge sanctions and evade tax
Mossack Fonseca says it has operated beyond reproach for 40 years and never been accused or charged with criminal wrong-doing
Tricks of the trade: How assets are hidden and taxes evaded
Panama Papers: Full coverage; follow reaction on Twitter using #PanamaPapers; in the BBC News app, follow the tag "Panama Papers"

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-35918844

igmundur David Gunnlaugsson, offered his resignation amid a controversy over his offshore holdings. By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS on Publish Date April 5, 2016. Photo by Birgir Por

LONDON — The prime minister of Iceland submitted his resignation on Tuesday, according to his deputy, succumbing to political pressure two days after an enormous leak of documents from a secretive Panamanian law firm about offshore shell companies and tax shelters.

The resignation of the prime minister, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, signaled the first prominent political casualty from the document leaks known as the Panama Papers, which have shed a harsh light on the private financial activities of many rich and powerful people.

Officials around the world, from Europe to Asia to the Americas, were scrambling on Tuesday to contain the fallout — particularly in Britain, where Prime Minister David Cameron, who has portrayed himself as a champion of financial transparency, was battling revelations in the leaks that British-governed territories are vast havens of hidden wealth, including for members of his own family.

The leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, called for an independent investigation into the tax affairs of all Britons linked to the Panama revelations — including Mr. Cameron’s family — and for Britain to impose direct rule on its overseas territories and dependencies, if necessary, to get them to comply with British tax law.

Iceland's prime minister has resigned - the first major casualty of the leaked Panama Papers that have shone a spotlight on offshore finance.

The leaks, from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, showed Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson owned an offshore company with his wife but had not declared it when he entered parliament

He is accused of concealing millions of dollars' worth of family assets.

Mr Gunnlaugsson says he sold his shares to his wife, and denies any wrongdoing.

He is one of dozens of high-profile global figures mentioned in the 11.5 million leaked financial and legal records, which were first published on Sunday.

liberty wrote:When people believe in a country they are more willing to pay taxes and to make sacrifices, but when people start to loose faith in a country it is every man for himself.

"... Panama Papers: Fifa president Infantino 'dismayed' by media reports

By Richard Conway

BBC Radio 5 live sports news correspondent

From the section Football

FIFA President Gianni Infantino gestures during a news conference at the Colombian Football Confederation headquarters n Bogota, Colombia, 31 March 2016.
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A contract signed by Fifa's new president is named in the Panama Papers, as BBC sports editor Dan Roan reports

Fifa president Gianni Infantino has denied wrongdoing after leaked documents suggested he signed off on a contract with two businessmen who have since been accused of bribery.

Hugo and Mariano Jinkis bought TV rights for Uefa Champions League football and immediately sold them on for almost three times the price.

The 2006 contract was signed off by Infantino when he was a Uefa director.

Infantino says he is "dismayed" that his "integrity is being doubted".

News of the contract came to light after 11 million documents were leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

Uefa initially denied doing business with any of the 14 people who have been indicted by the FBI in its investigation into corruption in world football.

It has now told the BBC the TV rights were sold to the highest bidder in an open and competitive tender process.

A senior Fifa source has told the BBC the deal should be examined by the governing body's ethics committee in the interests of transparency.
What is this all about?

Hugo Jinkis and his son, Mariano, are fighting extradition from Argentina to the United States.

In May 2015, US prosecutors alleged that, as the owners of Cross Trading, they paid millions of dollars in bribes to South American football officials over several years in order to gain lucrative television rights for regional football tournaments.

It is claimed the money was paid to senior football officials in exchange for cheap broadcasting rights that could then be sold on for a substantial profit.

Infantino is named on a contract with Cross Trading that concerns the Ecuadorian rights for Uefa Champions League football between 2006-7 and 2008-9.

Cross Trading, an offshore company registered to the tiny Pacific island of Niue, paid $111,000 (£78,000) for those rights.

Then, according to leaked documents, it sold them to Ecuadorian TV broadcaster Teleamazonas for $311,170 (£220,000).

Cross Trading also paid $28,000 (£20,000) for the rights to the Uefa Super Cup, selling those to Teleamazonas for $126,200 (£89,000).

There is no evidence to suggest Infantino received a bribe relating to the 2006 contract with Cross Trading, and no suggestion Teleamazonas was in any way complicit in any wrongdoing.

At the time, Infantino was the director of legal services with European football's governing body, Uefa.

Cross Trading also has links to Juan Pedro Damiani, a member of Fifa's ethics committee who has already been placed under internal investigation. ..."

"... With time, other members of Putin’s inner circle grew rich. But Roldugin? He told the New York Times in September 2014 that he wasn’t one of them. In the wake of the US-imposed sanctions on many of the Putin group, he said he was no businessman: “I’ve got an apartment, a car and a dacha. I don’t have millions,” he added.

But the Panama Papers reveal that in April of that year, those managing Roldugin’s affairs were suggesting the opposite. They maintained in documents for a Swiss bank that Roldugin was personally making £6.5m a year, and had almost £19m in cash from his secret stake in one of Russia’s most lucrative advertising agencies, Video International.

This was one of a string of heavyweight investments attributed to Roldugin. Another, to buy shares in the truck manufacturers Kamaz, could have netted him at least £100m (the secret option, agreed in 2008 as Putin stepped down as president, was eventually never exercised).

This all raises intriguing questions. Was the cellist just being modest about his investments? Was it possible he was unaware of the enormous sums being amassed in his name? Or could he be acting as a proxy? Last week he said: “Guys, I am not ready to give comments now. These are delicate issues.”

The evidence from Panama points in one direction – towards the close circle surrounding Roldugin’s old St Petersburg friend, the president of Russia.

The Panama Papers show at least five secretly owned offshore entities in the Mossack Fonseca files linked to the Roldugin operation. They have largely meaningless names – Sonnette Overseas, International Media Overseas, Sunbarn, Raytar, Sandalwood Continental Ltd.

But one connection brings them all together. The firms are all linked to a company of Swiss lawyers. And they in turn act for a single organisation: Bank Rossiya, which is no ordinary bank. ... "

Big RR wrote:Nuts Meade? Look at how thousands volunteered for the military in WW1 and WW2 because they believe in America and what it was doing, and contrast this with the draft and resistance thereto when people lost that faith in their government. People can and do make sacrifices for things they believe in.

MajGenl.Meade wrote:

Big RR wrote:Nuts Meade? Look at how thousands volunteered for the military in WW1 and WW2 because they believe in America and what it was doing, and contrast this with the draft and resistance thereto when people lost that faith in their government. People can and do make sacrifices for things they believe in.

Uh Big RR - the point is rich people avoiding taxes. Not how Joe Schmoe flocked to fight Hitler in 1939... sorry 1940... oops 1941... oh dear, 1942.

Show me a rich person who delights in paying taxes because they have faith in the government - better make that 17 rather than 1 - there might be another nutcase out there

Warren Buffett
Bill Gates (Sr)
Myself

Lord Jim wrote:

Warren Buffett
Bill Gates (Sr)
Myself

Which is why the three of you each year refuse to take tax deductions that you would be entitled to, and write checks to the government to pay additional money...

Oh wait...

In fact in your case rube, not only do you not pay more than you are required to, you have repeatedly bragged on this board about how good you supposedly are at figuring out your taxes so well, (reviewing your withholding several times per year, etc.) that you successfully avoid paying even so much as one penny more than the law requires...

This glaring contradiction between your hollow self-righteous claims of wanting to pay more in taxes, while simultaneously bragging about how good you are at doing the exact opposite has always been completely lost on you...

And I have every confidence that it will continue to be...

You want to pay more to the government? Go right ahead, nobody's stopping you. Put you money where your mouth is.

rubato wrote:

Lord Jim wrote:Warren Buffett
Bill Gates (Sr)
Myself

Which is why the three of you each year refuse to take tax deductions that you would be entitled to, and write checks to the government to pay additional money...

Oh wait...

In fact in your case rube, not only do you not pay more than you are required to, you have repeatedly bragged on this board about how good you supposedly are at figuring out your taxes so well, (reviewing your withholding several times per year, etc.) that you successfully avoid paying even so much as one penny more than the law requires...

This glaring contradiction between your hollow self-righteous claims of wanting to pay more in taxes, while simultaneously bragging about how good you are at doing the exact opposite has always been completely lost on you...

And I have every confidence that it will continue to be...

You want to pay more to the government? Go right ahead, nobody's stopping you. Put you money where your mouth is.

I can always count on you to make the least intelligent arguments possible. leavened with your usual bullshit.


yrs,
rubato

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...they do experience some academic problems, particularly with reading comprehension, problem solving, organizational skills, concept development, and making inferences and judgements. In addition, they often have difficulty with cognitive flexibility. That is their thinking tends to be rigid. They often have difficulty adapting to change or failure and do not readily learn from their mistakes (Attwood, 1998).

Big RR wrote:Meade--Delights in paying taxes? You are correct, no one does. Nor does anyone pay more than they are required to pay. However, I do think that people who have faith in the government being a good steward of their money is much more content to pay those taxes than someone who does not have that faith. And I also think that people who have faith in the government will even agree to pay higher taxes if they feel they are being used to the benefit of the country and are not wasted.

It's like buying a car--no one delights in the paying of the price of a car, but if they perceive a parity in value between what they are receiving vs what they are paying, they're willing to do so and to even pay for the additional value.

Face it, rich or poor, people are pretty much alike, and people will make sacrifices if they understand that the sacrifice is justified by a need and not being squandered.