Panama papers

I'm surprised no-one has made a thread on this yet. A Panamanian law firm called Mossack Fonseca has leaked over 11,5 million documents implicating much of the world's political class in off-shore banking and embezzlement. The leaked documents reveal information on the likes of Putin, David Cameron and FIFA. It has already led to Iceland's PM stepping down and has revealed among others that a British banker has aided North Korea in purchasing weapons.

The Guardian has a dossier on its website that features a large amount of articles on all the most important revelations concerning this huge data leak:

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/03/the-panama-papers-how-the-worlds-rich-and-famous-hide-their-money-offshore

Well the things with Putin, Cameron, and FIFA probably aren't real big shocks to people. Especially FIFA. The British banker who sold North Korea weapons needs to be put in prison for the rest of his life and needs to be executed if any of the weapons he gave them were used to kill innocent people.

Anyways, what about America? Anyone from here that is on the list?

This leak I feel just makes us look bad. By "us" I mean people in general. I'm just so so tired of seeing the people in power who are rich corrupt greedy pieces of shit who decide being millionaires isn't enough they need even more.

Can we just like..prohibit rich kunts from attaining positions of political power? Or prohibit them from using their political positions in order to become rich? I mean some of these politicians are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars(sometimes millions) just to give friggin speeches.

Originally posted by Surtur
Well the things with Putin, Cameron, and FIFA probably aren't real big shocks to people. Especially FIFA. The British banker who sold North Korea weapons needs to be put in prison for the rest of his life and needs to be executed if any of the weapons he gave them were used to kill innocent people.

Anyways, what about America? Anyone from here that is on the list?

This leak I feel just makes us look bad. By "us" I mean people in general. I'm just so so tired of seeing the people in power who are rich corrupt greedy pieces of shit who decide being millionaires isn't enough they need even more.

Can we just like..prohibit rich kunts from attaining positions of political power? Or prohibit them from using their political positions in order to become rich? I mean some of these politicians are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars(sometimes millions) just to give friggin speeches.

There's been over 200 Americans linked to the leak but surprisingly few Americans of stature. The Guardian has an interesting article on why that might be. Basically explains that setting up front companies and tax evasion is even easier in the US than it is in Panama:
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/06/panama-papers-us-tax-havens-delaware?CMP=fb_us

Obama has already called for international tax reforms after the revelations from leak. The thing is that this kind of behaviour can easily be explained as ''protection of assets''.

Yeah, I heard a podcast recently that the US is basically the easiest country to set up a shell company...they (certain states) literally require nothing but a name.

Originally posted by Slay
I mistakenly said that he helped North Korea purchase weapons. He actually set up a front company allowing them to sell weapons and allegedly aiding their nuclear weapons program.

Okay this actually sounds even worse then merely helping them get some weapons. Aiding their friggin nukes? Setting up a front? It's like if I set up a daycare center as a front for Jared from Subway.

Life in prison for that chap.

Originally posted by Bardock42
Yeah, I heard a podcast recently that the US is basically the easiest country to set up a shell company...they (certain states) literally require nothing but a name.

Am I the only one disturbed by the fact that only a few Americans of stature made the list? Now some might say "Gee Surtur why is that bad" well..I don't think it means we don't have shady people here doing the same thing. I think it just means the people here are far better at hiding it, which is scary.

Originally posted by Surtur
Am I the only one disturbed by the fact that only a few Americans of stature made the list? Now some might say "Gee Surtur why is that bad" well..I don't think it means we don't have shady people here doing the same thing. I think it just means the people here are far better at hiding it, which is scary.

Apparently most of the documents leaked concerned China, Russia and the Hong Kong financial world. Obviously it makes sense for those countries to set up shell companies in a country like Panama rather than the US.

Though I would think..would this revelation help the country of Panama or hurt it? Wouldn't it be more beneficial for this to of stayed secret?

Originally posted by Surtur
Though I would think..would this revelation help the country of Panama or hurt it? Wouldn't it be more beneficial for this to of stayed secret?

I actually moreso meant if it would hurt them because I'm assuming they gain something by these people having these off shore accounts in their country?

Also isn't it weird that this story doesn't seem to be that big? The first I've heard about it shouldn't of been on a message forum.

EDIT: Okay funny enough NOW I goto comcast.net and see the story. But this happened Sunday though..

Originally posted by Surtur
I actually moreso meant if it would hurt them because I'm assuming they gain something by these people having these off shore accounts in their country?

Also isn't it weird that this story doesn't seem to be that big? The first I've heard about it shouldn't of been on a message forum.

EDIT: Okay funny enough NOW I goto comcast.net and see the story. But this happened Sunday though..

Well, it's been all over the news here in Europe. Like I said the Guardian, Financial Times and most Dutch outlets I follow have had it on their front page since Sunday and the Guardian alone has devoted 100s of articles to it already.

I guess it's probably because the worst of it has to do with people from other countries.

Here is something funny:

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/12/swiss-banker-whistleblower-cia-behind-panama-papers.html?__source=xfinity

This guy says he thinks the CIA are the ones who leaked these papers.

Originally posted by Surtur
Am I the only one disturbed by the fact that only a few Americans of stature made the list? Now some might say "Gee Surtur why is that bad" well..I don't think it means we don't have shady people here doing the same thing. I think it just means the people here are far better at hiding it, which is scary.

I actually wouldn't put it past the CIA to actually pull some shit like this, but the problem is the article doesn't prove anything. I'm not sure why it was even written..it presents no actual facts that support this persons claims.

Ah but it's CNBC, so I'm not surprised they pulled this shit.

The article seems to be presenting the hunch of a former whistleblower but not trying to suggest that this is a fact.

If we're going to start publishing news stories based on peoples hunches..yeah, that more or less explains the problem with the media this day and age.

Despite the fact that starting shell companies is very easy in states like Delaware, Florida and Texas, Oxfam research shows that the 50 largest US companies still off-shore a lot of money:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/14/us-corporations-14-trillion-hidden-tax-havens-oxfam

So we need to make it infinitely more difficult for any dipshits to start shell companies in friggin Delaware and other places.

I mean we're not a democracy, is...is wealthocracy a word? Or rich douche-ocracy?