Whoever leaked the Mossack Fonseca papers appears motivated by a genuine desire to expose the system that enables the ultra wealthy to hide their massive stashes, often corruptly obtained and all involved in tax avoidance. These Panamanian lawyers hide the wealth of a significant proportion of the 1%, and the massive leak of their documents ought to be a wonderful thing.
Unfortunately the leaker has made the dreadful mistake of turning to the western corporate media to publicise the results. In consequence the first major story, published today by the Guardian, is all about Vladimir Putin and a cellist on the fiddle. As it happens I believe the story and have no doubt Putin is bent.
But why focus on Russia? Russian wealth is only a tiny minority of the money hidden away with the aid of Mossack Fonseca. In fact, it soon becomes obvious that the selective reporting is going to stink.
The Suddeutsche Zeitung, which received the leak, gives a detailed explanation of the methodology the corporate media used to search the files. The main search they have done is for names associated with breaking UN sanctions regimes. The Guardian reports this too and helpfully lists those countries as Zimbabwe, North Korea, Russia and Syria. The filtering of this Mossack Fonseca information by the corporate media follows a direct western governmental agenda. There is no mention at all of use of Mossack Fonseca by massive western corporations or western billionaires – the main customers. And the Guardian is quick to reassure that “much of the leaked material will remain private.”
What do you expect? The leak is being managed by the grandly but laughably named “International Consortium of Investigative Journalists”, which is funded and organised entirely by the USA’s Center for Public Integrity. Their funders include
Ford Foundation
Carnegie Endowment
Rockefeller Family Fund
W K Kellogg Foundation
Open Society Foundation (Soros)
among many others. Do not expect a genuine expose of western capitalism. The dirty secrets of western corporations will remain unpublished.
Expect hits at Russia, Iran and Syria and some tiny “balancing” western country like Iceland. A superannuated UK peer or two will be sacrificed – someone already with dementia.
The corporate media – the Guardian and BBC in the UK – have exclusive access to the database which you and I cannot see. They are protecting themselves from even seeing western corporations’ sensitive information by only looking at those documents which are brought up by specific searches such as UN sanctions busters. Never forget the Guardian smashed its copies of the Snowden files on the instruction of MI6.
What if they did Mossack Fonseca database searches on the owners of all the corporate media and their companies, and all the editors and senior corporate media journalists? What if they did Mossack Fonseca searches on all the most senior people at the BBC? What if they did Mossack Fonseca searches on every donor to the Center for Public Integrity and their companies?
What if they did Mossack Fonseca searches on every listed company in the western stock exchanges, and on every western millionaire they could trace?
That would be much more interesting. I know Russia and China are corrupt, you don’t have to tell me that. What if you look at things that we might, here in the west, be able to rise up and do something about?
And what if you corporate lapdogs let the people see the actual data?
UPDATE
Hundreds of thousands of people have read this post in the 11 hours since it was published – despite it being overnight here in the UK. There are 235,918 “impressions” on twitter (as twitter calls them) and over 3,700 people have “shared” so far on Facebook, bringing scores of new readers each.
I would remind you that this blog is produced free for the public good and you are welcome to republish or re-use this article or any other material freely anywhere without requesting further permission.
I think this is a strong indication that this leak is not a phony op: Jerusalem Post: Hundreds of Israeli companies and shareholders listed in Panama Papers:
Ha’aretz’s article from yesterday shows a Jersey connection: Panama Papers: Massive Tax Haven Document Leak Exposes Corruption and Crime on Global Scale:
It shows that everyone has their own agenda. For some it is Putin, predictably, Putin, for you it is (equally predictably) Israel. But the important thing to note is that it is all coming out, which you were all claiming half-an-bour ago it never would.
EDIT:
It shows that everyone has their own agenda. For some it is, predictably, Putin, for you it is (equally predictably) Israel. But the important thing to note is that it is all coming out, which you were all claiming half-an-hour ago it never would.
Let’s wait for the cache. Don’t jump to irrational conclusions ahead of the curve. Nyuk.
So no great “Western corporate media” conspiracy to cover-up after all.
The fact that they’re apparently willing to throw Israel under the bus doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t protect some powerful people.
Lol. I thought Israel was the “litmus test”?
It’s not a “fact”, Lysias, it’s merely an interpretation on your part.
You have this habit of considering your interpretations be fact.
And who are “they”?
Who indeed? You’ve asked the 64 billion dollar question.
a very silly reply, Lysias.
You write “they” and when asked to be more specific you say you don’t know.
Not very good as a technique, is it.
Jerusalem Post to be commended for its forthright approach. Very different to China and Saudi.
But you will agree it smells..?
“Among the Israeli public figures listed in the documents are attorney Dov Weisglass, former bureau chief of the late prime minister Ariel Sharon; and Israeli businessman Idan Offer.”
____________________
Is that the best you can do – a former bureau chief to a dead Prime Minister and a businessman few people outside Israel have ever heard of?
I bet there are more Irish-Americans and former US Navy officers involved! 🙂
It was a fair Panorama investigation. A brief mention of Putin followed by much greater detail (pulling all the lefty heartstrings) on tax avoidance by private investers in the NHS, which took up the bulk of the programme.
I think Craig might have released too early on this one.
Well written. A conspiracy indeed.
This is only one la firm in Panama, there are thousands of others in tax havens which won’t leak.
This site has some interesting info on the leak and Mossack Fonseca, such as.
Jurgen Mossack’s family landed here in the 1960s. During World War II, his father had served in the Nazi Party’s Waffen-SS, according to U.S. Army intelligence files obtained by the ICIJ. Once in Panama, the elder Mossack offered to spy on communists in Cuba for the CIA. (Mossack Fonseca said the firm “will not answer any questions related to private information regarding our company founding partners.”)
And
The move to Central America positioned Jurgen Mossack to ride the offshore banking wave that crested in Panama (and around the world) in the 1970s, when the country adopted bank-secrecy legislation designed to attract foreign money. Mossack earned a law degree at a private Catholic university, then completed an MBA in London.
In 1977, back in Panama City, Mossack opened his own law firm, a two-person operation: just himself and an assistant. In 1986 he merged firms with Ramon Fonseca, who had studied at the London School of Economics and then spent six years working at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva.
Also
From the start, the firm’s business involved clients with dark secrets, the ICIJ investigation shows. In 1983, six armed robbers looted $40 million in gold bars from the Brinks-Mat warehouse near London’s Heathrow Airport. Less than 18 months later, Mossack formed a Panamanian shell company for a man named Gordon Parry.
Parry was convicted in 1992 of laundering money from the London heist, the second-biggest robbery in Britain’s history. But Mossack continued to do business with the company, despite realizing as early as 1986 that the company was “apparently involved in the management of money from the famous theft from Brink’s-Mat in London,” according to an internal memo. “The company itself has not been used illegally, but it could be that the company invested money through bank accounts and properties that was illegitimately sourced.”
http://interactive.fusion.net/dirty-little-secrets/index.html
ICEland wihdrew EU application and threw bankers in jail. Cameron’s dad, good luck with that Brexit Cameron.
“ICEland wihdrew EU application and threw bankers in jail.”
____________________
It’s a good soundbite but what is the connection? What is your point?
Far from it, the story was perfectly timed. This leak will eventually expose every name on it, for the simple reason that dissemination has occurred multiple times and the trails would have been picked up.
This release would not have just dealt with the Israeli companies, they also would have dealt with those companies the Israeli’s dealt with, usually these practises are sporned by business contacts, private dinners with like minded partners.
The logical conclusion from a leak like this is that, should there have been a safe repository, open to public scrutiny to everyone, been available and open to receive information, then there would have been no need for a western orientated slow release of the usual suspects. If ex employees had a way of contributing, secretary’s CEO’ s and accountants, off shore and/or treasury/civil service, then these economy destroying companies and individuals would have no safe places for their stale and smelly money anymore.
Haiku of the day
‘Leak the lot’,
don’t listen to Habba clot.
Very excellent!
I appreciate this!
MoA’s take on events mentions Craig’s piece:
http://www.moonofalabama.org/
Another hat tip to Craig from Consented:
http://www.consented.co.uk/read/panamapapers-this-changes-nothing/
Looks like Craig got in very early on this one, hence the heavy load on the blog.
Well done!
The lack of US vampires is still a concern, but at least it opens more people’s eyes to how they’re being shafted left, right and centre.
Cameron getting a going over in The Daily Barclay Bros Feudalist:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/04/panama-papers-david-cameron-silent-on-whether-family-money-remai/
But, Cameron has been a bit of a target of late.
From your Torygraph link:
My name got garbled there. I — not some mysterious “uot” — posted the extract from the Torygraph article.
Ever heard of Google?
Yes.
But why should you be so coy – even unhelpful? After all, you do keep mentioning that book (at least ten times so far). And you do keep telling us all sorts of things which can also be found on google, don’t you?
For someone who claims to have read so much you are remarkably thick.
Speaking of leaks, RT: Personal data of 50 million Turkish citizens reportedly leaked online:
One may also ask here: Who are they?
“It’s all a Western corporate media conspiracy. They’ll never mention Israel.”
[Israel mentioned, rather a lot.]
“They’re willing to throw Israel under the bus to defend other interests.”
I suggest that Russia turn the tables, delve into the same original data base and expose the Western Hemisphere entities, banks and persons involved. Tit for tat as it were!
One interpretation of Lysias’ link is, they already did, Rosie. They, or someone like them, have just opened up a NATO country – with apparently contemptuous ease. I imagine that Poroshenko’s involvement will also be the subject of intense Russian interest. They’ll be diverting from the Putin story as enthusiastically as we aren’t.
The scandal is not new in the war of Castles against Cottages –
wonderful is the clear revelation of such a huge dark System of tax avoidance celebrated by the rich to make poors poorer.
Millions of people owe their thanks to such brave whistelblowers because only millions will force unwilling governments and deeply corrupted parliaments to dare a very little change: Deciders could, if they were allowed by finance dictatorship and global robbery.
I’ll fight. I have a really good old high carbon nonstainless pocket knife. David & Goliath situation, but I’m ready.
British banker in North Korea. What we get up to eh. It’s not only the Chinese who travel everywhere. It makes one proud to be British.
Thinking back on WikiLeaks early days there were some big stories, which came out but then disappeared so eyes open.
Thank you for this
well he used to work for FAZ which is totally neoliberal, in line with us / nato narrative and pretty right-wing… he also worked for the cdu / konrad adenauer stiftung… it was only after he broke with the establishment he wandered off into the even more right-wing orgs. seems to happen a lot though in germany…
Doesn’t stop his book from being very enlightening. What really struck me reading it was how little they have to pay journalists in the German-speaking world to turn them into compliant tools.
But I guess here is no different. I recall reading about some CIA figure commenting on how little they had to pay American journalists.
What sort of berk trusts the Graun? I hardly had to wait for them to wield the dagger when Assange trusted them.
Another name which might re-emerge from the Panamanian fog is Margaret Hodge. Memories…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3060029/Labour-s-Hodge-1-5m-shares-offshore-tax-haven-Senior-politician-accused-hypocrisy-following-earlier-fierce-criticism-tax-avoidance.html
Hypocrisy? Elle?
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/mar/09/hsbc-stuart-gulliver-rona-fairhead-margaret-hodge
Oh, there’s another name. HSBC
“In 2012 it emerged her family business paid just 0.25 per cent in tax on its profits.”
25 basis points is an outrage, komo. Can she apply for a refund?
I do not fucking believe it. Even as I type, Margaret Hodge is being invited to supply her opinion on the BBC radio news. Not a word about her shenanigans – just amateur socio-economics, and how marvellous it all is. Oh, and Putin just got a mention.
Aaaargh.
Margaret (Enver) Hodge if you please. ;O))
e.g. the involvement of the Cameron family …
This is what I think we need a lot more of regarding bankers. It is especially true for those of us who can remember their penny-savings bank accounts from school, when we could actually see our money grow. Those were the days when maths teachers set questions like: if a boy saves sixpence a week for twelve months and there is a compound monthly interest rate of 8%, when the annual interest is added to his account, how much money does he have? Remember?
These people are the reason nobody gets set questions like that any more. They’ve got all the compound interest, the thieves.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-corruption-safra-idUSKCN0WX2MD
“….and some tiny “balancing” western country like Iceland…”
I seriously doubt Iceland would be there for “balance”. It would be there for jailing its own bankers after the 2008 financial crisis, either because it would be safe to publish info about them, or because the media doing the publishing would be angry about the bankers being jailed.
Our perhaps defaulting on its bonds? and fx hedges?
Wow. I cannot stop reading.My mouth is open,my my brain Is hungry I need to be feet. I need more information I need the truth.
The full 2,6TB of leaks: http://panamapapers.sueddeutsche.de/articles/56febff0a1bb8d3c3495adf4 Enjoy 😉
Each country reports on the other. GERMANY broke it and UK is covered in corruption according to the Telegraph.
Continued public vigilance is mandatory. Where are the original documents? What can we go to get documents concerning the United States’ corporations, the 1%ers and whoever else is tied up in this? What else do we need to know and where can we get it?
Curious that a couple of posts of mine pointing to the close connection between Mr Ulfkotte – whose book has been plugged on here several times by a certain Transatlantic friend – and the German nationalist, right-wing, anti-immigration and xenophobic movement called “PEGIDA” seem to have been deleted….
I don’t know about this Panama Papers but I remember very well the ordeal Mr. Craig Murray went through when the UK FCO tried to discredit him because of the gross human rights violations he attempted to speak about.
Gorm Pirat, thanks for that link, I’m sure many will explore and define.
The need for a one stop ‘offshore tax information service’, a safe public register becomes more apparent by every leak.
Leak if you must, but watch out for wind speed and direction, seems to be the mode at the moment. But what if people all around the world bear witness to the economy damaging, evading tactics of some? those who worked in just those situations, who still enjoy the privacy of their past employers.
I do not have the knowledge or equipment to set up such a site, contact point, multimedia hub address.