Originally shared by Edward Morbius

Originally shared by Edward Morbius

The Panama Papers: Mossack Fonseca offshore banking data breach

Over 11.5 million documents, in 2.6 terabytes of data, coveringing 300,000 companies represented by the Panamanian legal firm of Mossack Fonseca have been leaked to The Guardian, who are reporting on the findings, including a $2 billion trail leading to Russian president Vladimir Putin, ranked by some accounts as the 2nd or 3rd wealthiest person on Earth.

I'm just processing this story myself, there are multiple posts across G+, and I'm going to try assimilating stories in this post for discussion.

This is a continuation of the ICIJ​​​​ and The Guardian​​​​'s earlier offshore banking coverage, also through divulged emails. ICIJ's reporting:
https://panamapapers.icij.org/

This particular item gives a general background and overview of the story, answering questions about Mossack Fonseca, its business-line (a Panama-based law-firm incorporating companies in offshore jurisdictions), operations (Panama, though with worldwide operations of 600 people in 42 countries), clients (300,000 companies), the amount of data leaked (noted above).

The Guardian are also careful to point out that offshore business structures are legal, and not all people using such methods are crooks. But such structures are also heavily used by corrupt government and business officials, criminals, and money launderers.


My sense was that the previous ICIJ/Guardian story was huge. It was also virtually completely unreported in mainstream media, outside the Guardian and ICIJ, whose "Offshore Watch" series I highly recommend. It will be interesting to see how this story develops.

I suspect it will be Trumped and Karadashianed to death. I'd prefer it wasn't.


Backgrounder:
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/03/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-panama-papers

Mossack Fonseca's response:
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/03/mossack-fonsecas-response-to-the-panama-papers

Revealed: the $2bn offshore trail that leads to Vladimir Putin
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/03/panama-papers-money-hidden-offshore

Panama Papers: Mossack Fonseca leak reveals elite's tax havens
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-35918844

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 International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (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: The secrets of dirty money
http://panamapapers.sueddeutsche.de/articles/56febff0a1bb8d3c3495adf4/





http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/03/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-panama-papers

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Entremet

Entremet Originally shared by Kam-Yung Soh "“Like most people in the US, I grew up knowing the words to this carol and even (shudder) singing them occasionally (singing is not a strong point of mine), but never really thought about what they meant, how the carol originated, or what birds were involved”, says Dr Rasmussen in email. So she decided to figure it out. Dr Rasmussen, who’s tied for third for the most bird discoveries in the world, is probably also the world’s foremost avian sleuth, due to her meticulous detective work a few years ago that uncovered the many ornithological thefts and records frauds in museums that were committed by eminent British ornithologist, Richard Meinertzhagen. But who would ever have thought that an old Christmas carol might also hold an avian mystery? “After all, it’s just a Christmas carol!” Dr Rasmussen points out." https://medium.com/@GrrlScientist/meet-the-real-birds-of-the-twelve-days-of-christmas-fame-grrlscientist-5a8bc09350c9
Read more

Flushbunkingly Gloriumptious

Flushbunkingly Gloriumptious Originally shared by Kam-Yung Soh "Renowned children's author and occasional spy, Roald Dahl spent the last years of his life in a home located in the small English village of Great Missenden, and now his beloved village is home to an attractive museum devoted to his life and works.  [...] Today the museum holds all of Dahl's original manuscripts, as well as his "Idea Books" where he would jot down his nascent creations. In addition to celebrating his writing career, there are also displays covering his service in the RAF. However, the crown jewel of the museum is the recreation of Dahl's purpose built "Writing Hut," complete with the arm chair he had customized to write in." http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-roald-dahl-museum
Read more

Originally shared by Kam-Yung Soh

Originally shared by Kam-Yung Soh So Labradors tend to overeat. Now it has been traced to genetic differences. "Dr Eleanor Raffan, a veterinary surgeon and geneticist who studies how genes influence metabolism at the Institute of Metabolic Science at the University of Cambridge recently published a study that examines the genetics that underlie food motivation and obesity in Labrador retrievers. [...] When Dr Raffan and her team carefully examined this POMC gene variant, they found that a small 14-basepair section a little more than halfway down the gene’s length was missing. This deletion creates a frameshift mutation that results in the production of an abnormal protein where the last half is scrambled into a blob of nonsense [...]. Normally, the POMC is translated into the POMC pro-peptide, which is cleaved at precise sites to give rise to number of smaller peptides, including the appetite suppressing neuropeptides, ß-MSH & ß-endorphin, but the abnormal POMC pro-peptide do...
Read more