![]() ![]() Mossack Fonseca officials claim the documents are being processed out of context and do not imply any wrongdoing on its part. Mossack Fonseca also claims to cease services to clients it finds to be questionable or affiliated with regimes in Syria, Zimbabwe and North Korea. While Mossack Fonseca cannot speak to individual accounts or practices the firm assures the international community its practices are widely utilized by firms globally and are in compliance with international governing bodies as well as all local Panamanian regulations. Mossack Fonseca representatives insist their clients set up offshore accounts and shell companies for legal operations such as conducting cross-border mergers, bankruptcies, estate planning, personal safety, restructuring and pooling of investment capital from different jurisdictions. With the publication of the Panama Papers, documents linking the Panama based law firm Mossack Fonseca,to the offshore bank accounts of global leaders and business people, Mossack Fonseca representatives have denied any wrongdoing, stating for confidentiality reasons they are unable to speak about any of its clients’ operations. “Mossack Fonseca’s response to the Panama Papers” In addition, the US could already be seen as a business-friendly tax haven, removing the incentive to utilize law firms like Mossack Fonseca for offshore asset management. It is also possible that Mossack Fonseca happens to not cater to an American clientele. This could be due to the sheer volume of documents: with 11.5 million documents in all the search has yet to conclude. With the recent allegations against Icelandic Prime Minister Gunnlaugsson and the UK’s Prime Minster Cameron we have yet to hear about Americans being implicated in the Panama Papers. “The Panama Papers: Where Are The Americans?”īy Kelly Phillips Erb, Forbes, April 10, 2016 The International Consortium of Journalists is not interested in publishing innocent people’s financial information, only public figures who have committed wrongdoing. That way the journalism was conducted responsibly. For instance, if there was a Brazilian citizen implicated, the link was sent to a Brazilian journalist to process and report on the relevant data. The ICIJ web developers built a URL to house the data, a link to which would then be sent to journalists around the globe. The information remains under the control of the ICIJ which utilized 400 journalists to sort through the data for over a year before making the leak public. The data was delivered to Obermayer over time and in pieces, he then introduced the data to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). ![]() The source of the data is unknown, having used encrypted means to communicate with Bastian Obermayer, a reporter for the German paper Suddeutsche Zeitung. The Panama Papers are comprised of emails, database files, and PDFs. ![]() The data point to a global tax evasion system that reaches back to the firm’s conception forty years ago. The Panama Papers are the largest leak in history, with 2.6 terabytes of data gleaned from the law firm Mossack Fonseca. “How Reporters Pulled Off the Panama Papers, the Biggest Leak in Whistleblower History” There are, however, legal reasons for utilizing offshore accounts, such as needing to have a business in a country to secure land for a retirement home or opening a bank account in a more financially secure or politically stable country. These holdings are often used to conceal illegal activity and avoid taxation and oversight by regulatory bodies. ![]() Putin of Russia, King Salman of Saudi Arabia, President Mauricio Macri of Argentina, the soccer star Lionel Messi, FIFA officials, relatives of President Xi Jinping of China, and members of the Chinese Politburo Standing Committee. Some of those implicated include: close associates of President Vladimir V. The so-called Panama Papers, millions of leaked documents from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, were published by the International Consortium of Journalists and reveal the concealment of wealth by many international leaders and business people. Mossack Fonseca officials maintain innocence and insist their services are in compliance with international laws and regulations. Many top level government officials from around the world have been revealed to be clients of the firm. The Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca experienced the largest data breach ever with the recent publication of the Panama Papers by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |