CONCEPT – PANAMA PAPERS

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 CONCEPT – PANAMA PAPERS

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• The first expose: On 03-April 2015, the ICIJ (International Consortium of Investigative Journalists) published over 11 million leaked documents, about the links of the world’s rich and famous to a Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca. The papers implicated many individuals in tax evasion, facilitating bribery, arms deals, money laundering, and drug trafficking.
• The Panama Papers: Later, the ICIJ, together with the Süddeutsche Zeitung  (German newspaper) and others, analysed the leaked data. The unidentified leaker provided the German newspaper with the 11.5 million files through an encrypted channel.
• Panama, a Tax Haven: Panama has been a known tax haven. What is that? A tax haven is a country or independent area where taxes are levied at a low rate. So they help the super-rich put their money in another country in order to escape the tax rules, transparency regulations, or criminal rules of their own country.
• How do they do it? Tax havens allow wealthy individuals to place their asset in an intermediate legal structure, and not directly. Example: a wealthy businessman who wants to own a new company, instead of owning it directly, can own it through an intermediate structure in a tax haven. Business registries will not list the wealthy businessman’s name, but instead the name of an offshore shell company. Many of the basics of using a tax haven are not illegal.
• The dirty Panama: Panama is one of the most entrenched tax havens in the world. It hosts the third largest number of secretive International Business Companies. It all started following the completion of the Panama Canal. Panama has ignored international cries for transparency in their banking and financial sectors. Panama has built a reputation around minimal taxes, regulations, and disclosure requirements, offering sanctuary for wealthy internationals.
• Mossack Fonseca: It was established in 1986 when Ramón Fonseca and Jürgen Mossack merged their small local law firms in Panama. It is the world's fourth biggest provider of offshore services. Since the leak, the firm maintains a belief that it has not done anything wrong.
• Who’s Who of Mossack Fonseca Clients: The list includes the world’s most wealthy and powerful –12 current or former world leaders, as well as 128 politicians and public officials. Some shining examples : President Vladimir Putin of Russia; PM Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson of Iceland; President Mauricio Macri of Argentina; President Petro Poroshenko of the Ukraine; PM Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan; Xi Jinping of China, and Bashar al-Assad in Syria; FIFA officials; Lionel Messi, the Bachchans etc.

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

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