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The Panama Papers are documents which were leaked from Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm which, according to its website, offers “comprehensive legal and trust services.” The website goes on to say that the firm offers “research, advice and services for the following jurisdictions: Belize, The Netherlands, Costa Rica, United Kingdom, Malta, Hong Kong, Cyprus, British Virgin Islands, Bahamas, Panama, British Anguilla, Seychelles, Samoa, Nevada, and Wyoming (USA).” Some of those jurisdictions have been labeled tax havens – including Panama.

The number of documents involved in the leak is staggering: 11.5 million confidential documents, constituting financial and legal records. It is thought to be one of the largest such leaks ever: even bigger than the Edward Snowden Wikileaks documents. The documents take up 2.6 terabytes in computer storage. For context, 1 terabyte of data could be stored on about 1400 CD-ROMs or 220 DVDs.

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The result? The names that you’ve seen on Twitter TWTR +6.95% and in various news sources. Those became associated with the papers when the news first went public. At first, there was a partial release of information on April 3, 2016; more data is expected to be made public next month. The data includes the names of the leaders of Argentina (Mauricio Macri, President); Iceland (Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, Prime Minister); Pakistan (Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister); Saudi Arabia (Salman bin Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Saud, King); Ukraine (Petro Poroshenko, President); and the United Arab Emirates (Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, President). Additionally, information was uncovered linking family members of heads of states in at least 40 other countries including Ian Donald Cameron (father of the Prime Minister of the UK), Alaa Mubarak, (son of the former President of Egypt) and the children of Xi Jinping (President, China).

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Sports figures aren’t immune to the scandal either. Offshore companies named in the papers have been linked to several persons closely involved in the massive FIFA corruption charges. Also finding their names on the infamous list? Arguably the best soccer player in the world, Lionel Messi, who is already facing a trial date on charges of tax evasion in Spain, and fellow Argentine Leonardo Ulloa, forward for Leicester City (sitting comfortably atop the English Premier League).

If many of those names look familiar, you’ve definitely seen them before: the files are said to include 29 billionaires featured in Forbes Magazine’s list of the world’s 500 richest people (though no popular U.S. names have been made public to date).

That said, it’s important to remember that owning an offshore company or creating an offshore trust isn’t illegal. In fact, it’s perfectly legally in most countries, including in the United States. What is illegal, however, is using offshore trusts to hide assets from known creditors or for evading taxation: failure to disclose offshore assets and report offshore income once again made the Internal Revenue Service’s Infamous Dirty Dozen this year.

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For its part, Mossack Fonseca says that it regrets “any misuse of our services and actively take steps to prevent it.” The firm has indicated its disappointment with media reports, taking to its website to say:

Recent media reports have portrayed an inaccurate view of the services that we provide and, despite our efforts to correct the record, misrepresented the nature of our work and its role in global financial markets.

The firm even went so far as to release a lengthy statement, defending its services and offering clarification about its role. (The firm’s entire statement can be downloaded as a pdf.)

More documents – and possibly more big names – will be revealed in the weeks to come. What that means for global financial and tax transparency – as well as the markets – is not certain. Stay tuned: the fallout from the leaks is bound to be felt from London to Beijing.

http://www.forbes.com/

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Hmm, naa ba kahay sakop sa TB nga naapil diri. Ah, si Aylandil galing...

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Ang pagsugod ni Aylandil nga mahimong milyonil...









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Ah, now I understand. Di na kinahanglan sudlan ang piggy banks kay they themselves are worth a fortune! Golden piggy banks worth millions of dollars! A milyonil worthy of her ambitious ancestors and present-day rapaciously duplicitous relatives, indeed...











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