NYT: Leaked Files Detail Offshore Accounts Tied to World Leaders

[Predicto]

Putin apparently was not named anywhere in any of the documents released but lots of people close to him were. He is likely the shadiest person in the entire world.

 

 

Putin loves power, not wealth.   He lets his cronies get rich in order to ensure their support.   He doesn't care about getting any himself.  

[visionary]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/panama-mulls-retaliation-france-looks-put-tax-haven-182815177.html

Panama mulls retaliation as France looks to put it on 'tax haven' list

 

Panama's government said Tuesday it is considering retaliating against France if it makes good on its announcement to put the Central American nation back on a "tax haven" list following the "Panama Papers" revelations.

 

"In Panama, there is a law that sets out retaliation measures against countries that include Panama in 'gray lists'," Alvaro Aleman, the minister for the presidency, equivalent to the post of prime minister, told a news conference.

[zoony]

Putin loves power, not wealth. He lets his cronies get rich in order to ensure their support. He doesn't care about getting any himself.

Putin walked into the croney system left by Yeltsin

I don't agree that he loves power. He has tried to walk away but cannot. He needs to stay in power in order to keep things under wraps

[No Excuses]

Putin loves power, not wealth.   He lets his cronies get rich in order to ensure their support.   He doesn't care about getting any himself.  

 

I'm not sure that's true. Putin is loaded. He's just mastered the act of covering it up and spacing it out amongst his minions. It's difficult to amass this level of power without wealth to back it up.

[Predicto]

I'm not sure that's true. Putin is loaded. He's just mastered the act of covering it up and spacing it out amongst his minions. It's difficult to amass this level of power without wealth to back it up.

 

 

I don't know.   I have read a few articles about him that suggested otherwise.  Russia is a giant kleptocracy, and he is the ringleader, but he basically allows his cronies and some relatives to divide up the spoils.   He enjoys huge perks as the head of state of Russia, things like yachts and vacation homes, but he doesn't own them.   He can have anything he wants without actually owning it, because in Russia, power and wealth are freely interchangeable.  He can collect on his chits anytime he wants.  

 

 

"But where's the proof? Estimates of Putin's wealth lack even the smallest thread of evidence.

Perhaps that's for the best. In the highly personalized political world that Putin has created in Russia, his personal wealth is irrelevant. Consider a 2012 report made by a group of Russian dissidents and sarcastically titled "The Life of a Galley Slave" that took a look at the luxuries Putin's office afforded him. Among the many perks were a lavish estate called Constantine Palace that had recently been renovated at a cost of millions of dollars and 43 aircraft worth an estimated total of $1 billion.

Putin might not technically own these 43 aircraft, but, as the sole political power in Russia, he can act like they're his. He might not own Constantine Palace, either; but it's his, too. Given the enormous political power he has amassed, you can extend this logic further and further: Russia's currency reserves are his; Russia's military is his; even the asphalt that paves Russia's roads is his. Money may give Bill Gates power, but Putin already has the power: He doesn't need the money.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/02/20/is-vladimir-putin-hiding-a-200-billion-fortune-and-if-so-does-it-matter/

 

see also 

 

 

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2013-09-17/vladimir-putin-the-richest-man-on-earth

Putin walked into the croney system left by Yeltsin

I don't agree that he loves power. He has tried to walk away but cannot. He needs to stay in power in order to keep things under wraps

 

 

I am not aware that he wanted to walk away.  Where did you hear this?  

[zoony]

 

I am not aware that he wanted to walk away.  Where did you hear this?

PBS Frontline documentary. A very informative one I thought, too. Highly recommend it think you can watch them free on PBS website or app

[China]

Iceland's PM announces resignation amid Panama Papers fallout

 

...

 

Panama Papers: Uefa offices searched by Swiss police

 

The offices of European football's governing body Uefa have been searched by Swiss police.

 

It follows the naming of ex-secretary general Gianni Infantino - now president of world governing body Fifa - in papers leaked from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

 

Meanwhile, a Fifa official also named in the papers - Juan Pedro Damiani - has resigned.

 

Infantino has denied wrongdoing while Uefa says it is helping police.

 

Click on the links for the full articles

[China]

Where are all the Americans in the Panama Papers?

 

Some of the biggest names to come out of the files include close friends and associates of Vladimir Putin, as well as the prime minister of Iceland, the president of Argentina, and the family of Chinese president Xi Jinping. But we haven’t seen a lot of high-wattage U.S. names in the headlines.

 

...

 

Shima Baradaran Baughman: Americans can form shell companies right in Wyoming, Delaware or Nevada. They have no need to go to Panama to form a shell company to use for illicit activities.

 

James Henry: Americans clearly use offshore all the time. They were some of the first early users of offshore. Back in the 1970s there was something called the Castle Bank & Trust case, out the Bahamas, that exposed 200 prominent Americans who were rock stars, like Creedence Clearwater Revival, the owners of the Hyatt Hotel chain, the Cleveland mafia. All these people were using offshore trusts.

 

What’s happened is that they [Americans] discovered that they really don’t need to go to Panama. Delaware has trusts. Forty-nine states now offer LLCs… Basically, we have an onshore haven industry in the US that is as secretive as anywhere.

 

The big picture is, this is a global network, and this is one particular law firm. This is an extraordinary revelation.

 

Click on the link for more

[visionary]

https://twitter.com/BNONews/status/717816550548500480

Iceland's government coalition agrees to name Agriculture Minister Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson as new prime minister, MP says - Reuters
4:49 PM

[visionary]

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article.php?id=564847〈=en

Panama Leak: Lithuanian Authorities Confirm Transactions by Putin Associate Roldugin

 

The Lithuanian Financial Crime Investigation Service (FCIS) has confirmed that Sergei Roldugin, a close friend of President Vladimir Putin who was named in the Panama Papers, used Lithuanian bank accounts to carry out transactions using offshore companies, the Meduza news website reported Wednesday.

 

Four accounts in Ukio Bankos, which was placed into administration by Lithuanian authorities in 2013, were used to move a significant amount of money, the FCIS said, Meduza reported.

 

Transactions relating to the shares of Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft were carried out by Dino Capital SA, registered in Panama, and Starcourt Worldwide Ltd, registered in Belize — companies identified as fictitious traders by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

 

When the transactions were stopped at the request of the seller, a “penalty” of more than $1.5 million was paid to companies affiliated with Roldugin, the FCIS said.

 

These operations are an indication of money laundering, FCIS director Kestutis Jucevicius said, Meduza reported.

[visionary]

https://www.occrp.org/en/panamapapers/russia-how-to-structure-a-deal-russian-style/

RUSSIA: HOW TO STRUCTURE A DEAL, RUSSIAN STYLE

 

Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin goes back a long way with his friend, Sergei Chemezov.

 

They worked together as young men in the 1980s, when Putin was assigned to Dresden for the USSR’s Committee for State Security (KGB). In fact, the young friends shared a house with other KGB officers in Dresden.

 

Now  Chemezov is the head of Rostec, a giant state corporation  formerly known as Russian Technologies. The military behemoth  encompasses more than 700 subsidiaries that include Kalashnikov, the famous gun manufacturer as well as producers of helicopters, optics, equipment, and high-tech materials.

 

But while the Putin and Chemezov are old KGB friends, the next generation is also benefiting from those ties according to documents received by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and more than 110 media partners from 82 countries.

 

The documents, dubbed the Panama Papers, show that  Chemezov’s son, Stanislav, who, as of July 2010,  owned a holding company named Erliglow Ltd. in the British Virgin Islands (BVI)  that in turn owned a company in Russia that was seeking to build a national fiber optic superhighway system.

A second shareholder in Erliglow was Olga Aleshina, the daughter of Alexey Aleshin, the former  deputy head of the Pre-Rostec Russian Technologies. While the project never got off the ground, the documents gives an inside look at the working of Putin’s inner circle of friends.

 

Erliglow Ltd. lists Dmitry Protsenko as its contact person. Protsenko also was listed as the contact person for eight other offshore companies owned by another set of Putin’s old friends: the brothers Arkadiy and Boris Rotenberg, and Arkady Rotenberg’s son, Igor.

[visionary]

http://www.itv.com/news/2016-04-07/david-cameron-admits-he-had-a-30-000-stake-in-his-fathers-offshore-trust/

Exclusive: David Cameron admits he did have a stake in his father's offshore trust

 

David Cameron and his wife owned shares in the Panamanian trust set up by his late father, before selling them for around £30,000 in 2010, he has exclusively told ITV News.

 

The prime minister made the revelations about his involvement with the offshore fund set up by his father Ian - exposed in the Panama Papers - in an interview with Political Editor Robert Peston.

 

Mr Cameron said he made a profit on around 5,000 units the couple owned in Blairmore Investment Trust, but insisted the money was subjected to UK tax rules.

 

He also divulged details of his £300,000 inheritance and said recent criticism of his father was "unfair".

 

The Conservative leader was dragged into the the Panama Papers scandal after leaked documents from law firm Mossack Fonseca included details of a multi-million-pound offshore firm set up by his father.

 

Downing Street has been forced to issue four statements on the matter, initially saying it was a "private matter" whether the Cameron family still had funds in offshore investments, before stating they "do not benefit from any offshore funds" and there are none they will benefit from in the future.

 

Today the prime minister told ITV News: "We owned 5,000 units in Blairmore Investment Trust, which we sold in January 2010. That was worth something like £30,000.

 

"I paid income tax on the dividends. There was a profit on it but it was less than the capital gains tax allowance so I didn't pay capital gains tax. But it was subject to all the UK taxes in all the normal way.

 

"I want to be as clear as I can about the past, about the present, about the future, because frankly I don't have anything to hide."

 

https://twitter.com/BNONews/status/718144961082949632

UK Labour MP John Mann calls on Prime Minister Cameron to resign after he admitted to having owned shares in offshore fund
2:34 PM

[Zguy28]

Proverbs 5:22

The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them; the cords of their sins hold them fast.

[visionary]

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-04-07/treasury-should-probe-u-s-banks-on-panama-papers-senators-say

Treasury Should Probe U.S. Banks on Panama Papers, Senators Say

 

A pair of the U.S. banking industry’s biggest Senate critics demanded a Treasury Department investigation into offshore banking revelations contained in leaked documents from a Panama-based law firm.

 

Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sherrod Brown of Ohio sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Thursday asking the department to investigate whether U.S. banks, companies and individuals had ties to Mossack Fonseca, the law firm whose leaked records have already prompted the resignation of Iceland’s prime minister and reverberated around the globe.

 

"While we recognize that some of this information may be decades old, we are particularly concerned about whether companies or individuals involved with or utilizing the services of this firm may have facilitated money laundering or terrorist financing with sanctioned persons or entities," they wrote.

 

They said Treasury, and not just the Justice Department, should investigate, given Treasury’s role in the financial markets.

 

"These disturbing revelations and others reveal activity that may threaten our national security and our financial system by undermining U.S. and international laws promoting financial transparency and combating money laundering and terrorist financing," they wrote.

 

The senators asked for a full briefing by May 9.

[visionary]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/06/us/panama-papers.html

Panama Papers Reveal How Wealthy Americans Hid Millions Overseas

 

Over the years, William R. Ponsoldt had earned tens of millions of dollars building a string of successful companies. He had renovated apartment buildings in the New York City area. Bred Arabian horses. Run a yacht club in the Bahamas, a rock quarry in Michigan, an auto-parts company in Canada, even a multibillion-dollar hedge fund.

 

Now, as he neared retirement, Mr. Ponsoldt, of Jensen Beach, Fla., had a special request for Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm well placed in the world of offshore finance: How could he confidentially shift his money into overseas bank accounts and use them to buy real estate and move funds to his children?

 

“He is the manager of one of the richest hedge funds in the world,” a lawyer at Mossack Fonseca wrote when the firm was introduced to Mr. Ponsoldt in 2004. “Primary objective is to maintain the utmost confidentiality and ideally to open bank accounts without disclosing his name as a private person.”

 

In summary, the firm explained: “He needs asset protection schemes, which we are trying to sell him.”

 

Thus began a relationship that would last at least through 2015 as Mossack Fonseca managed eight shell companies and a foundation on the family’s behalf, moving at least $134 million through seven banks in six countries — little of which could be traced directly to Mr. Ponsoldt or his children.

 

These transactions and others like them for a stable of wealthy clients from the United States are outlined in extraordinary detail in the trove of internal Mossack Fonseca documents known as the Panama Papers. The materials were obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and have now been shared with The New York Times.