A little off topic for us but it’s only been 24 hours and the legal media presses are running hot, so to speak.
Though there’s a great Chinese angle considering Xi’s crusade against govt officials and China’s new rich
This one is going to unravel for a few weeks to come
Here are some headlines and links that have already come in
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s family features in the explosive revelations made by the leak of confidential documents showing how world’s most rich and prominent people hide their wealth.
Xi’s brother-in-law Deng Jiagui and family members of at least eight current and former members of China’s powerful Politburo Standing Committee have set up offshore companies through Mossack Fonseca, the Panama-based law firm that has offices in more than 35 countries.
China’s elite—including Xi Jinping—are linked to offshore deals that hid millions of dollars
China’s elite—including Xi Jinping—are linked to offshore deals that hid millions of dollars
At least eight top Chinese officials are linked to offshore deals through associates, an investigation into 11 million leaked documents from one of the world’s largest offshore law firms shows. They include the brother-in-law of Chinese president Xi Jinping, whose offshore firms went dormant before Xi came into power, and the granddaughter of a former top leader who bought an offshore company for just $1.
Family members of at least eight current or former members of Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee, the country’s supreme governing body, hold offshore companies arranged through Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) reported.
The China investigation is part of a leak called “the Panama Papers,” which reveal the hidden financial dealings of over 100 politicians and public officials around the world. Current or former heads of state in the leak include prime ministers of Iceland and Pakistan, the president of Ukraine, and the king of Saudi Arabia. A suspected $2 billion money laundering ring has links to Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, the Guardian reported as part of the leak.
Hundreds of journalists from 78 countries spent a year analyzing and verifying nearly 40 years of records, and published the first installment of their investigation on April 3. The records were given by an anonymous source to German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, and were shared by ICIJ.
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Panama Lawyer At Centre Of Data Leak Denounces Attack On Privacy
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-panama-tax-firm-idUSKCN0X104F
The head of a Panama-based law firm at the center of a massive leak of offshore financial data on Sunday denied any wrongdoing, and said his firm has fallen victim to “an international campaign against privacy”.
German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung said it received a cache of 11.5 million leaked documents from the law firm’s database, and shared them with more than 100 other international news outlets as well as the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
Ramon Fonseca, the director of Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, specialized in setting up offshore companies, said in a telephone interview with Reuters that his firm had suffered a successful but “limited” hack.
Fonseca, the firm’s co-founder and until March a senior government official in Panama, said his firm has formed more than 240,000 companies, adding that the “vast majority” have been used for “legitimate purposes.”
The ICIJ report published on Sunday details billions of dollars of shadowy financial transactions moved through numerous offshore accounts.
Britain´s Guardian newspaper said the documents showed a network of secret offshore deals and loans worth $2 billion led to close friends of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Reuters couldn’t independently confirm those details.
Fonseca emphasized that the firm is not responsible for the activities of the companies it incorporates.
“We’re dedicated to making legal structures which we sell to intermediaries such as banks, lawyers, accountants and trusts, and they have their end-customers that we don’t know,” said Fonseca.
He said that all of the firm’s clients have been notified of “this problem,” arguing that the firm has been caught up in an international anti-privacy campaign.
“We believe there’s an international campaign against privacy. Privacy is a sacred human right (but) there are people in the world who do not understand that and we definitely believe in privacy and will continue working so that legal privacy can work,” he said.
The law firm said in a separate statement published by the Guardian: “It appears that you have had unauthorized access to proprietary documents and information taken from our company and have presented and interpreted them out of context.”
Panama’s government said in a statement on Sunday that it will cooperate with any eventual judicial proceeding relating to the allegations in the report.
(Reporting by Elida Moreno; Writing by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Simon Gardner and Mary Milliken)
The ‘Panama Papers’ Law Firm Responds to the Massive Data Hack
http://fortune.com/2016/04/04/panama-papers-law-firm/
Mossack Fonseca is calling the 11.5 million leaked documents a “limited” breach.
The head of a Panama-based law firm at the center of a massive leak of offshore financial data on Sunday denied any wrongdoing, and said his firm has fallen victim to “an international campaign against privacy.”
Documents tie offshore holdings to law firm with Las Vegas office
BERLIN — An international coalition of media outlets on Sunday published what it said was an extensive investigation into the offshore financial dealings of the rich and famous, based on a vast trove of documents provided by an anonymous source.
The nonprofit International Consortium of Investigative Journalism also delves into a court case involving a Las Vegas subsidiary of a Panamanian law firm whose internal documents are at the center of the organization’s larger investigation.
The Washington, D.C.-based group’s wider investigation focuses on a cache of 11.5 million records detailed the offshore holdings of a dozen current and former world leaders, as well as businessmen, criminals, celebrities and sports stars.
The consortium also delves into a court case involving a Las Vegas subsidiary of a Panamanian law firm whose internal documents are at the center of the organization’s larger investigation.
The Associated Press wasn’t immediately able to verify allegations made in articles that were published by the more than 100 news organizations around the world involved in the investigation.
However, the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which first received the data more than a year ago, said it was confident the material was genuine.
The Munich-based daily was offered the data through an encrypted channel by an anonymous source who requested no monetary compensation and asked only for unspecified security measures, said Bastian Obermayer, a reporter for the paper.
The data concerned internal documents from a Panama-based law firm, Mossack Fonseca. Founded by German-born Juergen Mossack, the firm has offices across the globe and is among the world’s biggest creators of shell companies, the Munich newspaper said.
In the Las Vegas case, NML Capital Ltd., a bondholder that claims Argentina owes it $1.7 billion, went to federal court two years ago to obtain information about the 123 Nevada companies set up by Mossack Fonseca and its Las Vegas subsidiary, MF Corporate Services, according to court documents reviewed Sunday by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which is not part of the journalism consortium.
The litigation was part of NML Capital’s efforts to retrieve the millions of dollars allegedly laundered through the Nevada companies.
Last year, in a 27-page order, U.S. Magistrate Judge Cam Ferenbach supported NML Capital’s effort, ordering MF Corporate Services to provide key information and records to NML Capital.
Ferenbach referred to allegations swirling in Argentina and in the Las Vegas litigation that the laundered money was tied to political insiders close to Argentina’s former presidents, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and her husband, Nestor Kirchner.
Some of the money was allegedly funneled back to the Kirchners, Ferenbach wrote in his order.
A story on the consortium’s website also alleges the firm sought to remove potentially damaging records from phones and computers at the Las Vegas subsidiary to hide client information details from the U.S. justice system. It notes that Mossack Fonseca “categorically” denied hiding or destroying documents that might be used in an investigation or litigation.
Meanwhile, Ramon Fonseca, a co-founder of Mossack Fonseca, said the firm had no control of how its clients might use offshore vehicles created for them.
“We are not responsible for the actions of a corporation that we set up,” he told Panama’s Channel 2.
Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela issued a statement saying his government would cooperate “vigorously” with any judicial investigation arising from the leak of the law firm’s documents. He said that the revelations shouldn’t detract from his government’s “zero tolerance” for any illicit activities in Panama’s finance industry.
Panama law firm papers reveal Nawaz Sharif family’s ‘offshore holdings’
slamabad: Secret files of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca that have leaked into the public domain indicate that Pakistan`s first family — the Sharifs — are the world`s powerful who have established offshore tax havens to park their unaccounted for wealth.
In a data dump that is described as being larger than the leaked US diplomatic cables, around 2.6 terabytes of information have been drawn out of the internal database of Mossack Fonseca and made public.
Available on the website of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists – one of around 100 news organisations and 300 journalists that worked on mining the data simultaneously, the Dawn says Prime Minister Sharif`s children Mariam, Hasan and Hussain are owners or had the right to authorise transactions for several companies.
Mariam is described as “the owner of British Virgin Islands-based firms Nielsen Enterprises Limited and Nescoll Limited, incorporated in 1994 and 1993”.
Xi family, Putin aides, Messi involved with Panama Papers tax leak
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/xi-family-putin-aides/2663024.html
A massive leak of 11.5 million tax documents on Sunday exposed the secret offshore dealings of aides to Russian President Vladimir Putin, world leaders and celebrities including Barcelona forward Lionel Messi.
