Whoever leaked the Mossack Fonseca papers appears motivated by a genuine desire to expose the system that enables the ultra wealthy to hide their massive stashes, often corruptly obtained and all involved in tax avoidance. These Panamanian lawyers hide the wealth of a significant proportion of the 1%, and the massive leak of their documents ought to be a wonderful thing.
Unfortunately the leaker has made the dreadful mistake of turning to the western corporate media to publicise the results. In consequence the first major story, published today by the Guardian, is all about Vladimir Putin and a cellist on the fiddle. As it happens I believe the story and have no doubt Putin is bent.
But why focus on Russia? Russian wealth is only a tiny minority of the money hidden away with the aid of Mossack Fonseca. In fact, it soon becomes obvious that the selective reporting is going to stink.
The Suddeutsche Zeitung, which received the leak, gives a detailed explanation of the methodology the corporate media used to search the files. The main search they have done is for names associated with breaking UN sanctions regimes. The Guardian reports this too and helpfully lists those countries as Zimbabwe, North Korea, Russia and Syria. The filtering of this Mossack Fonseca information by the corporate media follows a direct western governmental agenda. There is no mention at all of use of Mossack Fonseca by massive western corporations or western billionaires – the main customers. And the Guardian is quick to reassure that “much of the leaked material will remain private.”
What do you expect? The leak is being managed by the grandly but laughably named “International Consortium of Investigative Journalists”, which is funded and organised entirely by the USA’s Center for Public Integrity. Their funders include
Ford Foundation
Carnegie Endowment
Rockefeller Family Fund
W K Kellogg Foundation
Open Society Foundation (Soros)
among many others. Do not expect a genuine expose of western capitalism. The dirty secrets of western corporations will remain unpublished.
Expect hits at Russia, Iran and Syria and some tiny “balancing” western country like Iceland. A superannuated UK peer or two will be sacrificed – someone already with dementia.
The corporate media – the Guardian and BBC in the UK – have exclusive access to the database which you and I cannot see. They are protecting themselves from even seeing western corporations’ sensitive information by only looking at those documents which are brought up by specific searches such as UN sanctions busters. Never forget the Guardian smashed its copies of the Snowden files on the instruction of MI6.
What if they did Mossack Fonseca database searches on the owners of all the corporate media and their companies, and all the editors and senior corporate media journalists? What if they did Mossack Fonseca searches on all the most senior people at the BBC? What if they did Mossack Fonseca searches on every donor to the Center for Public Integrity and their companies?
What if they did Mossack Fonseca searches on every listed company in the western stock exchanges, and on every western millionaire they could trace?
That would be much more interesting. I know Russia and China are corrupt, you don’t have to tell me that. What if you look at things that we might, here in the west, be able to rise up and do something about?
And what if you corporate lapdogs let the people see the actual data?
UPDATE
Hundreds of thousands of people have read this post in the 11 hours since it was published – despite it being overnight here in the UK. There are 235,918 “impressions” on twitter (as twitter calls them) and over 3,700 people have “shared” so far on Facebook, bringing scores of new readers each.
I would remind you that this blog is produced free for the public good and you are welcome to republish or re-use this article or any other material freely anywhere without requesting further permission.
“The leak is being managed by the grandly but laughably named “International Consortium of Investigative Journalists”, which is funded and organised entirely by the USA’s Center for Public Integrity. Their funders include
Ford Foundation
Carnegie Endowment
Rockefeller Family Fund
W K Kellogg Foundation
Open Society Foundation (Soros)”
There is a certain irony in this – the organisation exposing the use of multiple shell companies in dodgy tax havens to hide the tax liabilities of the world’s oligarchs is itself run through a series of shell foundations funded by some of the world’s longest standing oligarchs (who use charitable foundations as a means of avoiding tax).
From the article below: “A huge leak of more than 11.5 million documents from a Panama-based law firm saw the British media jump to accuse President Vladimir Putin of corruption, despite the Russian president not being named in any of the papers.”
https://www.rt.com/uk/338300-cameron-putin-panama-papers/
who would’ve thought that RT would jump to Putin’s defence?
But they’re right though. Putin isn’t named but the gaurdian article reads like they’ve found a smoking gun if you omit the first paragraph.
The Guardian!!!!!!, http://order-order.com/2016/04/04/media-organisations-using-offshore-havens/
“As it happens I believe the story and have no doubt Putin is bent.”
A) What’s story?
B) Umm, regime is Moscow will be mopped up by popular unrest tomorrow as result of this. Maybe in October.
Craig? Really? Is this for “governed by consent”? Well too many question marks for you, I guess.
Obviously, Mossack Fonseca is the CIA’s front end. Why would those sheiks needs off-shores when ipso facto they own everything?
Anybody knows when Green Greenwald
Anybody knows when Green Greenwald, Seymour Hersh or some “investigate journalist” will jump on the bandwagon?
Putin beats them in the field, time and time again.
Western media, politicians, and military respond with dubious sources, tall tales and childish smear.
They’re so used to bullying and slaughtering the defenceless, they’re lost when faced with someone their own size.
Like Israel in Lebanon 2006.
Doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in their leadership.
Putin beats them in the field, time and time again.
Herbie
“Western media, politicians, and military respond with dubious sources, tall tales and childish smear.
They’re so used to bullying and slaughtering the defenceless, they’re lost when faced with someone their own size.
Like Israel in Lebanon 2006.”
_____________________
Or like the Syrian “army” every time it locked horns with the Israeli army?
I believe Herbie was talking about Putin and Hezbollah. What’s Syria got to do with it?
Poor old Craig.
He makes the perfectly reasonable point that there is corruption amongst the rich and powerful in every country, including Russia, and his site is immediately infested with Putin-bots who can’t imagine their icon as anything less pure than the driven white snow, driving around in his old Lada, struggling to get by on a modest salary while all his mates have become multi-billionaires and laundered their dirty money all around the world. Bless.
“He makes the perfectly reasonable point that there is corruption amongst the rich and powerful in every country, including Russia, and his site is immediately infested with Putin-bots”
Yes that was totally the point Craig was making, I mean this sentence says just as much:
“I know Russia and China are corrupt, you don’t have to tell me that. What if you look at things that we might, here in the west, be able to rise up and do something about?”
Oh wait.. it doesn’t at all, he’s actually making a point which “Putin-bots” merely agree with.
Btw: How would you label yourself? A Obama-bot? A NATO-bot? Or just the regular ass socket-puppet account, as employed by pretty much every major power these days?
I am amazed at the jumps to defend Putin. I do not understand why so many immediately jump to the “Western propaganda” defense of anything exposed about Putin. The “West” surely is no angel, nor sits on the moral high ground, but that is no defense of Putin, who has persecuted dissenters, oppressed the LGBT community, as well as others and is no hero for freedom or progress. By a very long shot.
Why this site don’t have different languages?
You need Google translate. Google it.
Craig,
Thanks for the article.
It should be remembered that the BBC themselves use tax avoidance schemes. The business arm of the BBC, BBC Worldwide, which deals with the selling of BBC programming to other countries, uses a Dutch entity to channel profits as taxation on intellectual property is virtually non-existent in Holland.
Yes. And I believe Pacific Quay is owned in the Cayman Islands.
And the Graun. It should be remembered that tax avoidance is legal (and desirable). It is the hypocrisy of their position that is inexcusable.
Surprise, surprise….the president has off shore account. Cameron’s dad too.
https://www.occrp.org/en/about-us
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) another the CIA’s project. Pardon me, Open Society one
The way I see it “they” are so desperate they stop to hiding its connections.
Oh look, another “those bastards with money hid it from those of us without any” story. More pontificating and self righteous bollox because if the shoe were on the other foot, all those whining would have used whatever means possible to have kept control of their own money
I suppose that makes it all right to embezzle money, because anyone else in the same position would have embezzled it too.
Most people are satisfied with enough money to provide a measure of security for themselves and their families. If I received £74,000 annually (an MP’s salary), I would be so delighted to have so much money, I would happily pay £13,000 of the last £32,000 of it in tax. If you don’t believe me, get stuffed.
Oh look, more pontificating and self righteous bollox from someone with, let me guess, more money than most trying to defend the indefensible hoarding of untaxed wealth acquired from taxpayer-supported economies. Parasites with this mentality are pathologically incapable of understanding people who are not motivated purely by selfish greed.
The left are the worst of the lot when they gain wealth and power, because they believe they are entitled to it.
So when did the ‘left’ ever have money n power? Arsehole.
Remember how Greek governments refused to make any use of the list they were given of rich Greeks who were evading taxes.
Including the current Syriza govt since it first came to power (so sources inside the Greek administration tell me).
Bullshit!
The greek goverment proposed it but the IMF rejected it.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-23/why-imf-will-reject-latest-greek-proposal-just-two-numbers
do your homework mate!
It is you who is talking bullshit. Where in your link is there anything about the IMF telling the Greek govt it should not follow up on the Lagarde list?
Everyone in Greece evades tax. Combined with massive state spending it’s the reason the country is so fucked.
Lord Ashcroft has denied allegations and says documents linking him to Mossack Fonseca either don’t exist or are falsified.
If you can’t trust a pollster who the hell can you trust?
David Cameron’s father was mentioned but he is dead so no investigation this government looks after its own so far no mention of names involving peers MPs etc. that are still living and answerable for what crime they may have committed I’m not interested in Putin north Korea etc. I want to know what our home grown are guilty of and punished accordingly
A few here to be going on with.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/david-cameron-father-and-senior-tory-figures-named-in-panama-papers-leak-a6967116.html
I see nothing about this story on the home page of the Washington Post’s web site. It was the lead item in the headline stories that Democracy Now! opened with today.
I also paged through today’s print Washington Post this morning, and saw nothing about this story there either.
Amy Goodman said on Democracy Now! this morning that the story will be featured on tomorrow’s show.
“There is no mention at all of use of Mossack Fonseca by massive western corporations or western billionaires – the main customers.”
And on which source do you base this conjecture? Any private insights?
You critizice the media for not being objective, but you write nothing but unfounded opinion.
I have mixed feelings about this story.
On the one hand, a lot of rich politicians (and their cronies) are exposed as the hypocrites they are.
On the other hand, the money they avoided paying in taxes is money that is not available to various states to buy weapons and screw people’s lives up in various ways.
It would just be nice if the rest of us had the same choices available to us.
“On the other hand, the money they avoided paying in taxes is money that is not available to various states to buy weapons and screw people’s lives up in various ways.”
Going by past experience they will still increase weapons spending by using your money to arm dictatorships and bail out banks rather than spending it on the NHS, schools, and the less fortunate among us. Why use up their valuable cash when they’ve got everybody else’s to dip into?
Nice points: except the Süddeutsche has provided access to interpol and the german police, also the consortium has medias that are not linked to those corporations like the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE, which is State run and have actually brought up that one of the biggest banks in the nordics (Nordea) has made these OA:s to panama and was detailed in the documents.
No mention WHATEVER of this massive data leak on BBC Breakfast TV this am, nothing, not a peep, zilch, nada
Strange, it’s main headline on their web page with live coverage.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news
No, instead the entire lead story was coverage of the immigrant repatriation program, taking up exactly the same time-segment that BBC Radio 4 gave to the Panama issue as its lead (I had both on in different rooms). Curious, huh?
I for one am very pleased to see that Pakistani ‘refugees’ have found safe sanctuary in Turkey.
Given that Turkey has been exposed as one of the leading sponsors of “ISIS” I would have thought there were better places for them to go.
Agree with you totally. I could be wrong, but at first glance, there seems to be no “power players” from North America. Must be their Puritan heritage that keeps them so saintly!
The Guardian smashed its hard drive containing the Snowden files, after copying the data, and storing it in several ‘cloud’ locations … thus making the hardware destruction a pointless exercise …
It wasn’t the Guardian who copied the data to the cloud. Just as with book-burning, the existence of other copies does not make it less reprehensible. The Guardian sashed its drives on direct instruction from MI6, who physically supervised.
Great job. This unbridled greed by the rich who are squirreling public to satisfy their extravagant lifestyles funds away must be exposed.
Hats off to those who made this revelation possible. Why would anyone person need so much money when you have multitudes who barely get by on a daily basis?
I want to see ALL The Tax avoiders – anybody out there who can provide? Then please do!
Judging by the (UK) times at which many comments appeared I should say that quite a few non-UK resident readers have posted.
I rather welcome the fact that we have heard more from abroad than the usual two or three people (“Lysias” and “Ben” our good American friends and Canspeccy from Canada) and hope this will continue in the future. It is good that the many shades of opinion out there should be voiced on here and not just a couple from Washington DC (allegedly) and the marijuana growing belt of California.
Is it in response to my comment (above) that one of the people mentioned has upped rather considerably the frequency of his posts (see following pages)?
One wonders how someone allegedly working in a Washington law office has the time to post throughout the day…..
What good will it do to punish any or all so exposed? How would that prevent future transgressions? Who is interested in changing this game?
Many people are poor in the world and with this money we can help better the poor and little bit.
It’s impossible to find a solution for all the problems of human beings but we can help a little bit.
You’ve answered the question I was asking!
Did Tony Benn’s name come up?
Why don’t you check yourself, instead of making sly insinuations while expecting others to do the work for you?
I put that up purely in the hope of a rise from you, Glenn. 🙂 You must be reading the comments all the time!
It must be hard coming to terms with the fact that your hero was a tax-avoider. 🙁
I doubt you are telling the truth, that was only the second comment I’ve made in several days. Do you anyone – anyone at all – reads all these comments? More of your grandiose delusions, to actually believe that I’d read ALL of them, yet yours was the only one worth a reply.
One reference to Tony Benn’s tax affairs and out you pop.
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Thanks.
So why is this not flooding the internet.? I can believe for a minute Anybody capable of leaking this info. Would be niave enough to trust ANY MSM to run with this. ITS COMMON KNOWLEDGE MSM. IS PROPAGANDA OUTLETS. just saying.
Yes, that’s what jumped out at me when I first read it, no American Billionaires or Millionaires?
Then when you see Soros name attached, two and two quickly become 4.
Those western individuals, especially those in positions of power, will now be at the beck and call of these people and forced to bow down. This is obviously all about American hegemony over Russia & China and the BRICS nations.
Perhaps the leak was a planned propoganda smear/plot by western bankers / politicians themselves. I am terribly suspicious that Iceland is mentioned, and Argentina (where Obama just visited) but it seems that no other ‘western’ government leaders / corporations are mentioned by name. If is one-sided then it is lies or propoganda, and to me it smells.
Perhaps it’s just a massive anti-climax like most of these ‘data dumps’ emanating from the likes of WikiLeaks. Doesn’t seem to stop the left wanking themselves into a frenzy though.
Good piece, I bet there’s a few executive producers from the beeb on that list.
I expect the files will surface at some point for us all to see in their original format.
Are you the gentleman who was in danger of extradition to the United States?
not a serious question, surely?