Posted on by astyrra_713s8o

#panamapapers

annnmoody:

centaurself:

What?

A few hours ago, a German news organisation called “Süddeutsche Zeitung” released an article detailing how they, along with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and a lot of other news organisations, had about 2.6 terabytes of data from a Panama law firm called “Mossack Fonseca”. This firm sells “shell” companies – companies which only exist on paper – to basically anyone who asks, allowing them to cover up business dealings by doing it under the name of the shell company.

Politicians, FIFA officials, celebrities, athletes, drug smugglers, and fraudsters are all some of the people who have been implicated in this leak.

What does this mean?

Mossack Fonseca allows some of the wealthiest people in the world to move a lot of their money to tax havens, so as a result they can pay far, far less tax than they would normally. This allows their wealth to grow to immense sizes, driving income inequality sky-high.

Who is in the leak?

Family members close to the Russian President Vladimir Putin, the actor Jackie Chan, the Icelandic Prime Minister, high-ranking Chinese authorities, and many other public officials around the world are allegedly found in the documents leaked so far.

How big is this leak?

Over 11 million documents are in this leak, of which just 149 have been released as of writing. This is the single biggest data leak in history, entirely about corruption.

What will this change?

Already, there are huge calls in Iceland for the prime minister to resign, and to call an election. With the Icelandic Pirate Party currently leading the polls, that could be a fascinating change.

Also, it’s likely that many people currently in power could be forced to resign, or be placed in prison.

Is this actually illegal?

Technically, no. Having a shell company in order to move money around is not illegal in itself; however, a lot of the people who use this system are doing it in very dodgy and occasionally illegal ways. The president of the Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, used Mossack Fonseca to increase his wealth after being elected on the same day that his soldiers were being killed by the Russian army, for example.

Links for more information

This is the most informative post I’ve seen on the Panama papers thus far so, boost