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Five key figures implicated in the 'Panama Papers' scandal

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http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-panama-papers-key-figures-20160404-
snap-htmlstory.html

The story starts with a Panama-based law firm, Mossack Fonseca, which sets 
up shell companies in offshore tax havens to protect the global elite. 

After an anonymous insider leaked a vast trove of the firm’s documents to 
a German newspaper more than a year ago, hundreds of journalists from 
dozens of news outlets in more than 80 countries teamed up to investigate 
how the world’s rich and famous – as well as the infamous – move their 
money around and hide their wealth.

The leaked files are called the “Panama Papers.” And the first round of 
stories published this weekend has already rattled governments and public 
figures around the world, with the news outlets led by the International 
Consortium of Investigative Journalists promising more to come.

Here’s a look at some of the most prominent world figures who have been 
implicated so far.

Russian President Vladimir Putin

Putin’s name reportedly does not appear in the 2.6 terabytes of data 
leaked from Mossack Fonseca, which has branches around the world.

But there’s another name that does: one of Putin’s closest friends, Sergei 
Roldugin, a 64-year-old cellist who has somehow amassed $100 million 
through three offshore companies that list him as owner.

The leaked files suggest that Roldugin is not keeping this wealth for 
himself, but is funneling the money to Putin's inner circle. The Guardian 
reports that Putin is at the center of a network of $2 billion in offshore 
deals and loans, with Putin’s friends and associates, including Roldugin, 
earning “millions from deals that seemingly could not have been secured 
without his patronage.”

The transactions, the Guardian reports, “include apparently fake share 
deals, with shares ‘traded’ retrospectively; multimillion-dollar charges 
for vague ‘consultancy’ services; and repeated payments of large sums in 
‘compensation’ for allegedly canceled share deals.”

Roldugin declined to comment about the transactions when approached by an 
investigative journalist after a concert in Moscow in March, saying he was 
“afraid to be interviewed,” and adding: “Where's the money from? Whose 
[money is it]? I know all that. These are delicate matters.”

Russian government officials criticized the Panama Papers reports as being 
part of an anti-Russia conspiracy. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said 
the reports “lack details” and are “based on arguments and speculations.”

Iceland Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson

Revelations from the Panama Papers brought out thousands of protesters 
Monday in Iceland, where the future of the current government is now in 
doubt. Gunnlaugsson has a financial stake in the country’s collapsed banks 
through an offshore company set up by Mossack Fonseca, according to the 
German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, the news outlet that originally 
obtained the leaked documents.

In Iceland, those bank connections are a problem for Gunnlaugsson. Iceland 
was devastated by the 2008 global financial crisis, which saw Iceland’s 
three biggest banks close in three days and the stock market drop 90%. 
More than two dozen executives were convicted in connection with financial 
schemes that helped wreck the nation’s economy. Icelanders are still 
seething.

Documents showed that Gunnlaugsson and his wife were actually creditors of 
the three failed banks – through their offshore shell company that held 
millions of euros' worth of bonds. For Gunnlaugsson, that presents a 
potential conflict of interest, since he has been involved with policy 
decisions that have affected whether and how the banks’ creditors are 
repaid, Süddeutsche Zeitung reported. 

In March, Gunnlaugsson walked out of a TV interview when confronted about 
the company’s ownership. “You’re asking me nonsense,” Gunnlaugsson said. 
“Something is being made suspicious that isn’t suspicious. … This is 
totally inappropriate.” His wife later posted a statement on Facebook 
saying that she was the sole owner of the company and that her husband was 
accidentally named a shareholder.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko

Poroshenko, a candy magnate known as the “Chocolate King,” rose to office 
in 2014 on the promise that he would root out corruption, at a time when 
the country was also battling pro-Russia fighters who had claimed large 
portions of Ukrainian territory.

Now, Poroshenko is facing threats of impeachment after the Panama Papers 
revealed Poroshenko moved assets to offshore holding companies in the 
British Virgin Islands -- “going so far as to arguably violate the law 
twice, misrepresent information and deprive his country of badly needed 
tax dollars during a time of war,” according to an investigation by the 
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

Before his election, Poroshenko promised to sell his candy business, 
Roshen. But after reportedly setting up holding companies for Roshen in 
the Virgin Islands during some of the fiercest fighting in Ukraine, the 
company still hasn’t been sold, and nor had it been put in a blind trust 
as Poroshenko claimed, the journalists’ consortium reported.

The moves potentially violated laws that require financial disclosure and 
forbid starting new companies while serving as president. The news also 
comes as Ukraine’s government is trying to crack down on the use of 
offshore tax havens. Now, opposition lawmakers are calling for an 
investigation, according to the magazine Foreign Policy.

Poroshenko has denied breaking the law. “I believe I might be the first 
top office official in Ukraine who treats declaring of assets, paying 
taxes and conflict of interest issues profoundly and seriously, in full 
compliance with the Ukrainian and international private law,” Poroshenko 
said in a statement on Facebook. “Having become a president, I am not 
participating in management of my assets, having delegated this 
responsibility to the respective consulting and law firms. I expect that 
they will provide all necessary details to the Ukrainian and international 
media.”

FIFA and Lionel Messi

The Panama Papers may go down as one of those classic scandals that have a 
little something for every reader – including fùtbol fans. 

One of FIFA’s ethics committee members, the Uruguayan attorney Pedro 
Damiani, is facing an internal investigation by the world soccer 
association after revelations from the Panama Papers. Damiani's law firm 
manages offshore companies, including several that may have been used to 
pay bribes in the corruption scandal that has led to the arrests of top 
FIFA officials, Süddeutsche Zeitung reported. A spokesman for Damiani told 
the newspaper he could not respond in detail due to the ongoing 
investigation.

Scandal has also touched Lionel Messi, perhaps the world’s greatest soccer 
player. Messi is already facing allegations of using offshore companies to 
illegally avoid taxation in Spain, and the Panama Papers revealed that 
Messi and his father shared ownership in yet another shell company 
temporarily managed by Mossack Fonseca, according to the Süddeutsche 
Zeitung. Messi and his father reportedly declined to comment, but Messi 
has previously said that he signs whatever documents his father presents 
to him.

Ian Cameron, father of British Prime Minister David Cameron

During a parliamentary fight over corporate taxation in January, the prime 
minister claimed that “no government has done more than this one to crack 
down on tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance.”

It turns out the issue is close to home for Cameron. For at least three 
decades, Cameron’s late father, Ian Cameron, ran an offshore investment 
fund to help wealthy British clients avoid paying taxes in Britain, the 
Guardian reported, citing documents among the Panama Papers.

Ian Cameron’s company, Blairmore Holdings, Inc. -- named after the Cameron 
family’s ancestral home in Aberdeenshire -- used a “small army of Bahamas 
residents,” including a part-time bishop, to sign paperwork and serve 
roles including treasurer and secretary in order to avoid British 
taxation, the Guardian reported. Although the Panama Papers reveal the 
elaborate contortions the company had to make in order to avoid taxation, 
there is no suggestion Ian Cameron broke the law, the newspaper reported.

A spokeswoman for David Cameron told the Guardian it was “a private 
matter” when asked if the family still had money invested in the fund. She 
added that Cameron had “taken a range of action to tackle evasion and 
aggressive tax avoidance.”


-- 
Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $19 trillion in the six 
years he has been in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood 
queer liberal democrat donors.

Barack Obama, reelected by the dumbest voters in the history of the United 
States of America.  The only American president to deliberately import a 
lethal infectious disease from Africa, Ebola.

Loretta Fuddy, killed after she "verified" Obama's phony birth 
certificate.

Nancy Pelosi, Democrat criminal, accessory before and after the fact to 
improper vetting of Barry Soetoro aka Barack Hussein Obama, a confirmed 
felon using SSAN 042-68-4425, belonging to a dead man.

Obama ignored the brutal killing of an American diplomat in Benghazi, then 
relieved American military officers who attempted to prevent said murder 
in order to cover up his own ineptitude.

Obama continues his muslim goal of disarming America while ObamaCare 
increases insurance premiums 300% and leaves millions without health care.

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Five key figures implicated in the 'Panama Papers' scandal "Leroy N. Soetoro" <leroysoetoro@usurper.org> - 2016-04-10 21:20 +0000

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