After the revelations of the Panama Papers, one of the most prominent news stories across the globe, questions have been raised who did it and why.
Already, authorities across the globe have opened investigations into the activities of the world’s rich and powerful after a cache of leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm showed possible wrongdoing using offshore company structures, says Reuters.
The “Panama Papers” have cast light on the financial arrangements of high profile politicians and public figures and the companies and financial institutions they use for such activities. Among those named in the documents are friends of Russian President Vladimir Putin and relatives of the leaders of China, Britain, Iceland and Pakistan, and the president of Ukraine.
Notable exceptions to the list of crooked leaders included US President Obama and India’s PM Narendra Modi, writes The Times of India.
According to the ICIJ, the Indian newspaper said, the lead for the leak came in late 2014 when an unknown source reached out to the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, which had reported previously on a smaller leak of Mossack Fonseca files to German government regulators. The source reportedly contacted Suddeutsche Zeitung reporter Bastian Oberway via encrypted chat offering some sort of data intended “to make these crimes public”.
However, according to ToI, the source warned that his or her “life is in danger”, was only willing to communicate via encrypted channels and refused to meet in person. “How much data are we talking about,” Obermayer asked, according to an account in Wired. “More than you have ever seen,” the source responded. The eventual stash added up to 2.6 terabytes, a 100 times bigger than Wikileaks’ Cablegate, and enough to fill 600 DVDs.
Obermayer says he communicated with his source over a series of encrypted channels that they frequently changed, each time deleting all history from their prior exchange.
ToI said in their Suddeutsche Zeitung report, Obermayer and his co-authors write that the source wanted neither financial compensation nor anything else in return, apart from a few security measures. To this day, Obermayer says he does not know the name of the person or the identity of the person who leaked the documents, but feels he knows the person. “For certain periods I talked to (this person) more than to my wife,” he reportedly told Wired.
Silence and denial
Silence from Amitabh Bacchan and denial from Aisharya Rai Bacchan’s spokespersons are the latest updates to the leak of over 500 Indians’ names from over 11.5 million offshore tax documents, termed ‘Panama Leaks’, according to AP/UNB.
The report said uncovered from the secret files of Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm, it has spilled the beans of Indian big shots including Bacchan, Rai, corporate honchos Sameer Gehlaut, KP Singh, Vinod Adani and more.
Reuters said following the reports, China has moved to limit local access to coverage of the matter with state media denouncing Western reporting on the leak as biased against non-Western leaders.
France, Australia, New Zealand, Austria, Sweden and the Netherlands are among nations that have commenced investigations, and some other countries, including the United States, said they were looking into the matter.
Credit Suisse and HSBC, two of the world’s largest wealth managers, on Tuesday dismissed suggestions they were actively using offshore structures
to help clients cheat on their taxes, reported Reuters.
Kill it, spin it
The Panama Papers are a wake-up call for anyone who may have doubted how deeply cronyism and corruption are rooted into Russia’s leadership.
But for those who have followed the inner workings of Putin’s presidency for the past 16 years or so, they are as much confirmation as revelation, writes Guardian.
What will be truly fascinating is watching how this new mass of information is dealt with by the Putin regime over time, and how this might affect an already tense relationship between the Kremlin and the west.
All of this is very sensitive for Putin. Russians know corruption is rampant. They tend to give their president the benefit of the doubt. But it is no coincidence that the fight against corruption has been a central theme of opposition activists who, like Alexei Navalny, enjoy a strong following in Russia’s social media, Guadian said.
It added that the Kremlin will seek to put a lid on the story – it has already dismissed the revelations as “Putinphobia”
Why some perfectly legal?
Al Jazeera wrote: The so-called Panama Papers highlight how easy it is for the wealthy, political elite and their families to set up shell companies in tax havens to conceal their wealth.
Mossack Fonseca, the Panama-based law firm from which the documents have been leaked, has said it “does not foster or promote illegal acts”. And
that’s the key: wealthy clients who may wish to hide money from their spouses, children and public scrutiny employ law firms to make sure they don’t fall foul of the law.
“While such offshore structures are legal they are increasingly seen as odious in the realm of public opinion,” said Al Jazeera.
How global media covered
The Times of India gave a list of how the Panama Papers are covered.
Chinese state news agency Xinhua appeared to have only one report on its English language website, criticising New Zealand’s “shameful complicity” in the schemes.
It made no mention of Deng Jiagui, President Xi Jinping’s brother-in-law, and family members of two other members of China’s elite Standing Committee, Zhang Gaoli and Liu Yunshan.
Relatives of the three men are listed as directors or shareholders in firms located in tax havens, with the revelations coming amid a high-profile crackdown on corruption in Beijing.
Russia
The opposition newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, carried a seven-page report on details of Vladimir Putin’s associates named in the leaks and dedicated a special section of its website to its findings.
It published the names and details of politicians, officials, regional governors and relatives featured in documents stolen from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca.
But reports said the story was notably absent from state-controlled television, while online outlets attacked Western media coverage.
‘Goebbels had less-biased articles’: Public slams MSM for Putin focus after Panama papers leak, read a headline on Russia Today.
Meanwhile, Sputnik International, the re-branded English language arm of government agency RIA Novosti published quotes from Mr Putin’s official spokesperson blaming “Putinophobia” for the reports.
Saudi Arabia
The King of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, was named in the files that claimed he was linked to offshore firms in the British Virgin Islands and Luxembourg.
But the story was largely absent from the homepages of all main Saudi news sites and the most recent item returned in a search for “Panama” in the official Saudi Press Agency’s archive dated back to January.
The Okaz newspaper did run a report on the leak, but focused on allegations against Bashar al-Assad’s family in Syria, making no mention of Saudi links.
Syria
Reports on the Panama papers were conspicuously absent from the state-controlled Syrian Arab News Agency, despite two of President Assad’s cousins being named in the leaks.
Pro-regime papers did not appear to report on the story, which was carried prominently in the opposition Enab Baladi website, which was set up by activists during the Arab Spring.
Iceland
Revelations that the Prime Minister of Iceland set up a company in the British Virgin Islands with his wife was the country’s dominant news story on Monday.
Amid mounting pressure for Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson to resign, Icelandic news outlets published a series of revelations into his alleged links to Wintris Inc.
He sold his share in the firm in 2009 and has denied any wrongdoing, while refusing to resign.
India
Reports were largely focussing on two prominent Indian actors and a real estate magnate.
The Indian Express, which was one of the media outlets handed the leaked documents eight months ago, published its investigation of more than 500 Indians it said were linked to offshore firms.
The expose resulted in the country’s finance minister, Arun Jaitley warning that anyone failing to declare illegal assets stashed abroad would find “such adventurism extremely costly.”
Prime minister Narendra Modi has promised to prosecute those who evade taxes and to bring back money parked in tax havens but his government has made little progress on that front.
Italy
Italian weekly L’Espresso said about 1,000 Italian clients turned up in the database of offshore accounts cited in a media investigation, including Alitalia chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo.
L’Espresso said documents showed a series of contracts set up in 2007 indicated Montezemolo as the head of a Panama-based company named Lenville. Mr Montezemolo, who was Fiat chairman and Ferrari CEO at the time, was quoted as saying: “Neither I nor my family have accounts abroad or offshore companies.”
The weekly said the names of UniCredit and Ubi Banca also appeared.
The bank responded that it has no subsidiaries or affiliates in either of those countries, adding ”the group has always supported its clients in compliance with regulations currently in force.”
France
The Le Monde newspaper ran the reports prominently, having been among the media outlets researching the database.
Its main article focused on the reaction in Iceland, where the Prime Minister was facing calls to resign, and other world leaders.
The finance minister, Michel Sapin, said authorities would investigate the documents in order to recover money from the hundreds of French citizens who might have committed tax evasion.
Francois Hollande called the leak “good news” and praised the work of whistleblowers, calling for them to be afforded increased legal protections.
Japan
The Kyodo News Service is part of a media consortium that published details of an investigation.
It reported that Secom director Makoto Iida and its late former director Juichi Toda used offshore companies to manage their assets.
Secom, Japan’s largest security company, said it had disclosed to tax authorities all necessary information about the management of assets by Mossack Fonseca and that there was no wrongdoing.
Egypt
Cairo was focusing on claims about the family of former President Hosni Mubarak.
Alaa Mubarak, the ousted leader’s son, was linked to an offshore company called Pan World Investments Inc.
He did not respond to Al-Bab’s request for a comment.
Australia
The ABC reported on an implicated Australian security company among 1,000 Australian links it said it had identified in the data.
Source: Prothom Alo
