The Panama Papers thread

Panama Papers: Argentina President Macri to go before judge

Argentine President Mauricio Macri has pledged to assert his innocence when he appears before a federal prosecutor on Friday to explain his finances.

An investigation began on Thursday after it transpired Mr Macri was mentioned in the Panama Papers, leaked files of law firm Mossack Fonseca.

Mr Macri said he would file a judicial "declaration of certainty" so the court can see he is telling the truth.

In a televised address, he vowed to prove he had done nothing wrong.

According to local media reports, the president was listed as director of an offshore company in the Bahamas.

He said he wanted to co-operate fully with any inquiry.
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More at:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-35991155
 
Are the Russians actually behind the Panama Papers?

The Panama Papers contain secret corporate financial information, some of which—by far not all—reveals criminal activity. In the hands of law enforcement, such information can be used to prosecute companies and individuals; in the hands of a third party, it is a weapon for blackmail. For information to be effective as a blackmail weapon, it must be kept secret. Once revealed, as in the Panama Papers case, it is useless for blackmail. Its value is destroyed.

Therefore, I suggest that the purpose of the Panama Papers operation may be this: It is a message directed at the Americans and other Western political leaders who could be mentioned but are not. The message is: “We have information on your financial misdeeds, too. You know we do. We can keep them secret if you work with us.” In other words, the individuals mentioned in the documents are not the targets. The ones who are not mentioned are the targets.
Kontrol, the special Russian variety of control

In sum, my thinking is that this could have been a Russian intelligence operation, which orchestrated a high-profile leak and established total credibility by “implicating” (not really implicating) Russia and keeping the source hidden. Some documents would be used for anti-corruption campaigns in a few countries—topple some minor regimes, destroy a few careers and fortunes. By then blackmailing the real targets in the United States and elsewhere (individuals not in the current leak), the Russian puppet masters get “kontrol” and influence.

If the Russians are behind the Panama Papers, we know two things and both come back to Putin personally: First, it is an operation run by RFM, which means it’s run by Putin; second, it’s ultimately about blackmail. That means the real story lies in the information being concealed, not revealed. You reveal secrets in order to destroy; conceal in order to control. Putin is not a destroyer. He’s a controller.
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http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/orde...utin-gaddy?cid=00900015020089101US0001-040801

You beat me to it Xarog
 
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Evil western plot, George Soros, Putin, Donald Duck. Everyone is financing this thing, hold on whilst i fetch more tinfoil.
 
Vrotappel said:
That's boring. Cameron should resign. We know Putin is not going anywhere. Like Zuma he is a parasite that will never let go and needs to be burned off.
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You sound like your hearts been broken. Imagine how you will feel when Cameron Resigns
 
The Panama Papers prove it: America can afford a universal basic income

e should all be able to agree: no one should be poor in a nation as wealthy as the US. Yet nearly 15% of Americans live below the poverty line. Perhaps one of the best solutions is also one of the oldest and simplest ideas: everyone should be guaranteed a small income, free from conditions.

Called a universal basic income by supporters, the idea has has attracted support throughout American history, from Thomas Paine to Martin Luther King Jr. But it has also faced unending criticism for one particular reason: the advocates of “austerity” say we simply can’t afford it – or any other dramatic spending on social security.

The Panama Papers show how vital it is to close tax loopholes so the system’s fair for everyone. It’s a shame some of my colleagues in Congress don’t agree

That argument dissolved this week with the release of the Panama Papers, which reveal the elaborate methods used by the wealthy to avoid paying back the societies that helped them to gain their wealth in the first place.

Roads and transportation infrastructure. Educated workforces. Courts and legal systems. Innovations sparked by government funding, such as the internet. No one – no matter how smart or hard working – joins the American or global elite without making use of these shared resources.

But while working and middle-class families pay their taxes or face consequences, the Panama Papers remind us that the worst of the 1% have, for years, essentially been stealing access to Americans’ common birthright, and to the benefits of our shared endeavors.

Worse, many of those same global elite have argued that we cannot afford to provide education, healthcare or a basic standard of living for all, much less eradicate poverty or dramatically enhance the social safety net by guaranteeing every American a subsistence-level income.

The Tax Justice Network estimates the global elite are sitting on $21–32tn of untaxed assets. Clearly, only a portion of that is owed to the US or any other nation in taxes – the highest tax bracket in the US is 39.6% of income. But consider that a small universal income of $2,000 a year to every adult in the US – enough to keep some people from missing a mortgage payment or skimping on food or medicine – would cost only around $563bn each year.

A larger income, to ensure that no American fell into absolute abject poverty – say, $12,000 a year – would cost around $3.6tn. That is a big number, but one that once again seems far more reasonable when considered through the lens of the Panama Papers and the scandal of global tax evasion. Because the truth is that we have all been robbed, systematically, by the world’s wealthiest people, for decades. They have used those stolen dollars to build yet more wealth for themselves, and all the while we have been arguing with ourselves over what to do with the leftover pennies.

Enough. We have the money to solve our problems. The first step is to stop the global elite from hoarding and hiding it. Cracking down on tax evasion alone will not fund all our priorities, but the Panama Papers do put the lie to the politics of austerity.

A universal basic income would go a long way towards ensuring all Americans can have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, as promised way back in 1776. Some may disagree with the notion of an unconditional cash grant, or object to it going to everyone. Just don’t say we can’t afford it.
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guardian.com
 
Has anyone considered that this was a disgruntled staff member or IT consultant? And not some large, global conspiracy involving secret service, MI5, and Kremlin spies?

This is a company that admittedly got nervous about deleting files in the past on account of not being convinced they'd hit the DEL button properly. They also got into trouble because physical copies of incriminating files were not destroyed, but instead left in the bloke's car for supposed safekeeping while being investigated. Considering this PHD thesis marker's reluctance to destroy the files, it sounds to me like they probably embarked on a hard-copy > digital conversion in recent times. Especially considering that OCR was used by the journalists so documents were clearly scanned from hard-copy. This also makes sense considering the problems they'd had in the past with hard-copies and the law. It doesn't appear as if they had in-house IT geniuses working for them and their ordinary staff were certainly not members of the upper-100-IQ club. Considering the size of the cache, it stands to reason that they may have recently moved their servers into the cloud with the help of external consultants or the help of the cloud provider itself. Or an internal genius of theirs. Or someone was tasked with backing this all up.

Occam's razor plays this out perfectly without the need for conspiracy theories. Staff member is exposed to a massive cache of documents of significant importance. Staff member has access because company is not run by people who can find the DEL button repeatedly on a keyboard. Staff member leaks documents. Replace staff member with consultant if you want.

Everyone places too much significance on the size and supposed ease of access. People assume large organisation. In reality, this was probably as simple as remote connect to cloud from private cloud server, download all. Contact journalist, who in turn lead the organisation of fellow journalists to perform the investigation...
 
DJ... said:
Has anyone considered that this was a disgruntled staff member or IT consultant? And not some large, global conspiracy involving secret service, MI5, and Kremlin spies?
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I have. But that's boring. :p

Occam's razor plays this out perfectly without the need for conspiracy theories. Staff member is exposed to a massive cache of documents of significant importance. Staff member has access because company is not run by people who can find the DEL button repeatedly on a keyboard. Staff member leaks documents. Replace staff member with consultant if you want.
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You can't use Occam's razor to claim that the simplest explanation given what is known is what most likely happened given the fact that there are clearly many unknowns at play.

But you are right, your alternative is perfectly plausible. As is any other number of perfectly reasonable alternatives involving jaded girlfriends, crises of conscience, schizophrenic delusions of playing Captain World Justice, yada yada yada...

Everyone places too much significance on the size and supposed ease of access. People assume large organisation. In reality, this was probably as simple as remote connect to cloud from private cloud server, download all. Contact journalist, who in turn lead the organisation of fellow journalists to perform the investigation...
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http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/panama-pap...eca-claims-servers-were-hacked-abroad-1553439

Mossack Fonseca, the law firm caught up in the so-called Panama Papers controversy, has denied the leak of information on over 11 million clients was an inside job and instead claimed that the company was "hacked by servers abroad". Founding partner Ramon Fonseca said a complaint had now been filed with the Panamanian attorney general's office and expressed surprise that more attention had not been given to the alleged cyberattack.
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That rather narrows down the possibilites if they're not lying, no? Of course, we can be sure they weren't lying... :whistle:
 
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DJ... said:
Occam's razor plays this out perfectly without the need for conspiracy theories.
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Of course but none of that is interesting, the funny thing is how this all jumps. Just a few days ago it was a US Soros plot but now its a Putin plot. Speculative tin foil hat bullschit will do that though.
 
Unhappy438 said:
Of course but none of that is interesting, the funny thing is how this all jumps. Just a few days ago it was a US Soros plot but now its a Putin plot. Speculative tin foil hat bullschit will do that though.
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I think you mistake the acknowledgement of interesting possibilities for the belief that those possibilities must be true. I mean, it's not like Darth Soros has been explicitly ruled out... :D
 
Xarog said:
I think you mistake the acknowledgement of interesting possibilities for the belief that those possibilities must be true. I mean, it's not like Darth Soros has been explicitly ruled out... :D
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Its Donald duck quite clearly.
 
Xarog said:
I think you mistake the acknowledgement of interesting possibilities for the belief that those possibilities must be true. I mean, it's not like Darth Soros has been explicitly ruled out... :D
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Can I confirm the qualification criteria for an "interesting" leak source. Is it:

1) on Zerohedge therefore credible; or
2) On Sputniknews therefore practically confirmed by two sources because Zerohedge used the same alphabet; or
3) makes Putin sound fscking badass and so super smart to have planned this all and gotten away with it without a trace (probaby did the whole thing in one night with his shirt off while attacking a polar bear named Barack); or
4) makes Americans appear so transparent and obvious with very little ingenuity and tactical planning that you almost feel sorry for them (Soros, we're looking at you, bro); or
5) has direct, irrefutable ties to Obama (such as being black; or not supporting communism)
6) has indirect ties to Obama (such as being alive; or caught red-handed in a picture clearly holding A4 paper so had forewarning of the leak and the paper is the same brand that Obama uses in the White House, as confirmed by KGB photographic analysis); or
7) story originates from American media and is therefore so hilarious that it almost qualifies as interesting; or
8) Ukraine

Have I missed anything?

:p
 
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