One of the big news stories of the week is the leaking of the Panama Papers, which were a group of 11.5 million documents that originated at the Mossack Fonseca law firm in Panama. This was such a huge leak that it took over 400 journalists an entire year to make a story out of. With the leak came the exposure of around 140 world leaders in about 50 countries who have been caught utilizing tax evading strategies.
While the notion that the globe’s richest people have been able to stash their money in tax havens across the world is nothing new, the documentation is. This was the biggest data leak the world’s history, and it has raised some profound questions about the ethics of national leaders and government officials across the world.
Among those exposed include Vladimir Putin, Nawaz Sharif (Pakistan’s prime minister) and Petro Proshenki (president of Ukraine). Additionally, the papers revealed that the father of British prime minister David Cameron ran an investment fund which succeeded in never paying British taxes by hiring Bahamas residents.
The law firm in which the documents originate have a huge global presence. They have franchises across the world and operates in tax havens everywhere, such as Switzerland, Cyprus and the Virgin Islands. These companies were often used to hold property and bank accounts anonymously.
What these papers reveal, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is that the richest individuals and often world leaders have been getting away with tax evasion for some time now. Often, particularly in the case of the United States, this kind of behavior is allowed through the corruption of the government by these same interests. In fact, just a few years ago, the Panama Free Trade Agreement was passed by US Congress which made tax evading through these means easier than ever before.
Sorry guys, you got caught.
By Olivia Walker – DontComply.com
