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Fast Money & Foreign Objects
Panama Papers have had historic global effects — and the impacts keep coming
The investigation has produced an almost daily drumbeat of regulatory moves, follow-up stories and calls by politicians and activists for more action to combat offshore financial secrecy
By Will Fitzgibbon
emailEmilia Diaz-Struck
5:00 am, December 1, 2016 Updated: 5:01 am, December 1, 2016
Police raided Mossack Fonseca's El Salvador offices in April.
Víctor Peña / El Faro
On April 7, 14 large blue letters quietly disappeared from the outer walls of an office building in an exclusive neighborhood in northern San Salvador.
One by one, the letters came down from the blue and beige stucco walls, leaving behind faint traces of the name of the law firm that had been working there just days before:
M-O-S-S-A-C-K-F-O-N-S-E-C-A.
Employees of the El Salvador branch of Mossack Fonseca, the Panama-headquartered law firm whose leaked files have formed the basis of thousands of news reports exposing the secrets of the offshore financial industry, claimed it was a scheduled relocation.
Salvadoran authorities suspected something else was going on.
Just the day before, they had announced an investigation into citizens who had done business with the law firm. They worried that evidence might be destroyed. So the afternoon after the signage vanished, policemen — some hooded in black balaclavas, wearing soccer jerseys and with handguns holstered at their waists — swept through Mossack Fonseca’s workplace.
Salvadoran police and the country’s General Prosecutor seized 20 computers. Authorities live-tweeted the action as officers invaded the law office.
The raid of Mossack Fonseca’s El Salvador office was one of hundreds of official reactions to Panama Papers — a mix of investigations, fines, high-profile resignations, police raids, arrests, national legal reforms and international conclaves.
Government officials and activists expect the developments to continue for years to come as outrage fueled by Panama Papers revelations drives politicians and citizens alike to bring light to a shadow financial system that, for decades, has resisted reform.
Since the Panama Papers broke in early April, hundreds of journalists from dozens of countries who collaborated on the investigation have published more than 4,700 news stories based on Mossack Fonseca, the globe-spanning law firm that has created hard-to-trace shell companies for corporations, politicians and fraudsters.
The responses to the Panama Papers revelations began immediately after the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung and more than 100 other media partners began releasing their first stories at 2:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern Daylight Time April 3. #PanamaPapers became the No. 1 topic on Twitter. Thousands of protestors marched in streets in every continent except Antarctica. Throngs threw cultured yogurt in Iceland and rocks in Pakistan.
As a result, more than one-third of all nations — at least 79 so far — have announced 150 inquiries, audits or investigations by police, customs, financial crime and mafia prosecutors, judges and courts, tax authorities, parliaments and corporate reviews, according to global media reports and official statements. Thousands of taxpayers and companies are under investigation. Legislatures from Ireland to Mongolia to Panama have rushed through laws to strengthen weaknesses pinpointed by the media partnership’s reporting. Governments have already reported recouping tens of millions of dollars in taxes on previously undeclared funds.
Across four continents, police have raided warehouses, offices and homes. Government officials in three countries have resigned, including a prime minister and an energy and industry minister. Business executives and attorneys are behind bars awaiting criminal trials in the Middle East, Europe and Latin America. In El Salvador, where authorities raided Mossack Fonseca’s office, no criminal charges have been filed, but investigations continue.
The reaction hasn’t ended since the initial wave of responses in April. Panama Papers has produced an almost daily drumbeat of regulatory or legislative moves, follow-up news stories and calls by politicians and activists for more investigation and more action.
In May, the U.S. Treasury and Justice departments proposed a series of new laws and rules that would make it easier for law enforcement authorities and financial regulators to track dirty money inside and outside the United States.
Treasury officials, for example, proposed creating a national corporate ownership registry that could be used by investigators to pull back the veil of secrecy in Delaware, Nevada and other states that allow shell companies created within their borders to hide their owners’ identities and activities. Justice officials’ proposals include measures that would make it easier for prosecutors to force foreign banks to turn over records of their account holders and to use classified information in “kleptocracy” investigations involving high-ranking foreign officials.
A fact sheet from the White House said Panama Papers “has brought the issues of illicit financial activity and tax evasion into the spotlight. The Panama Papers underscore the importance of the efforts the United States has taken domestically, and the efforts we have undertaken with our international partners, to address these shared challenges.”
In October, Ron Wyden, a Democratic senator from Oregon and ranking member of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, wrote to the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service to demand information on what, if anything, the agencies had gathered from the Panama Papers database that had been made public by ICIJ and its media partners.
Panama Papers have had historic global effects — and the impacts keep coming
Continued in link
The investigation has produced an almost daily drumbeat of regulatory moves, follow-up stories and calls by politicians and activists for more action to combat offshore financial secrecy
By Will Fitzgibbon
emailEmilia Diaz-Struck
5:00 am, December 1, 2016 Updated: 5:01 am, December 1, 2016
Police raided Mossack Fonseca's El Salvador offices in April.
Víctor Peña / El Faro
On April 7, 14 large blue letters quietly disappeared from the outer walls of an office building in an exclusive neighborhood in northern San Salvador.
One by one, the letters came down from the blue and beige stucco walls, leaving behind faint traces of the name of the law firm that had been working there just days before:
M-O-S-S-A-C-K-F-O-N-S-E-C-A.
Employees of the El Salvador branch of Mossack Fonseca, the Panama-headquartered law firm whose leaked files have formed the basis of thousands of news reports exposing the secrets of the offshore financial industry, claimed it was a scheduled relocation.
Salvadoran authorities suspected something else was going on.
Just the day before, they had announced an investigation into citizens who had done business with the law firm. They worried that evidence might be destroyed. So the afternoon after the signage vanished, policemen — some hooded in black balaclavas, wearing soccer jerseys and with handguns holstered at their waists — swept through Mossack Fonseca’s workplace.
Salvadoran police and the country’s General Prosecutor seized 20 computers. Authorities live-tweeted the action as officers invaded the law office.
The raid of Mossack Fonseca’s El Salvador office was one of hundreds of official reactions to Panama Papers — a mix of investigations, fines, high-profile resignations, police raids, arrests, national legal reforms and international conclaves.
Government officials and activists expect the developments to continue for years to come as outrage fueled by Panama Papers revelations drives politicians and citizens alike to bring light to a shadow financial system that, for decades, has resisted reform.
Since the Panama Papers broke in early April, hundreds of journalists from dozens of countries who collaborated on the investigation have published more than 4,700 news stories based on Mossack Fonseca, the globe-spanning law firm that has created hard-to-trace shell companies for corporations, politicians and fraudsters.
The responses to the Panama Papers revelations began immediately after the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung and more than 100 other media partners began releasing their first stories at 2:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern Daylight Time April 3. #PanamaPapers became the No. 1 topic on Twitter. Thousands of protestors marched in streets in every continent except Antarctica. Throngs threw cultured yogurt in Iceland and rocks in Pakistan.
As a result, more than one-third of all nations — at least 79 so far — have announced 150 inquiries, audits or investigations by police, customs, financial crime and mafia prosecutors, judges and courts, tax authorities, parliaments and corporate reviews, according to global media reports and official statements. Thousands of taxpayers and companies are under investigation. Legislatures from Ireland to Mongolia to Panama have rushed through laws to strengthen weaknesses pinpointed by the media partnership’s reporting. Governments have already reported recouping tens of millions of dollars in taxes on previously undeclared funds.
Across four continents, police have raided warehouses, offices and homes. Government officials in three countries have resigned, including a prime minister and an energy and industry minister. Business executives and attorneys are behind bars awaiting criminal trials in the Middle East, Europe and Latin America. In El Salvador, where authorities raided Mossack Fonseca’s office, no criminal charges have been filed, but investigations continue.
The reaction hasn’t ended since the initial wave of responses in April. Panama Papers has produced an almost daily drumbeat of regulatory or legislative moves, follow-up news stories and calls by politicians and activists for more investigation and more action.
In May, the U.S. Treasury and Justice departments proposed a series of new laws and rules that would make it easier for law enforcement authorities and financial regulators to track dirty money inside and outside the United States.
Treasury officials, for example, proposed creating a national corporate ownership registry that could be used by investigators to pull back the veil of secrecy in Delaware, Nevada and other states that allow shell companies created within their borders to hide their owners’ identities and activities. Justice officials’ proposals include measures that would make it easier for prosecutors to force foreign banks to turn over records of their account holders and to use classified information in “kleptocracy” investigations involving high-ranking foreign officials.
A fact sheet from the White House said Panama Papers “has brought the issues of illicit financial activity and tax evasion into the spotlight. The Panama Papers underscore the importance of the efforts the United States has taken domestically, and the efforts we have undertaken with our international partners, to address these shared challenges.”
In October, Ron Wyden, a Democratic senator from Oregon and ranking member of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, wrote to the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service to demand information on what, if anything, the agencies had gathered from the Panama Papers database that had been made public by ICIJ and its media partners.
Panama Papers have had historic global effects — and the impacts keep coming
Continued in link
