From Tax Justice Network’s July 21 Taxcast
‘Hello. This is John Doe. Interested in data? I’m happy to share.’ We talk to the two journalists who got the Panama Papers scoop, Bastian Obermayer and Frederik Obermaier who’ve written a book about their experience.
Plus: what does Brexit mean for tax justice? We discuss the F4 (unholy) alliance between Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK, and the accelerated corporate tax race to the bottom.
‘Unfortunately there is the world people like you and me are living in and there is a second world, a parallel world, the offshore world where people with enough money will always find possibilities to hide their money…there are people out there choosing which law they want to stick to and that is a problem for democracy.’ Frederik Obermaier
‘I am very clear about what would happen if you take away the secrecy, if you take away the anonymity. I am completely sure that the whole system would crash because why would they go to the British Virgin Islands for a company when you can see who owns it? You know, it’s not rocket science.’ Bastian Obermayer
Post-Brexit: ‘I think that Britain’s likely development strategy will be to actually deepen its tax haven role sitting offshore Europe.’ John Christensen
Featuring: The Tax Justice Network’s John Christensen, Bastian Obermayer and Frederik Obermaier of the Sudduetsche Zeitung newspaper and authors of the new book: The Panama Papers: Breaking the Story of How the Rich and Powerful Hide Their Money. Produced and presented by Naomi Fowler for the Tax Justice Network. Also available on iTunes.
Former firm was ground zero in Boston for this (Panama Papers), regular folks have no idea.
Well, how about some juicy details, then?
All of this is perfectly legal, the super wealthy made sure of it.
Average income of the firm was roughly $34 million, back then (2008-09ish), I think we had four (4) billionaires as clients. One client, whose name everyone would recognize, spelled his name backwards for a few entities to hide money from their spouse (chuckle).
Anyway, no one cares, this story went away as fast it came onto the scene. The main stream media didn’t cover it, which is no surprise. The managing partner sits on CBS’s BoD, going as far back as Viacom days, and those people certainly do not want undue publicity.
Congress sure as heck isn’t going to do anything, they are owned by these very same. Here you all go:
https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/293360
HOPE XI talk on Panama papers and Mossack Fonseca: http://livestream.com/internetsociety/hopeconf/videos/130645928 – speaker is both legal and tech savvy.