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A MASSIVE LEAK of 11.5 million tax documents has exposed the secret offshore dealings of aides to Russian president Vladimir Putin, world leaders and celebrities including Barcelona forward Lionel Messi.
An investigation into the documents by more than 100 media groups, described as one of the largest such probes in history, revealed the hidden offshore dealings in the assets of around 140 political figures.
The vast stash of records was obtained from an anonymous source by German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and shared with media worldwide by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
The documents, from around 214,000 offshore entities covering almost 40 years, came from Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm with offices in more than 35 countries.
The investigations allege close associates of Putin, who is not himself named in the documents, “secretly shuffled as much as $2 billion (€1.8 billion) through banks and shadow companies”.
Twelve current or former heads of state are named in the investigations, including the prime ministers of Iceland and Pakistan, the president of Ukraine and the king of Saudi Arabia, as well as sporting and movie stars including Jackie Chan.
They allege Chinese President Xi Jinping’s family has links to offshore accounts, as did the father of British Premier David Cameron, and claim Iceland’s prime minister secretly owned millions of dollars of bank bonds during the financial crisis.
Xi has led a high-profile anti-graft drive in China, targeting the excessive wealth accumulated by Communist Party cadres.
The papers also cast fresh light on the corruption scandal engulfing football’s world governing body, revealing that FIFA ethics committee member Juan Pedro Damiani had business ties with three men who have been indicted over the probe.
Disgraced UEFA chief Michel Platini allegedly used Mossack Fonseca to administer an offshore company, while Messi and his father apparently own a shell company not discovered in a Spanish investigation into the football star’s tax affairs.
Platini’s communications service said in a statement sent to AFP that “all of his accounts and assets are known to the tax authorities in Switzerland, where he has been a tax resident since 2007″.
‘Attack on Panama’
“I think the leak will prove to be probably the biggest blow the offshore world has ever taken because of the extent of the documents,” said ICIJ director Gerard Ryle.
One of the law firm’s founders, Ramon Fonseca, told AFP the leaks were “a crime, a felony” and “an attack on Panama”.
“Certain countries don’t like it that we are so competitive in attracting companies,” he said.
Panama’s government said it had “zero tolerance” for any shady deals, and vowed to “vigorously cooperate” with any legal investigations.
Though most of the alleged dealings are said by the ICIJ to be legal, they are likely to have a serious political impact on many of those named.
Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson is expected to face a no-confidence vote this week over allegations he used a secret offshore firm called Wintris Inc. to hide millions of dollars in the British Virgin Islands.
“I have never hidden assets,” Gunnlaugsson told a journalist from the Swedish SVT channel. “It’s a bit like you’re accusing me of something,” he added, visibly irritated, before calling off the interview.
His spokesman insisted he and his wife have scrupulously followed the law.
At least 33 people and companies listed in the documents were blacklisted by the US government for wrongdoing, including dealings with North Korea and Iran, as well as Lebanon’s Islamist group Hezbollah, the ICIJ said.
The leaked data, covering 1977 to the end of last year, provides what the ICIJ described as a “never-before-seen view inside the offshore world”.
The massive leak of documents recalls Wikileaks’ exploits of 2010 – which included the release of 500,000 secret military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and 250,000 diplomatic cables, and infuriated the US.
‘Biggest leak in history’
However, in terms of size, “the ‘Panama Papers’ is likely the biggest leak of inside information in history” according to ICIJ.
“It is equally likely to be one of the most explosive in the nature of its revelations,” the group added.
There are a number of Irish connections, revealed by The Irish Times. It reports a £250,000 deposit in the name of a British Virgin Islands company was used to support former Fine Gael strategist Frank Flannery’s purchase of a house in London.
The paper also revealed a small business based at a house in Drumcondra is a client of the Mossack Fonseca law firm. The Irish company offers offshore services. In all, the leaked Panama Papers include documents relating to 360 firms with recorded links to Ireland.
Names also figuring in the leak included the president of Ukraine, the king of Saudi Arabia and the prime minister of Pakistan, the ICIJ statement said.
More than 500 banks, their subsidiaries and branches have worked with Mossack Fonseca since the 1970s to help clients manage offshore companies.
UBS set up more than 1,100 and HSBC and its affiliates created more than 2,300.
The documents show that “banks, law firms and other offshore players often fail to follow legal requirements to make sure clients are not involved in criminal enterprises, tax dodging or political corruption,” the ICIJ said on its website.
“These findings show how deeply ingrained harmful practices and criminality are in the offshore world,” said Gabriel Zucman, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, cited by the consortium.
The leaked documents were reviewed by a team of more than 370 reporters from over 70 countries, according to the ICIJ.
It was not immediately clear who was the original source of the leaked documents.
© – AFP, 2016 with reporting by Michelle Hennessy.
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who cares about Putin? there are 300 + Irish names on the list, I would like to know who they are that have been cheating the Irish Economy for nearly 40 years. I’d bet my hat that the Irish names on there will be completely familiar to all of us… and what will be done about it.. ? absolutely nothing no doubt.
So, some people had shares in companies in Panama and BVI. There’s nothing illegal about that.
So far, this proves nothing.
People are innocent until proved guilty in court.
Tax dodging by the rich is not exactly a secret but the leaking of these papers have really opened our eyes thats its not just the business elite who are dodging.
Now how about the Swiss Papers and The Cayman Papers etc?.
They’re first defence will be “it’s perfectly legal”
But we all know how noble and ethical the law is right?
Tax avoidance is legal but tax evasion isn’t so I’m sure these papers will have zillions of undeclared income which comes under the tax evasion umbrella?.
Some names may even end up #redacted!
Putin himself hasn’t been named but yet all the media can do is mention him.. How about mentioning those that are actually on the list?… Talking about sidetracking the issue…
Got to love the spin put on such articles. Neither Putin nor Cameron were actually named on the list. In the case of Putin, people he knew were named as was Cameron’s father. President of Ukraine seems to have been named though as has Frank Flannery. @Patrick, as you mentioned our interest should be focused on what’s closer to home. Could be enlightening when forming the knew gov’t
“Could be enlightening when forming the knew gov’t” —- Precisely
Its called click bait Anne.
Unfortunately none of this is going to mean diddly sh!t. These rich skumf@cks have been funneling money through these schemes since there’s been a facility for it. We’ll just take it up the bumhole as usual .
Where’s Wally Mooney?
This is the type of story he would normally be all over.
Wakey wakey Wally. We are all up going to and at work. Time to turn over.
Hardly spin. It’s a bit like saying Philip Green isn’t avoiding tax, it’s only his wife who happens to ‘own’ his company on paper.
@Harry. As the article implicated leaders whose relatives and political allies were named, then why not implicate enda Kenny as Flannery was named? It’s the same relationship as that between Putin and his political aides
Ha, Alan. You are seeing visual proof here how an elite are riding us all as workers and citizens of a ‘democracy’ and still you are using your prejudice and STILL slagging social welfare users.
Yes Patrick! A good example of a Freudian slip of the finger
It will be interesting to see how many screaming headlines there are about the naked greed of Frank Flannery (blueshirt spin doctor, Rehab insider and RTE media darling) in comparison to say the Luas drivers none of whom will appear on this list of parasitical international tax dodgers.
They’ll probably receive the same treatment as the 300 HSBC lot. Meaning nothing will be done
yawn…..
Careful now Mer Curial. Alan Cooke won’t like you sleeping so late.
The only person who’ll get any comeuppance from this is the Icelandic lad. For the rest it’ll be another case of ‘nothing to see here, move along’.
Wally spot on again. The most greedy in society reside at the top of the income pyramid, not the bottom.
Frank Flannery the first Irish name mentioned, lets keep them coming
I’m sure FG will want to launch an investigation, the CAB, gardai will I’m sure be knocking on doors, unannounced morning raids
Of course they will say it’s perfectly legal, these no doubt were the same people who lobbied governments or had access to influence governments in order to decide which laws to enact
It’s not perfectly legal though, unless of course people named on the list can prove that their accounts were all declared to the relevant authorities. Given the nature of the leak and the company it came from, I doubt that will be the case.
http://youtu.be/JEvwQgQPkF0
“Perfectly legal Ted”
Very interesting take on this story from Craig Murray, and I must say that the ‘Putin’ headlines seemed very odd indeed, as a lead into the story from English language media. The journal here have mentioned Cameron, but for an Irish publication that’s playing it pretty safe…
Here’s a quote…
“… The leak is being managed by the grandly but laughably named “International Consortium of Investigative Journalists”, which is funded and organised entirely by the USA’s Center for Public Integrity. Their funders include
Ford Foundation
Carnegie Endowment
Rockefeller Family Fund
W K Kellogg Foundation
Open Society Foundation (Soros)
among many others. Do not expect a genuine expose of western capitalism. The dirty secrets of western corporations will remain unpublished.
Expect hits at Russia, Iran and Syria and some tiny “balancing” western country like Iceland. A superannuated UK peer or two will be sacrificed – someone already with dementia…. ”
This ICIJ looks to me more like a PR news ‘management’ entity rather than anything really ‘investigative’. But it’s very interesting, in itself, that such powerful ‘foundations’, very close to the world’s 0.01 percent, would consider it necessary to launch what must be an ‘astro turf’ media organisation. Masquerading as something non mainstream, but in reality, very carefully mamaged by elites.
How many of these shell companies are invested in vulture capital funds, getting sweetheart deals through NAMA and likes. Who exactly are making massive profits with the ‘fire sales’ of Irish property and ultimately acting like 19th century absentee landlords evicting families for higher gains.
NAMA sales at such low prices have never made sense to the ordinary person reading the little we see about them, butif certain vested interests are at play through hidden companies then they make sence for those ‘vested’ interests!!!
@Mike….kudos my friend…exactly like I had said earlier…this is an attack and an attempt to slur Putin especially, given the timing of his recent huge PR wins over the US in Syria and vs ISIS!!
who says crime don’t pay
The crimes of the minority capitalist class most definitely pay but most of their exploitative practices are entirely legal as the law is written and administered in their interests.
…anyone else see the irony in UK giving out about lax Irish corporation tax here while their PM is on that list……..??
Cameron meanwhile is trying to convince the UK to stay in the EU what a kick in the hole this will be for him.
A bit of perspective from the zerohedge blog (that is occasionally interesting, but tends to have a major streak of ‘libertarian’ nutjob posts)…
“.. Today, Mossack Fonseca is considered one of the world’s five biggest wholesalers of offshore secrecy. It has more than more than 500 employees and collaborators in more than 40 offices around the world, including three in Switzerland and eight in China, and in 2013 had billings of more than $42 million…. ”
So, roughly speaking, they think the extent of this kind of tax evasion or avoidance hidden by offshore shell companies is 4 or 5 times what this leaked data indicates.
As I’ve written here many times before….
Meaningful democracy – ie operating in the interests of the majority, ordinary citizens – simply does not exist, and has never existed, except in very brief fleeting moments (thinking FDR in 30s USA, Attlee/Bevan UK gov post 1945, but not much else?).
A huge part of the mechanism to achieve and perpetuate this is media control.
The mainstream media is owned, operated and funded by elite interests, with a token bit of ‘managed’ criticism to make it look ‘independent’. Indeed, over the last decades, ownership has become concentrated in only a handful of global Corporations.
The only reason we’re seeing *any* challenge to this now, is because of the Internet and the step change in information access it has precipitated.
Either you very naive or incredibly dump…
Morning Wally,
Good to see you made it out of the bed before midday.
Ah to be a socialist!!
David Murphy. Do you really think this came out yeaterday. Journalists are on this a long time, and i for one hope these people who think not paying tax are honest.
I’d guess you’ll find the names of certain people who had a hand in signing off on the socialisation of private bank debt.
That’s part of the neoliberal doctrine. Profits are privatised, debts and costs are socialised.
The wealthy preach free-market dogma to the workers, but they never actually practice it.
FG frank flannery named. This is the guy the media were fawning over during the election run in.
I suspect there are another few ex-charity CEOs in there somewhere. €250,000 was just 1 year’s salary for some of them until they were caught with their hands in the till. This is going to get very interesting.
I’d put money on there being a certain ‘B. Ahern’ high up on the list.
Impossible VoiceOfVanguard, sure he doesn’t even have a bank account here in Ireland!
I wonder how many Irish politicians are on the list?
Doesn’t matter. Nothing will be done about it. Brushed under the carpet. Media told to shut up. We might have a Tribunal if some members of the law society need a decent payday but at end of the day nothing will come of it. Irish public will forget about it and vote again for whoever was on the list.
Anyone that believes that this wasn’t common practice would be very naive. HSBC were charged a number of years ago for filtering drug money. Has it been the collapse of them, no. This is far larger than us, and will continue as normal after the dust settles.
Well, HSBC used the oldest excuse in the book. Somewhere along the lines of: “I didn’t know the goods were stolen my lord, honest! We simply never asked where they came from.”
Even when James Ibori’s goons were walking into different branches on the same day, making multiple deposits with shopping bags full of cash…nope, nothing suspicious at all.
And I’m looking forward to the excuses in relation to this story Harry.
If only the Progressive Liberals could blame Trump for everything the world would a better place
They cherry pick what is good and what is bad then ignore everything else
The continuing demonisation of Putin continues unabated on this site. He has no offshore accounts and hasn’t evaded any taxes. Would this have anything to do with Russia’s spectacular success’s in Syria I wonder?
Bang on the money Ziggy.
Oh yeah, we all know how tough Comrade Putin is when it comes to clamping down on tax evasion in Russia. Why, he even had a dead man (Sergei Magnitsky, died in prison from abuse and medical neglect) put on trial and convicted of tax evasion from beyond the grave.
The fact that Sergei was imprisoned and murdered around the same time he attempted to expose an enormous fraud scheme within the Russian authorities was of course purely coincidental.
How’s the weather over in Lubyanka Square?
Russian may have helped Assad recapture Palmyra but they committed a number of documented war crimes in the process i.e. cluster bombs and targeting hospitals.
Putin doesn’t deserve anyone’s crocodile tears.
You are right
Ziggy……..”Putin has no offshore accounts and hasn’t evaded any taxes”….how do you know? Just wondering.
Ziggy was probably told to write that by the Kremlin in fairness. After all it was revealed that the Russians have a significant state-funded social media programme which pays Russian students to post pro-Putin propaganda on Western social media sites.
Meanwhile, in the real world, corruption in little old Russia surprises absolutely nobody.
Funny, Jason, that you usually only turn up here when Russia or Putin is the subject in question.
Interesting that your posts are mostly about Putin and very little to do with the global scale of tax avoidance, including doubtless, elites much closer to home.
Putin seems to bother you far, far more than rampant corruption and the joke that is called ‘democracy’ here. Why is that, I wonder?
@Mike..don’t worry mate…Jason’s narrow agenda is plain to see to anyone with even one brain cell
Probably because it’s hilarious watching Putinbots go into meltdown any time their Glorious leader is even mentioned in passing.
Oh I can honestly tell you it was just resting in my account. ….
Shut up and pay your property tax, your TV license, your motor tax, your IW bill, your USC……..
Where can I view list ????
Big lad, I think they said the list will be out in early may
Worried about the amount of blueshirts on it?
Cheers Tom
Misleading headline ! Putin’s handlers & Cameron’s dad involved according to article . Picture of Putin + his name & Cameron’s as headline !!!
Misleading headline & picture !!! Putin not involved according to the article under the headline & the Cameron involved is David Cameron’s father , not him ! Sloppy journalism
Oh come on Liz. Using your family/friends/lackeys to shift money about by putting their names above the door is one of the oldest tricks in the tax evasion game. Putin’s simply going to use the three monkeys defence à la Rupert Murdoch/Sepp Blatter if anyone asks him questions.
Frank Flannery has been implicated in this too. See the IT today online, lead story.
Liz, Putin wasn’t directly involved but a number of oligarchs who ensured that Putin was put into power certainly are. It’s also quite naive to believe that Putin isn’t hiding millions in off-shore accounts.
That is utter codswallop. Complete and utter fiction on your part. Trolls like you and Harry Stopit Whitehead – (perhaps all three of you are the same?)comment policy seems to be that when all else fails- lets just just make s**t up. One of the great success stories of Putin’s leadership was to rid Russia of all of the oligarchs – those criminal parasites that were siphoning off billions of euro from the Russian taxpayer. I’m not saying he is perfect but what politician is? He is certainly nowhere nearly as bad as shills like yourself paint him out to be.
Yeah, that’s how to win an argument Ziggy. Just scream LIES LIES LIES and stamp your feet impotently. Putin never got rid of the oligarchs – that’s patently nonsense, seeing as most of them are still walking around with their pockets clanking.
The only oligarchs Putin went after were a few he had personal fallouts with – Khodorkovsky was jailed, Bezerovky went into exile – while the rest like Abramovich, Usmanov, Deripaska, Abramov, Potanin, Prokhorov and co. are still running many of the same companies, still tinkering with Russian politics, still flitting in and out of Russia whenever they please.
Meanwhile Transparency International still rank Russia as one of the most corrupt states in the world. ‘Great Success Story’ indeed!
PS – it’s hilarious being called a ‘shill’ by someone who posts under the name ‘Ziggy722′. Whatever next, going to tell us that’s your real name?
Who’s really surprised, leak evidence on the global banking elite and why wars are great for business, that’d perhaps surprise and make people open their eyes!
Je suis a luas driver
The most shocking thing about this story is that it’s all legal.
Eh…not quite.
Any off-shore bank accounts must be declared to Revenue/Exchequer in most western countries, including Ireland.
Off shore accounts don’t have to be declared. You have to disclose income and capital gains.
Stopit Harry! That is unsourced rubbish from Syrian Observatory of Human Rights a.k.a as some fat geezer above a kebab shop in Coventry.
Regarding Palmyra, it must really hurt you to see your buddies in ISIS being routed by the Russian airforce.
And ye must have put used up an awful lot of resources trying to get them the medical assistance they needed :)
Sergei Magnitsky is a figment of my local kebab shop owner’s imagination? Whatever you say, bossman!
I don’t have buddies in ISIS, although your gushing over Putin’s shenanigans in Syria would suggest you have at least some level of affection for Assad and his rotten little dynasty. Wouldn’t be surprised if their names crop up on this list either…
The $hits really hit the fan here. These leaks are treasure troves
Should be interesting to read what thoughts Mr. Aaron McKenna has, if any, on this scam. Come on Aaron, don’t be shy now, it’s never stopped you in the past from condemning welfare fraud but tax avoidance by the rich; not a word as yet!
Never mind Putin and Cameron; what about our own Frank?
Now why are my comments not printed ? Is it because im critising the Journal’s reporting ?
Absolutely right. Whole european Media are trying to hide their own criminal activity by pointing the finger at Putin. They must have thought this kind of psychological manipulation will work on us.
Christmas has come very early for the Revenue Commissioners
Rich man poor man ireland we already knew it was going on ,they can’t deny it now ,who knows we might get enough revenue from this to cover a lot of our wows.
Anybody who doesnt see through the well timed orchetstration of this leak is being naive! Putin wipes the boards on all levels in Syria, over the US and NATO and suddenly a report is ‘leaked’ that tries by association to smear Putin…has Washington’s stench all over it!
Sorry Nigel, but you’re just being paranoid at this stage. The leaked report also reveals massive levels of tax dodging by European politicians and American businesses, as well as (unsurprisingly) mass corruption in Russia.
If you believed that Putin wasn’t a corrupt pseudo-dictator with millions stashed away in off-shore accounts, you were obviously living under a rock.
Jason, are you just thick, or are you getting paid to be an establishment shill?
Sure, the leak, or more accurately, the *search* terms used thus far to investigate this massive database, have revealed links to hundreds of other well known names among global elites.
But the massive focus on Putin by western media is about as obvious an attempt at deflection from the mainstream media’s friends in high places as one could get.
You might think that tax dodging by western figures would be a more appropriate and interesting story for western media, but, clearly, you’d be wrong. I wonder why that is exactly?
Putin himself is not mentioned but a relative of his is but the West are Russian mad since Ukraine but Ukraine presidents are mentioned in it as are the Saudis…
And out come the trombones *wah wah waaah*
Really, is anyone genuinely surprised by this news?
Everyone “knows” tax evasion is rife. People are surprised at the scale and scope of the data release.
having said that, it is still only one legal firm from one tax haven….
So we just accept it as the little people? I’d like to be informed about the people I vote for and the ones that tell me austerity is in my best interest!!!
Oh I agree with you there – hats off to those who carried out the exposure. I’m simply expressing a complete lack of surprise at the names cropping up.
Osborne’s family have been using tax avoidance schemes for a long time, so the link to Cameron hardly a shocker.
Putin and his ‘aides’ are so bent they could swallow iron bars and crap out horseshoes.
Same goes for the PRC’s central committee, albeit they’re slightly less brazen.
FIFA? LOL
The real revelations concern which celebs are going to be shamed.
Harry, if you know so much about these people, why have you not exposed them before this?
Oh I dunno, possibly because I’m not an investigative journalist/morally-inclined accountant/suicidally brave. What has this got to do with anything?
@Joseph, it’s less about knowing but always suspected and now confirmed, that’s why it’s no surprise
Where’s Matthew?….if you see him around tell em I’m looking for him…
The Irish ones on the list will be easy to spot, wearing their free Panama hats, and swinging their Mossack Fonseca golf umbrellas around the place.
Please print all Irish names that are involved, but i suppose the Media will be told its a no go area.
Michelle, why is the only image of Putin!?!!?!!?!
Awhh good old hbsc. The investment bank that just keeps on giving.
Shocked, surprised?not at all, its an open secret that the rich fat cats in this world are almost always corrupt and greedy as….
Where is Putin’s name in them, I think the West has gone Putin mad again???
Oh oh Time for a Tribunal
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