(시사) Panama Papers

출처: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Papers

Panama Papers

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Panama Papers
Countries with public officials implicated in the leak
Description	Release of 11.5 million documents (2.6 Terabytes)[1]
Date of documents	1970s – 2016[1]
Period of release	April 2016[1]
Key publishers	Süddeutsche Zeitung, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
Related articles	List of people named in the Panama Papers

The Panama Papers are a set of 11.5 million confidential documents created by the Panamanian corporate service providerMossack Fonseca that provide detailed information on more than 214,000 offshore companies, including the identities of shareholders and directors. Those identified include numerous wealthy and powerful political figures and organizations of many countries. Comprising 11.5 million documents created since the 1970s, the 2.6-terabyte set was given to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung in 2015 and subsequently to the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.^[2] The papers were distributed to and analyzed by about 400 journalists at 107 media organizations in more than 80 countries. The first news reports based on the set, along with 149 of the documents themselves^[3], were published on April 3, 2016.^[1] Among other planned disclosures, the full list of companies is to be released in early May.^[4]

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1Background
• 2Contents
  • 2.1People
  • 2.2Companies
• 3Leak
• 4Reaction
• 5See also
• 6References
• 7External links

Background[edit]

Mossack Fonseca is a Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider founded in 1977 by Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca.^[5] The company's services include incorporating companies in offshore jurisdictions, administering offshore firms and providing wealth management services.^[6] The company has more than 500 employees in more than 40 offices around the world.^[5] The firm has acted on behalf of more than 300,000 companies, registered mostly in UK or British-administered tax havens.^[6] The firm works with the world’s biggest financial institutions, such as Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Société Générale, Credit Suisse, UBS and Commerzbank, in some cases to help the banks’ clients set up complex structures that make it hard for tax collectors and investigators to track the flow of money from one place to another.^[5] Before the Panama Papers leak, Mossack Fonseca was described by the Economist as a "tight-lipped" industry leader in offshore finance.^[7]

Contents[edit]

The leak consists of 11.5 million documents created between the 1970s and early 2016 by the Panama-based Mossack Fonseca, which The Guardian described as "the world's fourth biggest offshore law firm".^[8] The 2.6 terabytes of data include information on 214,488 offshore entities related to public officials.^[9] The papers were reviewed by journalists across 80 countries.^[8] Gerard Ryle, director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, predicted that the leak would be "the biggest blow the offshore world has ever taken" due to the breadth of leaked documents.^[10]

People[edit]

Main article: List of people named in the Panama Papers

Early reports noted financial and power connections between multiple high-ranking political figures and their relatives.^[11][8][12] The Argentine President Mauricio Macri was listed as a director of a Bahamas-based trading company that he did not disclose when mayor of Buenos Aires; it is not clear whether disclosure of non-equity directorships was then required.^[11] The Guardian reported that the leak revealed an extensive conflict of interest connection between a member of the FIFA Ethics Committee and former FIFA vice president Eugenio Figueredo.^[13]

Several acting heads of state have been named in the Panama Papers, including presidents Mauricio Macri of Argentina, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan of United Arab Emirates,Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine, as well as King Salman of Saudi Arabia, and the Prime Minister of Iceland Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson.^[12] Among the former country leaders, there were prime-ministers of Georgia (Bidzina Ivanishvili), Iraq (Ayad Allawi), Jordan (Ali Abu al-Ragheb), Qatar (Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani) and Ukraine (Pavlo Lazarenko), as well as Sudanese President Ahmed al-Mirghani and Emir of Qatar Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.^[12]

Indian Actors SRK and Amair Khan have been named amongst other Indians by Indian Express.^[14]

Government officials, as well as relatives and associates of the country leaders, from different countries have also been named, including those from Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Ghana, Greece, Guinea, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Italy, Ivory Coast, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Malta, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Panama, Peru, Poland, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Syria, United Kingdom, Venezuela and Zambia.^[12] According to Guardian, the name of Vladimir Putin "does not appear in any of the records", but it published a lengthy report about three of his friends on the list.^[15]

Several high profile individuals connected with the world governing body of association football, FIFA, include former President of CONMEBOL Eugenio Figueredo,^[13] formerPresident of UEFA Michel Platini,^[16] former Secretary General of FIFA Jérôme Valcke, ^[16] and current Argentine player Lionel Messi.^[13]

Companies[edit]

Mossack Fonseca has managed a large number of companies over the years, with the number active companies heaving peaked at over 80,000 in 2009. Over 210,000 companies in 21 offshore jurisdictions appear in Mossack Fonseca’s files, more than half of which were incorporated in the British Virgin Islands and many others in Panama,Bahamas, Seychelles, Niue and Samoa. Over the years, Mossack Fonseca worked with clients in more than 100 countries, the most of incorporations were from Hong Kong, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Panama, and Cyprus. Mossack Fonseca worked with more than 14,000 banks, law firms, company incorporators and others to set up companies, foundations and trusts for these clients. More than 500 banks registered nearly 15,600 shell companies with Mossack Fonseca with HSBC and its affiliates created more than 2,300 in total, and Dexia (Luxembourg), J. Safra Sarasin (Luxembourg), Credit Suisse (Channel Islands), and UBS (Switzerland) requesting at least 500 offshore companies for their clients.^[17]

Leak[edit]

More than a year before the first publication of the Panama leaks in April 2016, the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung received 2.6 terabytes of documents related toMossack Fonseca from an anonymous source.^[1]

The total size of the leaked documents dwarfs that of the Wikileaks Cablegate 2010^[1] (1.7 GB),^[18] Offshore Leaks 2013 (260 GB), Lux Leaks 2014 (4 GB), and Swiss Leaks 2015 (3.3 GB). The data primarily comprises e-mails, PDF files, photos, and excerpts of an internal Mossack Fonseca database. It covers a period spanning from the 1970s to the spring of 2016.^[1] The Panama Papers leak provide data on some 214,000 companies. There is a folder for each shell firm that contains e-mails, contracts, transcripts, andscanned documents.^[1] The leak comprises 4,804,618 emails, 3,047,306 database format files, 2,154,264 PDFs, 1,117,026 images, 320,166 text files, and 2,242 files in other formats.^[1]

The data had to be systematically indexed. This was done with a proprietary software called Nuix, which is also used by international investigators. The documents were fed to high-performance computers for optical character recognition processing, making the data machine-readable and searchable. Compiled lists of important persons were then cross matched against the processed documents.^[1] The next step in the analysis is to connect persons, roles, flow of money and legality of structures.^[1]

Reaction[edit]

In response to queries from the The Miami Herald, Mossack Fonseca identified legal and compliance regimes around the world that reduce the ability of individuals to use offshore companies for tax avoidance and total anonymity. In particular, they cited the FATF protocols that (for companies and financial institutions in the majority of countries in the world) require identification of ultimate beneficial owners of all companies (including offshore companies) in order to open accounts and transact business.^[19]

Following an interview in advance of the leak, Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson and his wife issued public statements about journalist encroachment in their private lives and insisted on the completeness of their legal disclosures. Gunnlaugsson was expected to receive calls for a snap election in parliament.^[20]

An HSBC spokesman commented that "the allegations are historical, in some cases dating back 20 years, predating our significant, well-publicized reforms implemented over the last few years."^[21]

The leak is described by Edward Snowden as the "biggest leak in the history of data journalism".^[22]

The Australian Tax Office subsequently announced that it was investigating 800 individual Australian taxpayers who were clients of Mossack Fonesca and that some of the cases could be referred to the country's Serious Financial Crime Task Force.^[23]

See also[edit]

• Tax haven
• Offshore financial center
• Luxembourg leaks
• Offshore leaks
• United States diplomatic cables leak
• Swiss Leaks

References[edit]

1. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e f g h i j k} Obermaier, Frederik; Obermayer, Bastian; Wormer, Vanessa; Jaschensky, Wolfgang (April 3, 2016). "About the Panama Papers". Süddeutsche Zeitung. Archived from the original on April 3, 2016. Retrieved April 3, 2016.
2. Jump up^ Vasilyeva, Natalya; Anderson, Mae (April 3, 2016). "News Group Claims Huge Trove of Data on Offshore Accounts". The New York Times. Associated Press. Retrieved April 4,2016.
3. Jump up^ "DocumentCloud 149 Results Source: Internal documents from Mossack Fonseca (Panama Papers) - Provider: Amazon Technologies / Owner: Perfect Privacy, LLC USA". Center for Public Integrity. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
4. Jump up^ "The Panama Papers: Data Metholodogy". ICIJ. April 3, 2016. Archived from the original on April 3, 2016. Retrieved April 3, 2016.
5. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Hamilton, Martha M. (April 3, 2016). "Panamanian Law Firm Is Gatekeeper To Vast Flow of Murky Offshore Secrets". International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Archived from the original on April 3, 2016. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
6. ^ Jump up to:^a b Harding, Luke (April 3, 2016). "The Panama Papers: what you need to know". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on April 3, 2016. RetrievedApril 4, 2016.
7. Jump up^ Silverstein, Ken (December 3, 2014). "The Law Firm That Works with Oligarchs, Money Launderers, and Dictators". Vice Media. VICE Magazine. Archived from the originalon April 4, 2016. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
8. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Garside, Juliette; Watt, Holly; Pegg, David (April 3, 2016). "The Panama Papers: how the world’s rich and famous hide their money offshore". The Guardian. Archivedfrom the original on April 3, 2016. Retrieved April 3, 2016.
9. Jump up^ The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (April 3, 2016). "Giant leak of offshore financial records exposes global array of crime and corruption". OCCRP. Archived from the original on April 3, 2016.
10. Jump up^ Bilton, Richard (April 3, 2016). "Panama Papers: Mossack Fonseca leak reveals elite's tax havens". BBC News. Archived from the original on April 3, 2016. Retrieved April 3,2016.
11. ^ Jump up to:^a b Fusion Investigative Unit (April 3, 2016). "Here are the famous politicos in ‘the Wikileaks of the mega-rich’". Fusion. Archived from the original on April 3, 2016. Retrieved April 3, 2016.
12. ^ Jump up to:^a b c d "Panama Papers: The Power Players". International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Archived from the original on April 3, 2016. Retrieved April 3,2016.
13. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Gibson, Owen (April 3, 2016). "Leaked papers give Fifa ethics committee new credibility crisis". The Guardian. Archived from the original on April 3, 2016. Retrieved April 3, 2016.
14. Jump up^ http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/panama-papers-list-amitabh-bachchan-kp-singh-aishwarya-rai-iqbal-mirchi-adani-brother/
15. Jump up^ Luke Harding (April 3, 2016). "Revealed: the $2bn offshore trail that leads to Vladimir Putin". London: The Guardian.
16. ^ Jump up to:^a b "Group of death: FIFA officials' financial secrets exposed in new Wikileaks-style trove". Fusion. 3 April 2016. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
17. Jump up^ https://panamapapers.icij.org/graphs/
18. Jump up^ Kraft, Steffen (25 August 2011). "Leck bei Wikileaks" [Leak at Wikileaks]. Der Freitag(in German). Archived from the original on 7 March 2012. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
19. Jump up^ "Mossack Fonseca responds to Miami Herald ‘Secret Shell Game’ series on offshore companies". The Miami Herald. April 3, 2016.
20. Jump up^ Bowers, Simon (April 3, 2016). "Iceland’s PM faces calls for snap election after offshore revelations". The Guardian. Archived from the original on April 3, 2016. RetrievedApril 3, 2016.
21. Jump up^ http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/04/03/world/europe/ap-panama-papers.html
22. Jump up^ "Twitter: Edward Snowden". Twitter. Archived from the original on April 3, 2016. Retrieved April 3, 2016. Biggest leak in the history of data journalism just went live, and it's about corruption. http://panamapapers.sueddeutsche.de/en/
23. Jump up^ Neil Chenoweth (4 April 2016). "Panama Papers: ATO investigating more than 800 Australian clients of Mossack Fonseca". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 April2016.

External links[edit]

• Panama Papers Portal of International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (USA)
• Panama Papers Portal of Süddeutsche Zeitung (Germany)

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• Current events
• 2016 in international relations
• 2016 in Panama
• News leaks
• Tax avoidance
• Whistleblowing
• Financial scandals

• This page was last modified on 4 April 2016, at 07:48.