Panama Papers: The Summary of a Capitalist Flaw
A huge leak of documents from one of the world’s most secretive companies, a Panamanian law firm called Mossack Fonseca, has not only lifted the lid on the corruption and power within the upper class but, it has placed many people and many organisations under the spotlight.
The revelation itself, that the rich and wealthy are still shovelling all their money into tax havens overseas, is not particularly surprising, it’s the sheer scale of the leak and some of the names mentioned that really have the public talking.
The incredible 2.6 terabytes of data were obtained by German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung by an anonymous source. Shared and made public with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), making this the biggest data breach and leak the world has ever seen.
The identity of the source, however, has remained a mystery. As through encrypted messages with a journalist at the German newspaper, he or she revealed that his or her life was in danger.
The leak included 4.8 million emails, 3 million database files and 2.1 million PDFs from the Mossack Fonseca law firm, which according to an analysis of the leaked documents, appear to specialise in helping their clients hide assets, launder money, avoid tax and dodge sanctions.
Who was involved?
The documents have linked $2 billion of hidden money to Vladimir Putin, through accounts held in the names of family members and friends. While Icelandic Prime Minister, Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson, resigned after it was shown in the documents that he had undeclared interest linked to his wife’s wealth.
Also mentioned in the documents are, brother in law of China’s President, Xi Jinping, Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko, Argentinian President, Mauricio Macri, the late father of Prime Minister David Cameron, Lionel Messi and his father and even Fifa’s ethics committee lawyer Juan Pedro Damiani was mentioned.
Here is a quick video produced by ICIJ itself, which summarises the investigation into the secretive industry of offshore havens that the world’s rich and powerful use to hide the assets and skirt the rules.
This has once again brought to the forefront and highlighted the issues within our society globally and the power and free reign the 1% have to do as they please. Although, we mustn’t forget that this is just the tip of the iceberg and that this is the fourth tax haven leak coordinated by the ICIJ since 2013.
Panama is just ONE law firm, in just ONE tax haven which makes you think… How many more could there be? How many other politicians, celebrities, world leaders or criminals are involved? How deep does the corruption, tax avoidance and money laundering go and will there ever be an end to it all?