We have the first casualty of the Panama Papers

[BernieforPres2016]

The prime minister of Iceland just resigned.

[Recursion]

1. You have a link?

Everything I see has Sigmundur Davíð lining up a confidence vote.

[amborin]

2. wow! and HRC lobbied for this FTA

[BernieforPres2016]

4. Putin and his boys apparently have $2 billion stashed

There are also a bunch of members of China's politburo and politicians from various other countries.

Information on U.S. people involved is on the way from what I read.

[nc4bo]

12. I read on a news ticker on CNN (I think) that said China's censoring Panama papers

reports, blogs, online discussions, etc.

Gee, first I wondered why.....now I SEE why they're blocking it.

[Recursion]

3. Oop. Should have hit "refresh"

Good catch

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/04/panama-papers-iceland/476895/

[earthside]

5. 'The Mystery Of Hillary's Missing Millions'

There may be many casualties of this scandal.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2015/09/29/the-mystery-of-hillarys-missing-millions/#5634fa675505

[GeorgiaPeanuts]

6. Perfect timing for the New York Debate....

I hope he goes for the jugular over these Panama Papers.

[Autumn]

7. Oh wow. May this be the first of many to come.

I thought that that those Panama Papers were kind of hyped when I skimmed though it. Gonna read further. Thanks for this

[morningfog]

14. There is no skimming here: 2.6 terabytes, 11.5 million records.

[Autumn]

18. No, I just skimmed though the OPs here on it.

I didn't look any further than that.

[BernieforPres2016]

19. No, this is a big deal

Here's an opinion piece from CNN on why it is a very big deal. The volume of it is enormous, much bigger than what Snowden leaked, and it is taking a cooperative effort by journalists to wade through it.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/04/opinions/panama-papers-ghitis/index.html

<This is an earthquake. The aftershocks will continue for months, even years to come. It could also be the beginning of the end of secrets.

Already, details pieced together by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists of about a dozen current and former world leaders alleged to have used the law firm's services have been revealed, with the documents listing presidents, kings, prime ministers and their offspring. Some of the world's most powerful figures and their relatives are being accused of hiding their wealth. And we're just getting started.

We are learning about potentially hundreds of thousands of offshore firms connected to people in more than 200 countries and territories -- essentially, the entire world. And even though hundreds of journalists in dozens of countries with the ICIJ have already spent months examining the documents, the Internet will make it possible for people to search for information that might affect them specifically. The blueprint to offshore and shell companies allegedly held by prominent figures is breathtaking in its detail and scope, and the repercussions will be profound and lasting.

We knew something significant was coming when, a few days ago, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin started trying to discredit a mysterious piece of journalism that had not yet made headlines. A Kremlin spokesman warned of an upcoming "media attack" on Putin. And if the claims in the Panama Papers are true, it is easy to see why the Russian President would be worried -- the papers reveal a trail of billions of dollars allegedly shuffled across shell companies and paper firms, ultimately connected to people close to him.>

[morningfog]

8. Set up the dominoes.

[Hiraeth]

9. beat me to it ...

[TheDormouse]

10. (a) Iceland, unlike many of those other countries, is a democratic republic

with excellent access to international media, as I understand it.

[TheDormouse]

11. (b) What is so surprising about any of what has been reported? Isn't all of this

just common knowledge? The only thing new in there I have heard reported so far is the specific details.

[felix_numinous]

13. Sometimes I wish we had the option to vote

no confidence. We could have rid ourselves of W at least.

[nc4bo]

15. 1/2016. The World’s Favorite New Tax Haven Is the United States.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-27/the-world-s-favorite-new-tax-haven-is-the-united-states

Last September, at a law firm overlooking San Francisco Bay, Andrew Penney, a managing director at Rothschild & Co., gave a talk on how the world’s wealthy elite can avoid paying taxes.

His message was clear: You can help your clients move their fortunes to the United States, free of taxes and hidden from their governments.

Some are calling it the new Switzerland.

After years of lambasting other countries for helping rich Americans hide their money offshore, the U.S. is emerging as a leading tax and secrecy haven for rich foreigners. By resisting new global disclosure standards, the U.S. is creating a hot new market, becoming the go-to place to stash foreign wealth. Everyone from London lawyers to Swiss trust companies is getting in on the act, helping the world’s rich move accounts from places like the Bahamas and the British Virgin Islands to Nevada, Wyoming, and South Dakota.
“How ironic—no, how perverse—that the USA, which has been so sanctimonious in its condemnation of Swiss banks, has become the banking secrecy jurisdiction du jour,” wrote Peter A. Cotorceanu, a lawyer at Anaford AG, a Zurich law firm, in a recent legal journal. “That ‘giant sucking sound’ you hear? It is the sound of money rushing to the USA.”

[tk2kewl]

16. something like 10% of the entire country showed up at his door demanding it

[Jarqui]

17. Wikileaks Twitter refers to stats for US

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/716941059935375360
COMPANIES 3072
CLIENTS 441
BENEFICIARIES 211
SHAREHOLDERS 3467

Americans show up in the Panama Papers, too

Determining a precise number of Americans in the data is difficult. There are at least 200 scanned individual U.S. passports. Some appear to be American retirees purchasing real estate in places like Costa Rica and Panama. Also in the database, about 3,500 shareholders of offshore companies who list U.S. addresses. And almost 3,100 companies are tied to offshore professionals based in Miami, New York, and other parts of the United States.

Further complicating matters, some U.S. citizens enjoy dual citizenship and open accounts under foreign passports. Others appeared to be American retirees purchasing real estate in places like Costa Rica and Panama.

The thing is, they're starting with 11.5 million documents ... and that's going to mushroom. Company names lead to other shareholders which lead to others involved in evading taxes, etc.

Then when you start after these folks, many don't put all their eggs in one basket - a number had to be in on other tax evading schemes ... which a few will babble about to cut their losses or jail time.

I wonder how many will sell their interests and move to offshore locations before the IRS catch up with them - probably a bunch.