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  1. #1
    Senior Member European Knight's Avatar
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    Exclamation How Mossack Fonseca in Panama relies on a global network to support its clients

    By STEPHANIE LINNING FOR MAILONLINE PUBLISHED: 10:34 GMT, 4 April 2016 | UPDATED: 22:37 GMT, 4 April 2016

    Map reveals how secretive Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca relies on a network of offices with contacts around the world to support its super-rich clients

    Secretive law firm Mossack Fonseca is based in Panama but has branches in more than 35 cities around the world

    Success relies on a network of banks and accountants who put clients in touch with the firm to manage their assets

    Work with Mossack Fonseca to create thousands offshore accounts, which can be used to conceal financial affairs

    Thousands of accounts were requested by major financial institutions including, Coutts, Rothschild and HSBC

    The law firm at the centre of the biggest financial leak in history relies on an international network of lawyers, bankers and accountants to support its high net-worth clients.

    The secretive Mossack Fonseca is based in Panama but has set up branches in more than 25 countries around the world, listing 37 different offices on its website. The global set-up has allowed the law firm to establish relationships with law firms, banks and accountants who work with the super rich.

    Its success relies on these associates, among them major financial institutions including HSBC, Credit Suisse and Coutts, hiring the law firm to manage the finance of their wealthy clients.

    They then work with Mossack Fonseca to create thousands of offshore accounts, which are allegedly used to help clients launder money, dodge sanctions and evade tax. The law firm has denied any wrongdoing.

    According to information on the Mossack Fonseca website, the law firm has 37 offices. China is the best represented with seven branches, while Switzerland has three. There is one branch, London, on the mainland UK, as well as outposts in Jersey and the Isle of Man.

    Despite listing email contact details for each office, the law firm only provides physical addresses for four, including the head office in Panama City, Panama, and Asian headquarters in Hong Kong.

    However there are a number of other office locations that have been disputed, including ones in Miami, Florida and Las Vegas, Nevada.

    Court documents filed in Las Vegas claimed the law firm had created more than 100 companies in the state that had been used to steal millions of dollars from government contracts in Argentina, according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

    The firm tried to block a request for financial details by claiming that its Las Vegas operations, run by MF Corporate Services (Nevada) Limited, were not part of the Mossack Fonseca group.

    Co-founder Jürgen Mossack even testified to this fact in court.

    However records obtained by the ICIJ show that the Nevada companies were owned by Mossack Fonseca, and that the firm took steps to wipe records to keep clients' details from the justice system.

    In comments to ICIJ, Mossack Fonseca 'categorically' denied hiding or destroying documents that might be used in an ongoing investigation or litigation.

    The leaked records - known as the Panama Papers - were obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, and shared by the ICIJ with The Guardian and the BBC.

    The data covers nearly 40 years, from 1977 to the end of 2015, and lists nearly 15,600 paper companies set up by Mossack Fonseca for clients who wanted to keep their financial affairs secret.

    The banks are the driving force behind the creation of offshore companies in tax-havens including Panama, the leaked documents show.

    Thousands were created by UBS and HSBC, the latter of which was fined by the US government for laundering money from Iran. ICIJ will release the full list of companies and people next month.

    While using offshore companies is not illegal, the practice has long been morally dubious and is under the spotlight amid a wider examination of tax avoidance by large companies such as Google.

    Much of the firm's work is perfectly legitimate and benign.

    But for the first time the leak takes us inside its inner workings, providing rare insight into an operation which offers shady operators plenty of room to manoeuvre.

    The system relies on an industry of bankers, lawyers, accountants and go-betweens who work together to protect their clients.

    The £26million stolen during the Brink’s Mat robbery in 1983 may have been channelled into an offshore company set up by Mossack Fonseca, the leaked documents reveal.

    Families and associates of Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak, Libya's former leader Colonel Gaddafi and Syria's president Bashar al-Assad are among 12 world leaders who are said to have benefited from tax havens.

    Lord Ashcroft, Baroness Pamela Sharples and former Tory MP Michael Mates are among the British politicians named in the data release.

    A representative for Mr Mates said the reference to the former Tory MP in the ‘Panama Papers’ related to a small shareholding the politician once held in a Bahamian company.

    He insisted the company was set up legitimately to create a leisure development in Barbuda, an island that is part of the East Caribbean state of Antigua and Barbuda.

    Mr Mates said he had not and would not receive any remuneration ‘unless and until the development took place, nor were the shares of any value,’ as the company ‘never had any real value’. He denies he has ever sought to avoid paying taxes.

    HSBC spokesman Rob Sherman said: 'The allegations are historical, in some cases dating back 20 years, pre-dating our significant, well-publicised reforms implemented over the last few years. We work closely with the authorities to fight financial crime and implement sanctions.'


    Mossack Fonseca said in a statement: 'Our firm has never been accused or charged in connection with criminal wrongdoing. If we detect suspicious activity or misconduct, we are quick to report it to the authorities.'

    Gerard Ryle, director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, said the documents covered the day-to-day business at Mossack Fonseca for the past 40 years.

    He said: '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.'

    How Mossack Fonseca in Panama relies on a global network to support its clients | Daily Mail Online






  2. #2
    Senior Member European Knight's Avatar
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    Panama Papers’ Implicate Client of Clinton-Linked Lobbying Firm

    Podesta Group registered to lobby for bank subsidiary weeks before tax haven leak

    BY: Lachlan Mackay April 5, 2016 5:00 am

    A firm with ties to senior members of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign registered to lobby on behalf of a major Russian bank just weeks before a massive leak exposed the bank’s role in a web of secret financial dealings that have enriched members of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.

    The “Panama Papers” are being called “the Wikileaks of the mega-rich.” Corporate documents leaked from the law firm Mossack Fonseca show how world leaders have used offshore tax havens to hide their involvement in lucrative companies and business deals around the world.

    Among those companies is the Russian Sberbank, whose U.S. investment banking branch recently enlisted the services of the Podesta Group. According to its lobbying registration form, the firm will work on banking, trade, and foreign relations issues.

    One of the three lobbyists working on the account is Tony Podesta, a bundler for the Clinton campaign and the brother of campaign chairman John Podesta, who co-founded the firm.

    Politico reported last month that Podesta and two of the firm’s other lobbyists would be working to affect “the scope of U.S. sanctions against Russia for its role in the Ukraine conflict and whether relief is possible.”

    In addition to the company’s Russian parent, the lobbying registration form lists three other directly-affiliated foreign entities: Cayman Islands-based Troika Dialog Group Limited, Cyprus-based SBGB Cyprus Limited, and Luxembourg-based SB International.

    According to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a consortium of journalists exploring the Panama Papers leak, Sberbank and Troika Dialog have ties to companies used by members of Putin’s inner circle to funnel state resources into lucrative private investments.

    “Some of these companies were initially connected to the Troika Dialog investment fund, which was controlled and run by Sberbank after the bank bought the Troika Dialog investment bank. Troika and Sberbank declined to comment,” the project reported on Monday.

    The Mossack Fonseca documents show that Troika Dialog secretly signed away much of its interest in a Russian truck manufacturer to “an unknown offshore” called Avto Holdings. That company was partially owned by Sergei Roldugin, a close Putin friend and the godfather of the Russian president’s daughter.

    The Panama Papers also reveal the existence of “similar agreements between Troika and offshore companies affiliated with Roldugin,” according to the project.

    “These agreements were different just in dates, names of the companies, stakes and sums of money,” the project reported. “But the point remained: offshore companies affiliated with Putin’s friend had privileged rights to control large stakes in strategic Russian enterprises, to receive dividends, and to buy these stakes for laughable sums.”

    Despite its apparent ties to the interests of Russia’s political elite, Sberbank is officially a private company. That allows the Podesta Group to report it as a standard lobbying client, rather than a state-owned entity, which would trigger the more detailed lobbyist reporting requirements of the Foreign Agent Registration Act.

    The Podesta Group did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

    ?Panama Papers? Implicate Client of Clinton-Linked Lobbying Firm

  3. #3
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    There is a lot more on this at this link.

    http://www.alipac.us/f19/world-leade...s-leak-331006/

    I feel that if I combine them the thread would become too long and hard to navigate. NM

  4. #4
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    ‘Panama Papers’ Implicate Client of Clinton-Linked Lobbying Firm

    Podesta Group registered to lobby for bank subsidiary weeks before tax haven leak
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    Podesta Group co-founder Tony Podesta / AP


    BY: Lachlan Markay
    April 5, 2016 5:00 am


    A firm with ties to senior members of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign registered to lobby on behalf of a major Russian bank just weeks before a massive leak exposed the bank’s role in a web of secret financial dealings that have enriched members of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.

    The “Panama Papers” are being called “the Wikileaks of the mega-rich.” Corporate documents leaked from the law firm Mossack Fonseca show how world leaders have used offshore tax havens to hide their involvement in lucrative companies and business deals around the world.

    Among those companies is the Russian Sberbank, whose U.S. investment banking branch recently enlisted the services of the Podesta Group. According to its lobbying registration form, the firm will work on banking, trade, and foreign relations issues.

    One of the three lobbyists working on the account is Tony Podesta, a bundler for the Clinton campaign and the brother of campaign chairman John Podesta, who co-founded the firm.

    Politico reported last month that Podesta and two of the firm’s other lobbyists would be working to affect “the scope of U.S. sanctions against Russia for its role in the Ukraine conflict and whether relief is possible.”

    In addition to the company’s Russian parent, the lobbying registration form lists three other directly-affiliated foreign entities: Cayman Islands-based Troika Dialog Group Limited, Cyprus-based SBGB Cyprus Limited, and Luxembourg-based SB International.

    According to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a consortium of journalists exploring the Panama Papers leak, Sberbank and Troika Dialog have ties to companies used by members of Putin’s inner circle to funnel state resources into lucrative private investments.

    “Some of these companies were initially connected to the Troika Dialog investment fund, which was controlled and run by Sberbank after the bank bought the Troika Dialog investment bank. Troika and Sberbank declined to comment,” the project reported on Monday.

    The Mossack Fonseca documents show that Troika Dialog secretly signed away much of its interest in a Russian truck manufacturer to “an unknown offshore” called Avto Holdings. That company was partially owned by Sergei Roldugin, a close Putin friend and the godfather of the Russian president’s daughter.

    The Panama Papers also reveal the existence of “similar agreements between Troika and offshore companies affiliated with Roldugin,” according to the project.

    “These agreements were different just in dates, names of the companies, stakes and sums of money,” the project reported. “But the point remained: offshore companies affiliated with Putin’s friend had privileged rights to control large stakes in strategic Russian enterprises, to receive dividends, and to buy these stakes for laughable sums.”

    Despite its apparent ties to the interests of Russia’s political elite, Sberbank is officially a private company. That allows the Podesta Group to report it as a standard lobbying client, rather than a state-owned entity, which would trigger the more detailed lobbyist reporting requirements of the Foreign Agent Registration Act.

    The Podesta Group did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

    http://freebeacon.com/issues/panama-...odesta-client/


  5. #5
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    One would wonder about fake Sryian/ISIS passports too....

    Panama Papers: How German Biz May Have Empowered Venezuela to Forge Passports for Hezbollah


    Getty Imagesby Frances Martel5 Apr 2016

    The massive legal firm data leak known as the Panama Papers have exposed business dealings that allowed the government of Venezuela under Hugo Chávez to use Cuban money to purchase advanced passport technology from Germany. Venezuela would later be accused of falsifying passports for Hezbollah terrorists.


    The revelation surfaced as part of the 11.5 million documents leaked to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, later handed over for aid in analysis to a number of journalistic outlets, most prominently the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

    The ICIJ has set up a website to help parse the information in these documents, and one website specifically for the revelations surfacing on the government of Venezuela.

    It is there that the ICIJ has revealed in a Spanish-language report that Mossack Fonseca helped the governments of Cuba and Venezuela establish a shell corporation to engage a German technology company to buy state-of-the-art passport printing technology.

    According to the report, late dictator Hugo Chávez established a project in 2005 to update the Venezuelan passport system, which would first require identifying a seller of the appropriate technology to approach. Venezuela, then as now, enjoying patronage from the government in Havana, would use Cuban money to buy the new technology. This made the purchase much more difficult, as few respectable corporations would feel comfortable doing business with the communist dictatorship.

    Venezuela found a vendor: the German company Bundesdrukerei. In an email surfacing as part of the Panama Papers, a representative of that corporation makes clear: “the fundamental reason why this company does not want to sell to Cuba and Venezuela directly is because of the reputational issue. They fear their competition will create adversarial propaganda against them for selling to totalitarian governments.”

    Mossack Fonseca then stepped in to design an elaborate currency exchange system to disassociate Cuba with the funding, a system known in Latin America as a “financial bicycle,” because the money is peddled through so many different currencies as to render its origins barely recognizable.

    Many corporations use this system to generate income, switching into cheaper currencies with higher interest rates and waiting for the money to grow before returning the money to its original form. In this case, Mossack Fonseca cycled the money through the currencies of at least four countries in addition to Cuba and Venezuela, then put the money in a shell corporation: Billingsley Global Corp. Billingsley bought the technology after receiving an influx of 64 million euros.

    Venezuela got its passports, and Cuba retained the right to access and control the software that creates the passports.

    Like most of the known revelations in the Pentagon Papers, this exchange is of questionable legality at worst, completely acceptable for a global banking lawyer at best. What makes this particular discovery notable is the years of evidence mounting that Venezuela and Cuba used the Venezuelan passport system to fabricate false documents for Hezbollah terrorists.

    A 2015 report estimated that the government of Venezuela has issued over 500 passports to members of the Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah. The terrorists would then use the passports to travel more freely through the Western Hemisphere, as their real identities and nationalities would trigger more thorough investigations into their backgrounds. Spanish reporter Emili Blasco found evidence that current Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro met with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in 2007 to discuss an agreement for distributing the fake passports.

    A former diplomat in Venezuela’s Baghdad embassy, Misael López Soto, testified before fleeing the embassy in a video posted online that he was forced to flee after receiving multiple death threats for attempting to notify Caracas that his embassy was distributing dozens of falsified birth certificates, passports, and other government documents to known members of Hezbollah. The terrorists would pay between $5000 and S15000 for each document.

    A report in February at the UK-based Asharq Al-Awsat cited a former Venezuelan diplomat as alleging that a “Cuban company” had made an agreement with Venezuela to issue the contracts. No details were provided, but such an agreement fits the Panama Papers description of the incident.

    The governments of either nation have yet to remark on this particular allegation.

    http://www.breitbart.com/national-se...red-passports/
    Last edited by artist; 04-06-2016 at 08:49 PM.

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