Some people got to have it. Some people really need it.
*cues The O’Jays song*
The Low Down
The world has been shaken up over the secret economy that was exposed through a series of leaked files known as the Panama Papers. The files were leaked to the German paper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which shared it with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. If you’re not really sure exactly what encompasses the Panama Papers, then that’s okay. The leak consists of an unprecedented 11.5m files from the database of the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca, covering a span of 40 years! Just to put that into perspective, Edward Snowden’s leak of the N.S.A. documents were somewhere in the thousands.
This is the biggest leak in the history of journalism, and there’s still a lot we don’t know.
The data is connected to people in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. Offshore holdings of 140 politicians and public officials were revealed, including 12 current and former world leaders that include Iceland’s Prime Minister, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, who has just resigned his position in light of the scandal, and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin, however, denies being linked to the offshore accounts and describes the scandal as part of Western efforts to weaken Russia.
So here’s what we know so far:
- Relatives of President Xi Jinping of China and two other members of the Communist Party’s most powerful body were linked to offshore companies.
- Gonzalo Delaveau Swett, the president of Transparency Chile, a branch of a global anticorruption group, stepped down.
- Other names linked to the scandal are world-famous soccer player, Lionel Messi, President Mauricio Macri of Argentina, the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, the former emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, and its former prime minister, Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani.
- Dozens of influential politicians and donors in Britain have also been named, which include Ian Cameron, who evaded British taxes for 30 years. Ian Cameron is the father of Prime Minister David Cameron and passed away in 2010.
- We still don’t know everything.
- Mr. Ramon Fonseca, one of the founders of the law firm, told The Times, “At the end of this storm the sky will be blue again and people will find that the only crime is the hacking.”
Oh. Ok.
Unfortunately, this isn’t surprising news. We’ve all seen or heard this story before in countless books, movies, and the like, and somewhere deep down–well, maybe not that deep–we know that some of the world’s wealthiest people are involved in some shady, shadowy, funny money business. All this does is prove what we already believed.
Sure, owning an offshore account is not illegal, but they are used in some instances by wealthy individuals and criminals to hide money and business transactions, and to avoid paying taxes. Sure, some of the documents in the Panama Papers may be circumstantial for the big leaders whose names are currently in the headlines, but that’s just the point. When you have that much wealth and power, you can cover your tracks and work the system all under the guise of carefully crafted documentation and a one-sided interpretation of the law and our global tax system.
Besides, just because something is legal doesn’t mean it’s ethical. There was a time when women didn’t have the right to vote, and it was legal to own slaves.
Rana Foroohar of Time states, “The Panama Papers illuminate a key aspect of why the system isn’t working–because globalization has allowed the capital and assets of the 1% (be they individuals or corporations) to travel freely, while those of the 99% cannot.”
Again, this is something we already know and believe, but there’s something about seeing it all in black and white that reads like a slap in the face. Though it does beg the question: what (if anything) can be done about it?
From WikiLeaks to Edward Snowden’s leak of N.S.A. documents and even going back to Watergate, we’ve seen whistleblowing before–but this is just on a completely different level. The exhaustive list of power players makes the whole thing play out like The Wolf of Wall Street meets House of Cards on international steroids.
I can see the Hollywood screenwriters typing out their screenplays at this very moment.
This is definitely a story to follow as details can and will change by the day as more things are uncovered. Remarkably, U.S. names have not been released in relation to the documents. In an interview with The Associated Press, Ramon Foseca said that he prefers not to have them as clients, but who knows what tomorrow will bring?
And it’s all for the love of money. So what do you think of the latest international scandal?
