World news
Panama Papers
A
world of hidden wealth: why we are shining a light offshore
Huge
leak reveals how the powerful exploit secretive tax regimes – and
widen the gulf between rich and poor
Juliette Garside
Sunday 3 April 2016
18.51 BST
They are known as
the CDOTs – the UK’s crown dependencies and overseas territories
– island states such as the Caymans and the British Virgin Islands.
On maps they appear
no bigger than a full stop, but each year billions of dollars in
capital sail into the global banking system along the warm currents
of the Caribbean.
Economists are
charting an unrelenting, escalating transfer of wealth, enabled by
the offshore system, often from the very poorest to the very richest
nations.
The money is
sometimes spent in obvious ways – funding super-yachts, private
jets, fine art auctions and, of course, property. But there is the
unseen damage. It harms the ecology of vibrant cities by making them
unaffordable to ordinary people.
The cash is also a
shot in the arm to the financial system. Lawfully injected into
London hedge funds and Wall Street trading rooms, it funds
high-stakes investments and, in the good years, big bonus pools.
The movement of this
offshore money is an industry made possible in part by the secrecy on
sale in tax havens, led by the UK’s substantial network of offshore
enclaves. The Panama Papers lift the veil on how this world works –
and the people who use it.
While much of the
leaked material will remain private, there are compelling reasons for
publishing some of the data. The documents reveal a huge breadth of
unseen activity.
At one end of this
spectrum, the papers simply reveal the vast number of people who use
offshore to protect their wealth. There is nothing unlawful about
doing this. It is not illegal to be a director, shareholder or
beneficial owner – the real owner, even though their name may not
appear on the shareholder register – of an offshore company. But
the financial advantages these structures provide are not generally
available to the ordinary taxpayer.
Since the 2008
crash, there has been a clamour for everyone to pay a fair share of
the tax burden.
Unsurprisingly, the
public is questioning – perhaps more than ever – whether a system
that provides advantages only to the wealthy is immoral. And the
political climate that once tolerated this inequality has changed
decisively.
At the other end of
this spectrum there is, frankly, what could be described as offshore
pandemonium.
In the files we have
found evidence of Russian banks providing slush funds for President
Vladimir Putin’s inner circle; assets belonging to 12 country
leaders, including the leaders of Iceland, Pakistan and Ukraine;
companies connected to more than 140 senior politicians, their
friends and relatives, and to some 22 people subject to sanctions for
supporting regimes in North Korea, Syria, Russia and Zimbabwe; the
proceeds of crimes, including Britain’s infamous Brink’s-Mat gold
robbery; and enough art hidden in private collections to fill a
public gallery.
Just as importantly,
we will shine a spotlight on the role of the facilitators: the
well-paid lawyers, accountants and private bankers in financial
centres such as London and Geneva, whose expertise lies in moving
money offshore.
Behaviour revealed
in the Panama Papers highlights the failures of regulatory regimes
that were either oblivious to, or unwilling to act against, Mossack
Fonseca, the law firm from whose database the documents have been
leaked.
Yet at least one
underling in the firm recognised the jeopardy. He emailed the head
office in Panama to ask: “Is there any kind of indemnity that
stop[s] us as employees of Mossack Fonseca from being prosecuted? We
are getting a bit worried …”
The disclosures have
been made possible by the biggest data leak in history – 11.5m
documents detailing the activities of more than 200,000 offshore
companies, about two-thirds of the total incorporated by Mossack
Fonseca.
Obtained from an
anonymous source by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and
shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
with other media organisations, the files are a mine of emails,
shareholder registers, bank statements, internal reports, passport
scans and company certificates.
Companies should
know who really owns them and law enforcers should be able to obtain
this information easily
Though the source of
the leak is not known to the Guardian, there can be no doubt as to
the files’ authenticity – and potential impact.
The offshore
industry may say there are good reasons for sheltering assets in tax
havens. Big corporations often argue they have a duty to their
shareholders to pay as little tax as is legal. But they are swimming
against the tide.
Research group
Global Financial Integrity puts the figure for illicit financial
outflows from developing countries at $1tn a year and growing.
No wonder then that
some world leaders are now taking a stand.
In June 2013, at the
G8 summit in Northern Ireland, Britain’s prime minister, David
Cameron, promised to fight the “scourge of tax evasion and
aggressive tax avoidance”, with transparency, in particular
“transparency about who owns which companies”.
World leaders,
including Barack Obama, signed up to the plan, which stated:
“Companies should know who really owns them and tax collectors and
law enforcers should be able to obtain this information easily.”
The details from the
Panama Papers will contribute to an important public debate – not
just in the UK but across the world – about what offshore activity
can be tolerated, and what should not.
Can you have
transparency if some activities are kept secret, and others not? And
who makes that judgment? These are huge questions that governments
have not been able to answer.
In May, the UK is
planning to host an anti-corruption summit. Offshore tax havens are
to be discussed – and after the Panama Papers disclosures they are
likely to be top of the agenda.
Panama Papers
reporting team: Juliette Garside, Luke Harding, Holly Watt, David
Pegg, Helena Bengtsson, Simon Bowers, Owen Gibson and Nick Hopkins
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário