Even though it merely reiterates the sentiment harbored by the rest of us since Occupy Wall Street a few years ago, but could the “Panama Papers Leak” ignite full-blown global class warfare?
By: Ringo Bones
Ever since the Occupy Wall Street Movement went global a few
years ago, it revealed in the most unflattering way on how most of the world’s
richest 1-percent don’t give a “proverbial rat’s ass” to the rest of us. While
the recent 11.5 million document file leak from the world’s fourth largest
offshore law firm – the Panama based Mossack Fonseca – only reiterates the
self-evident truths revealed since then. But given the damning revelations of
the 11.5 million leaked files from Mossack Fonseca a few days ago – more damning
than that of the Edward Snowden revelations – could the “Panama Papers leak” be
the tipping point in igniting so-called global class warfare?
The records were first obtained from an anonymous source by
the German newspaper Sϋddeutsche Zeitung, which shared them with the
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The ICIJ then
shared them with a large network of international partners – including the
Guardian and the BBC. The documents show the myriad ways in which the rich can
exploit secretive offshore tax regimes. Twelve national leaders are among the
143 politicians, their families and close associates from around the world
known to have been using offshore tax havens. Ever since the news about the
Panama Papers Leak went global, Baidu – The People’s Republic of China’s
equivalent of Google and the only search engine authorized by the monolithic
communist party to operate in Mainland China – had been blocking the story for
frat that it may be just a “Western Plot” against the Beijing Communist Party.
A 2-billion US dollar trail leads all the way to Russian
strongman Vladimir Putin via the Russian president’s best friend – a cellist
named Sergei Roldugin – is at the center of a scheme in which money from the Russian
state banks is hidden offshore. Some of it ends up in a ski resort where in
2013 Putin’s daughter Katerina got married. And despite the legality of the
leaked documents, Russia’s official news agency had dismissed the revelations
as a “Western plot” against Vladimir Putin.
Among the other national leaders revealed by the Panama
Papers Leak to have offshore wealth are Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif,
ex-interim prime minister and former vice-president of Iraq Ayad Alawi,
president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, Alaa Mubarak – son of Egypt’s former
president and the Prime Minister of Iceland, Sigmundur Davíỗ
Gunnlsughsson. And what irked the international community most is on how
Mossack Fonseca helped governments that are under imposed economic sanctions by
the UN Security Council to still do business with impunity – like North Korea
and Russia since the unlawful Donetsk Region annexation by the Putin regime.
Mossack Fonseca is a Panama-based law firm whose services include
incorporating companies in offshore jurisdictions such as the British Virgin
Islands. It administers offshore firms for a yearly fee. Other services include
wealth management. The firm is Panamanian but runs a worldwide operation. Its
website boasts of a global network with 600 people working in 42 countries. It
has franchises around the world, where separately owned affiliates sign up new
customers and have exclusive rights to use its brand. Mossack Fonseca operates
in tax havens including Switzerland, Cyprus and British Virgin Islands and in
the British crown dependencies of Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man.
