The Names in the Panama Papers

[mitty14u2]

The papers appear to show Mossack Fonseca helped its clients launder money, dodge sanctions, and avoid paying taxes. Offshore services are not always illegal, but the documents released Sunday appear to reveal a clandestine web of shell companies, their real owners concealed under layers of secrecy, and connections to firms in different tax havens. The individual or group behind the leak is unknown, but the documents were published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Süddeutsche Zeitung, the German newspaper, and several news organizations around the world, including the BBC, after a yearlong investigation.

A close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Bank Rossiya, a Russian bank that has been blacklisted by the U.S. and the EU, laundered hundreds of millions of dollars, the documents allege. The associate in question is Sergey Roldugin, a classical cellist and conductor who is a childhood friend of the Russian president. “The records show Roldugin is a behind-the-scenes player in a clandestine network operated by Putin associates that has shuffled at least $2 billion through banks and offshore companies,” the ICIJ alleges. “In the documents, Roldugin is listed as the owner of offshore companies that have obtained payments from other companies worth tens of millions of dollars. … It’s possible Roldugin, who has publicly claimed not to be a businessman, is not the true beneficiary of these riches. Instead, the evidence in the files suggests Roldugin is acting as a front man for a network of Putin loyalists—and perhaps for Putin himself.” The Russian president is never named in the files. A Kremlin spokesman denied the allegations as “a series of fibs.” Roldugin, ICIJ said, did not respond to questions about his alleged actions.

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/04/panama-papers-names/476688/

Canada Revenue Agency scouring Panama Papers for possible tax cheats

Search the Panama Papers database
RBC to turn over Panama Papers files
It took several days to acquire the entire cache of 11.5 million files — they amount to 2.6 terabytes of data — but the last files arrived on Thursday, according to the minister's spokeswoman, Chloé Luciani-Girouard

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/panama-papers-canada-revenue-agency-investigation-1.3574468

WIKI Leaks, Edward Snowden and now the Panama Papers