Panama Papers

[Wombaticus Rex]

I'll be blunt Jack. I don't care if you're smart, if you write well and even if you have some insight that others don't ( and your insights are usually fairly pedestrian and conservative at the core).

But here's the deal: you're an asshole.

I don't like assholes. Nobody should have to put up with assholes.

Knew I shouldn't have used that Justified image.

Enjoy a week off, decide amongst yourselves if this thread gets salvaged or locked.

[seemslikeadream]

MashableVerified account ‏@mashable 27m27 minutes ago
400 journalists kept the #PanamaPapers secret for a year. Here's how they kept it under wraps. http://on.mash.to/1MOFOg8

https://twitter.com/hashtag/PanamaPapers?src=hash

400 reporters kept the Panama Papers secret for a year. Here's how they pulled it off.


BY JASON ABBRUZZESE
30 MINUTES AGO
Marina Walker remembered when she heard a source claimed to have possession of leaked data "bigger than anything you have seen before."

Could it really be that big? Wikileaks had seen dumps that encompassed millions of documents. Walker, the deputy director of the the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), already worked on one of the biggest leaks in recent history, having co-managed an offshore leaks project.

Yes, it's that big.

The numbers are staggering: 2.6 terabytes of data in 11.5 million documents tracking billions of dollars over almost 40 years.

Now called the Panama Papers, it is already recognized as maybe the biggest leak in the history of journalism. World leaders, athletes and celebrities around the globe have been implicated — and there's more to come.

Such a historic document dump required a matching journalistic effort, one that would end up as among the broadest and most technologically challenging journalistic endeavors ever.

At the center of it all is the ICIJ, which helped coordinate the project.

But first, they had to get it into good enough shape to be read and shared.

"We quickly did two things. We recruited a worldwide team of investigative journalists who could mine the data for months," Walker said. "We also faced a technical challenge of making the data readable and sharing it securely. It took us many months to clean and filter and prepare the data and then load the data to the platform."

In all, more than 370 journalists from over 100 media outlets in almost 80 countries around the world worked on the massive document, which has shed light on the movement of money through shell companies in a variety of countries.

It all started in late 2014 when a source that referred to itself as "John Doe" reached out to Bastian Obermayer, an investigative journalist for German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.



That data turned out to be just about every document generated by Panamanian law firm Mossack, Fonseca & Co. It's a firm once only known among the global elite —it's the fourth-largest law firm for offshore tax havens — but it's now at the forefront of one of the most expansive investigative journalism efforts in history.

Sheila Coronel, a veteran investigative journalist and professor at the Columbia Journalism School, said the Panama Papers project has set a new bar for cooperation.

"I've never seen a collaboration of this nature in terms of the number of journalists and news organizations involved and in terms of the countries involved, and in terms of the independence and autonomy that was given to each of these entities to mine this very rich material to find stories that are important and relevant to their own audiences," Coronel said.

Global effort

The project tapped a variety of major international news outlets including The Guardian, the BBC, Univision, France's Le Monde, Argentina's La Nación, German broadcasters NDR and WDR, as well as journalists from Swiss newspaper Sonntagszeitung, Austrian weekly paper Falter and Austrian broadcaster ORF.

News organizations from every continent except Antartica pitched in on the project. As for U.S. publications, Fusion, McClatchy, the Charlotte Observer, and the Miami Herald are among the few.

The project comes at a difficult time for investigative journalism and the media industry as a whole, plagued by upheaval. The number of reporting jobs, at least in the U.S., has been on a steady decline. Journalists have turned to other jobs, particularly working for corporations in public relations. Two 2015 Pulitzer Prize winners had left to work in PR.


Logos of just some of the media organizations that worked on the Panama Papers.
IMAGE: MASHABLE COMPOSITE
The need to engage such a large and diverse group of media outlets came from the leak itself. With so many countries, companies and people implicated, it was necessary to look to journalists with local knowledge.

"If you wanted to look into the Brazilian documents, you could find a Brazilian reporter," ICIJ director Gerard Ryle told Fortune.

Not everyone was invited

The project is also notable for which press outlets appear to have been excluded, particularly the largest news outlets in America: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, all of which do not appear to have worked on the papers and did follow-up stories.

The Intercept, the investigative journalism outfit started by Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, who were instrumental in reporting on the leaks of Edward Snowden, also appears to not have been involved.

As for why those organizations aren't a part of the project, Walker said that openness to collaboration was essential to the project. Each partner was required to share any relevant or important discovery among all the other outlets, she added.

Some media organizations are more comfortable with this kind of sharing that others, which Walker noted can be understandable based on each newsroom's own privacy concerns.

That being said, she noted that the door is open for more partners.

"That does not mean that we can't work with the Washington Post or the New York Times on this data," she said.

The secrecy of the project is particularly impressive given the size and scope of the effort. Most recently, some signs emerged that a major story was brewing, particularly after the Kremlin attempted to get ahead of the implications that Russian President Vladimir Putin was involved.



Before that, there were few inklings of just what was about to drop. The ICIJ built a search engine available online to its partner organizations that included a chat system and two-factor authentication, according to Walker.

Paired with old school investigative journalism, that tech provided the backbone for the project.

"It's old and new reporting here," Coronel said. "What journalists are able to do now, as this latest story demonstrates, is that we are able to communicate and collaborate and report together securely across different countries, sharing basically the same set of information."

The initial salvo of stories was published on Sunday in the early afternoon Eastern Standard Time. Edward Snowden was among the first people to tweet out the link to the SZ story.

He called it the biggest leak in the history of data journalism.

[82_28]

Oh don't suspend Nordic! It would have sifted itself out. He knows the drill and we all know he can get pissed. We know Jack can be condescending. So what? It happens. I like them both. I vote for not a week off for Nordic.

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.alternet.org/world/6-things- ... 053918&t=3

6. Don’t forget about the “free trade” deal between the U.S. and Panama.

Bearing similarities to the infamous NAFTA deal, the "United States-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement" was implemented in 2012.

According to Lori Wallach, the director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, "Nearly five years after the U.S.-Panama Free Trade Agreement vote, the Panama Paper leak proves once again how entirely cynical and meaningless are the lavish promises made by American presidents and corporations about the economic benefits and policy reforms from trade agreements. The top promise about the benefits of the U.S.-Panama FTA was that it would end Panama’s financial crime secrecy protections and tax haven and money laundering activities, but this leak shows that, if anything, Panama’s outrageous financial crime facilitation has intensified while the FTA’s investor protections and official U.S. stamp of approval has increased inflows of dirty money to Panama."

"Now the same cast of characters is making equally outlandish promises of the benefits of the TPP," Wallach told AlterNet, "while, increasingly, past supporters of these pacts are joining long-term critics in saying that the TPP will not deliver economic gains for most Americans or improvement in labor, environmental or human rights policy among its signatories."

[coffin_dodger]

Maybe this is the start of the Quickening. When the 99% have the facts bluntly shoved in their face to force a reaction. A test: do we carry on with what we've got, or do we head somewhere uncharted?

[Sounder]

I just took a peek at this story outside the RI lens.

This firm being only the fourth largest of it's kind suggests that involvement is widespread and staggering in total money volume.

The outrage and potential for still more outrage seems quite significant, and if this is an op to threaten and tease taxes out of the somewhat rich (merchant class) while shielding the feudal class, I say go for it, then at least some rich people will be paying higher dues.

Contradictions of the system fester but eventually become exposed and we will see if this is that or simply more opportunity for tail biting.

[seemslikeadream]

Maybe this is the start of the Quickening. When the 99% have the facts bluntly shoved in their face to force a reaction. A test: do we carry on with what we've got, or do we head somewhere uncharted?

it's the quickening of time

evolution not revolution


viewtopic.php?f=8&t=39426&p=583803&hilit=Quickening#p583803

[coffin_dodger]

Well then.

Jack, I apologise for the comments upthread. I'm afraid I've allowed my problem with your method of communication to sully my view of the content within. I am stupid - sometimes. Quite a lot, really.

So, assuming a collapse in credibility of every gov't, plus a host of veritable institutions, worldwide - bought on by these irrefutable revelations (i.e. stuff that we at RI have discussed for years, but is cognitive-dissonanced out of existence by 'normals' seeking only to protect their daily sanity - where do we go from there?

There is no sarcasm or rancour in this post. We need to start talking about alternatives that we can all agree on.

[PufPuf93]

Here is an overview of the Panama Papers provided by The Guardian. There are graphics, videos, and links at the Guardian web page.

I will be interested to see what western leaders, politicians, and businessmen have their "secret" financial doings revealed. The huge size of the data set is an impediment and coincidences are not always causal connections.

The troubling aspect of past data breaches is that one has to wonder if the leaks aren't controlled and with an agenda as names seem teflon as far as consequences.

I would like to see a simple list of names, amounts, and associations.

Hope this is of some value.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/ap ... ama-papers

What are the Panama Papers? A guide to the biggest data leak in history


The Panama Papers are an unprecedented leak of 11.5m files from the database of the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca. The records were obtained from an anonymous source by the German newspaper Süddeutsche 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.

What do they reveal?

The documents show the myriad ways in which the rich can exploit secretive offshore tax regimes. Twelve national leaders are among 143 politicians, their families and close associates from around the world known to have been using offshore tax havens.

A $2bn trail leads all the way to Vladimir Putin. The Russian president’s best friend – a cellist called Sergei Roldugin – is at the centre of a scheme in which money from Russian state banks is hidden offshore. Some of it ends up in a ski resort where in 2013 Putin’s daughter Katerina got married.

Among national leaders with offshore wealth are Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s prime minister; Ayad Allawi, ex-interim prime minister and former vice-president of Iraq; Petro Poroshenko, president of Ukraine; Alaa Mubarak, son of Egypt’s former president; and the prime minister of Iceland, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson.

An offshore investment fund run by the father of British prime minister David Cameron avoided ever having to pay tax in Britain by hiring a small army of Bahamas residents to sign its paperwork. The fund has been registered with HM Revenue and Customs since its inception and has filed detailed tax returns every year.

A lengthier overview of the revelations can be found here.

What is Mossack Fonseca?

It 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.

Where is it based?


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 the British Virgin Islands, and in the British crown dependencies Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man.



How big is it?


Mossack Fonseca is the world’s fourth biggest provider of offshore services. It has acted for more than 300,000 companies. There is a strong UK connection. More than half of the companies are registered in British-administered tax havens, as well as in the UK itself.

How much data has been leaked?


A lot. The leak is one of the biggest ever – larger than the US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks in 2010, and the secret intelligence documents given to journalists by Edward Snowden in 2013. There are 11.5m documents and 2.6 terabytes of information drawn from Mossack Fonseca’s internal database.



Are all people who use offshore structures crooks?


No. Using offshore structures is entirely legal. There are many legitimate reasons for doing so. Business people in countries such as Russia and Ukraine typically put their assets offshore to defend them from “raids” by criminals, and to get around hard currency restrictions. Others use offshore for reasons of inheritance and estate planning.

Are some people who use offshore structures crooks?


Yes. In a speech last year in Singapore, David Cameron said “the corrupt, criminals and money launderers” take advantage of anonymous company structures. The government is trying to do something about this. It wants to set up a central register that will reveal the beneficial owners of offshore companies. From June, UK companies will have to reveal their “significant” owners for the first time.

What does Mossack Fonseca say about the leak?


The firm won’t discuss specific cases of alleged wrongdoing, citing client confidentiality. But it robustly defends its conduct. Mossack Fonseca says it complies with anti-money-laundering laws and carries out thorough due diligence on all its clients. It says it regrets any misuse of its services and tries actively to prevent it. The firm says it cannot be blamed for failings by intermediaries, who include banks, law firms and accountants.

Panama Papers reporting team: Juliette Garside, Luke Harding, Holly Watt, David Pegg, Helena Bengtsson, Simon Bowers, Owen Gibson and Nick Hopkins

[Laodicean]

Should have went with a Dexter reference, Wombat.

[seemslikeadream]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFJ9WAHowcg

[82_28]

No. No Dexter references. Refer if you must. But keep that shit out of it. If the N to the C is reading, know I really like you. Yes, I am about to become very gay. J/K

No, seriously, I have always dug your attitude. Very liberal, opinionated and left wing to the core. I am one who appreciates what you have to say. Same with Jack. If this were a bar I'd just break that shit up, tell you fellers to shake hands and that would have been it.

[82_28]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFJ9WAHowcg

The Denver Post is busy worried about the quarterback situation for the Broncos -- to "their credit". . .

[Laodicean]

No. No Dexter references. Refer if you must. But keep that shit out of it.

Don´t tell me what I can´t do. And oh, you can take your fuck all horse dick Broncos and shove`em right up your ass.

[Laodicean]

Ain't nothin' like it, her shiny machine
Got the feel for the wheel, keep the moving parts clean