Pandora Papers: Secret wealth and dealings of world leaders exposed

VorZakone

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The secret wealth and dealings of world leaders, politicians and billionaires has been exposed in one of the biggest leaks of financial documents.
Some 35 current and former leaders and more than 300 public officials are featured in the files from offshore companies, dubbed the Pandora Papers.
They reveal the King of Jordan secretly amassed £70m of UK and US property.
They also show how ex-UK PM Tony Blair and his wife saved £312,000 in stamp duty when they bought a London office.
The couple bought an offshore firm that owned the building.
The leak also links Russian President Vladimir Putin to secret assets in Monaco, and shows the Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis - facing an election later this week - failed to declare an offshore investment company used to purchase two villas for £12m in the south of France.

It is the latest in a string of leaks over the past seven years, following the FinCen Files, the Paradise Papers, the Panama Papers and LuxLeaks.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-58780465
 

VorZakone

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Trusts set up in the US remain cloaked in secrecy, despite enactment this year of the US Corporate Transparency Act, which makes it harder for owners of certain types of companies to hide their identities.

“Clearly the US. is a big, big loophole in the world,” said Yehuda Shaffer, former head of the Israeli financial intelligence unit. “The US is criticising all the rest of the world, but in their own backyard, this is a very, very serious issue.”
 

DOTA

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The general response to this will be apathy and that's not cause we are distracted fools but cause it's not remotely interesting to learn the precise figures on certain aspects of the massive corruption we are already fully aware of.
 

Adisa

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I would hope...the public?
Joe Public doesn't give a shit, sadly.
The government really ought to restrict house buying to U.K. nationals only.
Lots of non nationals working and hold residency in the UK. Would be unfair if they are excluded from the housing market.
There are many ways to restrict foreigners amassing property without going as far as you want.
 

Mb194dc

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Who's surprised Blair is in there...

Guess law or financial firms got hacked via trojan delivered by email or weak security practices. No digital information is truly safe these days, the human element in security is the weakness.
 

Flamingo Purple

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I would hope...the public?
So would I, I meant the question ironically. @DOTA basically summed up what I was trying to say more coherently. Every new scandal brings less and less attention because there are no real repercussions and the media don't dwell on these things as they aren't perceived as sensational enough. Just this week there's news the Royal Family is bankrolling an accused sex offender and the papers barely bat an eyelid.
 

Irwin99

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It's kinda funny how this will barely make any splash at all with the public but if you talk to them about people on benefits and disability then oh boy, do they have an opinion. People at the bottom of society are expected to play by the rules apparently but those at the top are seemingly exempt.
 

VorZakone

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It's kinda funny how this will barely make any splash at all with the public but if you talk to them about people on benefits and disability then oh boy, do they have an opinion. People at the bottom of society are expected to play by the rules apparently but those at the top are seemingly exempt.
I don't think this notion holds as much anymore. I've seen people of all political ideologies complain about the wealthy playing by different rules, including pro-business conservative type people.
 

Irwin99

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I don't think this notion holds anymore. I've seen people of all political ideologies complain about the wealthy playing by different rules, including pro-business conservative type people.
I think you're right that there is a growing 'anti 1%' or anti super rich sentiment but a lot of the people I know- friends/family- still honestly couldn't care less. It's just accepted or ignored by a lot of people who could stand to benefit a hell of a lot more from a fairer world.
 

izec

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No one is surprised. Nothing will change anyway. Once you are that rich and influential, you get away with almost everything.
 

11101

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The government really ought to restrict house buying to U.K. nationals only.
Too late. That horse already bolted, it needs to be made uneconomic to hold property from overseas.
 

The Purley King

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Nobody with any semblance of power has any interest at all in closing these loopholes for very obvious reasons.
This will blow over in less than a week and we will all continue on with getting bent over on a regular basis.
Nothing to see here.
 

lefty_jakobz

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Nobody with any semblance of power has any interest at all in closing these loopholes for very obvious reasons.
This will blow over in less than a week and we will all continue on with getting bent over on a regular basis.
Nothing to see here.
Unfortunately you are right.
 

OleGunnar20

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What could us normies actually do (In a make believe reality where a significant percentage of us gave enough of a shite to act) to start clawing this nonsense back? The world is twisted, yet they're such a small percentage of the population.

Serious question.
 

neverdie

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Surely the type of response which constructs a "nothing will happen anyway, no one will care" attitude is exactly the problem. People here and elsewhere blame the general public's apathy but you are reproducing that exact apathy in your own pessimistic expectation of it.
 

Tarrou

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I read about the EU trying to crack down on this a few years ago, but have no idea if anything ever came of it

there are politicians like Corbyn and Bernie who seem to genuinely be against all this stuff - but those sorta guys are always up against it to get elected
 

kps88

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I feel like the way these things are put out always make it harder for them to have much of an impact. Always a huge, intimidating amount of data that includes a mix of illegality, legal loopholes, grey areas and often completely legal transactions.

Sachin Tendulkar and Shakira have been named and both have said that all their holdings were legal and reported to the tax authorities. But because they are famous names, you'll get them mentioned in the same article as people who have actually broken the law. You dilute the impact by including cases like these.
 

GazTheLegend

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I think general feeling towards this will be apathy. Who really cares when corruption is blatantly evident on such a wide scale now?
The Icelandic people used the last set of leaks to indict their president. It CAN make a difference.
 

hasanejaz88

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Blair avoided playing 300,000 pounds in taxes through the off shore company, but sure it's the immigrants that mooch of the country.
 

arnie_ni

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Joe Public doesn't give a shit, sadly.

Lots of non nationals working and hold residency in the UK. Would be unfair if they are excluded from the housing market.
There are many ways to restrict foreigners amassing property without going as far as you want.
Maybe he means more than 1 property and "resident"
 

Rooney24

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It’s an absolute non story and poor journalism. One of the lead stories on the bbc this morning is about the president of Kenya.

then you read beyond the headline that he has made all declarations the law requires of him, it’s not illegal to own offshore companies, and there is no evidence he did anything wrong.

morally questionable? For sure.

a crime ? Not at all
 

Sparky_Hughes

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I read about the EU trying to crack down on this a few years ago, but have no idea if anything ever came of it

there are politicians like Corbyn and Bernie who seem to genuinely be against all this stuff - but those sorta guys are always up against it to get elected
And that is exactly the point when the wealthy pushing for brexit became a thing.............
 

Zen86

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Politicians are corrupt shocker. Sadly I think these kinds of things are met with brief outrage followed by general apathy by most in the UK; an ‘it is what it is’ attitude.The elite do too good a job at sweeping things under the carpet and pointing the finger elsewhere, mostly at foreigners and the EU.
 

Pexbo

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It’s an absolute non story and poor journalism. One of the lead stories on the bbc this morning is about the president of Kenya.

then you read beyond the headline that he has made all declarations the law requires of him, it’s not illegal to own offshore companies, and there is no evidence he did anything wrong.

morally questionable? For sure.

a crime ? Not at all

You think journalism should only cover crime and not ethics? Do you think ethically questionable/immoral actions should potentially be made illegal?
 

Smores

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It’s an absolute non story and poor journalism. One of the lead stories on the bbc this morning is about the president of Kenya.

then you read beyond the headline that he has made all declarations the law requires of him, it’s not illegal to own offshore companies, and there is no evidence he did anything wrong.

morally questionable? For sure.

a crime ? Not at all
They're politicians of course tax dodging is a big news story.

It's not just morals and ethics either there's an increasing international effort to stop this behaviour so it's very relevant if senior figures are doing it.

It's already well known from previous leaks that Blair whilst telling the world how bad these schemes were used them himself.
 

Rooney24

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You think journalism should only cover crime and not ethics? Do you think ethically questionable/immoral actions should potentially be made illegal?
No. But I don’t think equally they should be putting a huge slant on this that people are stealing assets or evading taxes. For those that are doing that absolutely throw the book at them.I think most people reading this automatically assume something highly illegal is going on here when in a lot of cases it isn’t at all. But because we read “offshore company” people automatically connect that will illegality.

on your second question. No. Ethics and morality are completely individual.
 

Buster15

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No one is surprised. Nothing will change anyway. Once you are that rich and influential, you get away with almost everything.
It will be news for a day or so and then be quietly forgotten about.
Apart from naming a few individuals who most won't be at all surprised at, it has and will always be the same.
Whatever the average person does in terms of money, you have to provide all the necessary documents to prevent money laundering.

But for those at the top, there are always ways round it.
 

Sparky_Hughes

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So the king of Jordan has a multi multi million dollar property empire whilst his country receives £650 million of aid from britain, yep, nothing to see here :rolleyes:
 

Dr. StrangeHate

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It’s an absolute non story and poor journalism. One of the lead stories on the bbc this morning is about the president of Kenya.

then you read beyond the headline that he has made all declarations the law requires of him, it’s not illegal to own offshore companies, and there is no evidence he did anything wrong.

morally questionable? For sure.

a crime ? Not at all
Were you named as well?