World Politics

[blutto]

A while back I quoted an American businessman very familiar with Russia who suggested Putin might be the richest man in the world. The Guardian just published a story shedding more light on that claim:

A network of secret offshore deals and vast loans worth $2bn has laid a trail to Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.

An unprecedented leak of documents shows how this money has made members of Putin’s close circle fabulously wealthy.

Though the president’s name does not appear in any of the records, the data reveals a pattern – his friends have earned millions from deals that seemingly could not have been secured without his patronage.

The documents suggest Putin’s family has benefited from this money – his friends’ fortunes appear his to spend.

The files are part of an unprecedented leak of millions of papers from the database of Mossack Fonseca, the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm. They show how the rich and powerful are able to exploit secret offshore tax regimes in myriad ways.

Speculation over the size of Putin’s personal fortune has gone on for almost a decade, following reports in 2007 that he was worth at least $40bn, based on leaks from inside his own presidential administration.

The Putin circle’s use of offshore companies contrasts with the president’s call for “deoffshoreisation”, urging Russians to bring cash hidden abroad home. Others who make use of offshore companies include oil trader Gennady Timchenko, Putin’s friend of 30 years. The US imposed sanctions on him in 2014. Others in the data are Arkady and Boris Rotenberg, Putin’s childhood friends and former judo partners. They are now billionaire construction tycoons. The Arsenal FC shareholder Alisher Usmanov also appears. He has at least six companies registered in the Isle of Man. There is no suggestion this is illegal.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s official spokesman, declined to comment on specific allegations against the president. Speaking last week, Peskov said western spy agencies were behind an all-out “information attack” against him to destabilise Russia before elections. Peskov dismissed the investigation by the Guardian and others as an “undisguised, paid-for hack job”. He said Russia had “legal means” to defend Putin’s dignity and honour.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/03/panama-papers-money-hidden-offshore

Makes the Clintons look like amateurs

....just a guess but me thinks the Clintons are on the right side of the firewall for this one so we may never know how many billions they really have....

...and just to give this story some more bite, how about slathering it with some savoury conspiratorial sauce....

As former UK ambassador Craig Murray writes, the beef (if there is any at all) is in what is hidden by the organizations that manage the "leak":

The filtering of this Mossack Fonseca information by the corporate media follows a direct western governmental agenda. There is no mention at all of use of Mossack Fonseca by massive western corporations or western billionaires – the main customers. And the Guardian is quick to reassure that “much of the leaked material will remain private.”
What do you expect? The leak is being managed by the grandly but laughably named “International Consortium of Investigative Journalists”, which is funded and organised entirely by the USA’s Center for Public Integrity. Their funders include

Ford Foundation
Carnegie Endowment
Rockefeller Family Fund
W K Kellogg Foundation
Open Society Foundation (Soros)

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) is part of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) which is financed by the U.S. government through USAID.

The "leak" is of data selected by U.S. friendly organization out of a database, likely obtained by U.S. secret services, which can be assumed to include much dirt about "western" persons and organizations.

To only publish very selected data from the "leaked" data has two purposes:
•It smears various "enemies of the empire" even if only by association like the presidents Putin and Assad.
•It lets other important people, those mentioned in the database but not yet published about, know that the U.S. or its "media partner" can, at any time, expose their dirty laundry to the public. It is thereby a perfect blackmailing instrument.

The engineered "leak" of the "Panama Papers" is a limited hangout designed to incriminate a few people and organization the U.S. dislikes. It is also a demonstration of the "torture tools" to the people who did business with Mossak Fonseca but have not (yet) been published about. They are now in the hands of those who control the database. They will have to do as demanded or else ...

Cheers

 

[Echoes]

Re:

In all seriousness, the Leave campaign could well take the UK out of Europe and Cameron out of PM. On a wider scale, it probably means traction for anti-EU parties in Europe, Austria especially and Le Pen too, although IIRC Le Pen is not strictly anti-EU.

She definitely isn't. She's said multiple time that she neither intended to leave the EU nor unilaterally the Eurozone (which means not at all, which is coherent because it's legally impossible to leave zone without leaving the EU). I've seen all her electoral professions of faith (which is the only official document regarding the election agenda of a party/candidate in France), the word "euro" is not even mentioned. I'd pay a bottle of champaign to anyone who finds an official document of the FN that states that they advocate for EU exit (not the occasional interview given here or there, after all like all political parties, the French FN are saying one thing and its opposite on a regular basis).

Only François Asselineau or Jacques Nikonoff in France are consistent in leaving the EU, the Eurozone and NATO by article 50 of the TFEU and article 13 of NATO. Needless to say they are not so-called far-right.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Re: Re:

In all seriousness, the Leave campaign could well take the UK out of Europe and Cameron out of PM. On a wider scale, it probably means traction for anti-EU parties in Europe, Austria especially and Le Pen too, although IIRC Le Pen is not strictly anti-EU.

She definitely isn't. She's said multiple time that she neither intended to leave the EU nor unilaterally the Eurozone (which means not at all, which is coherent because it's legally impossible to leave zone without leaving the EU). I've seen all her electoral professions of faith (which is the only official document regarding the election agenda of a party/candidate in France), the word "euro" is not even mentioned. I'd pay a bottle of champaign to anyone who finds an official document of the FN that states that they advocate for EU exit (not the occasional interview given here or there, after all like all political parties, the French FN are saying one thing and its opposite on a regular basis).

Only François Asselineau or Jacques Nikonoff in France are consistent in leaving the EU, the Eurozone and NATO by article 50 of the TFEU and article 13 of NATO. Needless to say they are not so-called far-right.

No worries about NATO they will not exist once copperhead is elected president.

 

[Maxiton]

Re: Panama Papers

So the Prime Minister of Iceland (and many others) are involved in tax evasion according to the Panama Papers? No wonder he wanted to go back to business-as-usual casino banking less than 5 years after Iceland's catastrophic meltdown.

....and closer to home...

The offshore investment fund run by David Cameron's father avoided paying UK tax, Panama Papers show. The Guardian

....and...maybe....

Yes, Mossack Fonseca may now be history, and its countless uberwealthy clients exposed, but none other than Rothschild is now delighted to be able to fill its rather large shoes. In fact, someone with a conspiratorial bent may decide that today's dramatic takedown of the Panama "offshoring" industry was nothing more than a hit designed to crush the competition of domestic "tax haven" providers... such as Rothschild.

....and more maybe...

As former UK ambassador Craig Murray writes, the beef (if there is any at all) is in what is hidden by the organizations that manage the "leak":

The filtering of this Mossack Fonseca information by the corporate media follows a direct western governmental agenda. There is no mention at all of use of Mossack Fonseca by massive western corporations or western billionaires – the main customers. And the Guardian is quick to reassure that “much of the leaked material will remain private.”
What do you expect? The leak is being managed by the grandly but laughably named “International Consortium of Investigative Journalists”, which is funded and organised entirely by the USA’s Center for Public Integrity. Their funders include

Ford Foundation
Carnegie Endowment
Rockefeller Family Fund
W K Kellogg Foundation
Open Society Foundation (Soros)

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) is part of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) which is financed by the U.S. government through USAID.

The "leak" is of data selected by U.S. friendly organization out of a database, likely obtained by U.S. secret services, which can be assumed to include much dirt about "western" persons and organizations.

To only publish very selected data from the "leaked" data has two purposes:
•It smears various "enemies of the empire" even if only by association like the presidents Putin and Assad.
•It lets other important people, those mentioned in the database but not yet published about, know that the U.S. or its "media partner" can, at any time, expose their dirty laundry to the public. It is thereby a perfect blackmailing instrument.

The engineered "leak" of the "Panama Papers" is a limited hangout designed to incriminate a few people and organization the U.S. dislikes. It is also a demonstration of the "torture tools" to the people who did business with Mossak Fonseca but have not (yet) been published about. They are now in the hands of those who control the database. They will have to do as demanded or else ...

...and as MI pointed out in the World Politics thread showed selectively slime people ( if only by association )....though given the apparent scale of this the entire world may in some way be implicated....

Cheers

Wow. That is really a perceptive and concise reading of the situation. (I'm hearing just now that senior Chinese leaders, including Xi Jinping, are also implicated.)

 

[CheckMyPecs]

My gut tells me none of this will appear in the Chinese media...

 

[frenchfry]

Re: Re:

In all seriousness, the Leave campaign could well take the UK out of Europe and Cameron out of PM. On a wider scale, it probably means traction for anti-EU parties in Europe, Austria especially and Le Pen too, although IIRC Le Pen is not strictly anti-EU.

She definitely isn't. She's said multiple time that she neither intended to leave the EU nor unilaterally the Eurozone (which means not at all, which is coherent because it's legally impossible to leave zone without leaving the EU). I've seen all her electoral professions of faith (which is the only official document regarding the election agenda of a party/candidate in France), the word "euro" is not even mentioned. I'd pay a bottle of champaign to anyone who finds an official document of the FN that states that they advocate for EU exit (not the occasional interview given here or there, after all like all political parties, the French FN are saying one thing and its opposite on a regular basis).

Only François Asselineau or Jacques Nikonoff in France are consistent in leaving the EU, the Eurozone and NATO by article 50 of the TFEU and article 13 of NATO. Needless to say they are not so-called far-right.

In this November 2014 interview, Marine Lepen says that if elected president, within 6 months she will organise a referendum for leaving the European Union, and if the French vote no she will step down because she would never make a promise she couldn't keep.

http://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/2014/11/27/01002-20141127ARTFIG00329-marine-le-pen-si-je-suis-elue-en-2017-je-ferai-un-referendum-sur-la-sortie-de-l-europe.php

Of course there is little chance she would ever be elected President, and in any case she is just a money grabbing, oportunistic liar like all national French politicians so what she says really has no real value.

 

[frenchfry]

As those on the "list" line up to deny any wrong doing, remember that the one and only reason for having a Panamanian shell company is to hide financial transactions. So if you aren't doing anything wrong, why are you hiding it?

Unless, perhaps, you are actually Panamanian.

 

[rhubroma]

Further proof that the system is rigged. The Free Market is a myth.

 

[aphronesis]

There's no separation of economics and politics--or of economies and the political. Naturally many politicians, economists and profiteers benefit from maintaining the opposite fiction.

 

[jmdirt]

I'm just starting to read about this topic...WOW! I don't know/understand enough yet to really make much more post than that.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Iceland PM done.

 

[JackRabbitSlims]

Iceland's PM Resigns over the scandal!

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11617590

 

[JackRabbitSlims]

sorry for the double up Glenn.....posting at pretty much the same time.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Re:

sorry for the double up Glenn.....posting at pretty much the same time.

No worries. Yours has the link and is better.

I'm having trouble to comprehend the damage that this is going to do. Certainly there is more here than what we are reading so far. Which is FREAKING TROUBLING.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

some quotes from the NYtimes article.

"Scanned copies of at least 200 American passports were included in the trove of documents, according to McClatchy, which said that many appeared to be retirees using offshore companies to buy real estate in Latin America."

WTF????? anyone think our man Copperhead and lady Goldman Handcuffs might be using this?

Then again the Times article also says this.

One reason there may be relatively few Americans named in the documents is that it is fairly easy to form shell companies in the United States. James Henry, an economist and senior adviser to the Tax Justice Network, told Fusion that Americans “really don’t need to go to Panama.”

“Basically, we have an onshore haven industry in the U.S. that is as secretive as anywhere,” he said.

I have read this before about the ways super rich can create companies out of the clear blue here in the USA to shield their money from the IRS.
But little ole me out in Canada for work back a few years now had to double pay them IRS jerks.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

And Yesterday this guy had seen enough of his name in the Panama Papers that he diecided it was time to call it quits.

On Monday in Chile, the president of the country’s branch of Transparency International, an anti-corruption group, quit after the Panama Papers linked him to at least five offshore companies.

The organization said in a statement that though its president, Gonzalo Delaveau Swett, was not accused of illegal activities, it was “deeply troubled by what has happened.”

 

[gooner]

Infantino, the FIFA president is dragged into it.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/05/panama-papers-pull-fifa-uefa-chief-gianni-infantino-corruption-scandal

 

[python]

Dutch Vote on EU-Ukraine Deal Could Send Ripples Through Europe
http://www.wsj.com/articles/dutch-vote-on-eu-ukraine-deal-could-send-ripples-through-europe-1459762411

Opinion polls suggest a narrow majority of Dutch voters will reject the association agreement, although the referendum will only be declared valid if turnout reaches the minimum threshold of 30% of eligible voters. In that case, the Dutch parliament has promised to respect the outcome.

A “no” vote would deal a blow to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, whose government currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency

 

[del1962]

Re:

A stupid wee post, but I think an important one. Scotland doesn't lead the world in much (these days) but the leader of the main opposition (election coming up in May) in Scotland has just come out. Whoopy do you may say, but given 2 out of the other three are also openly Gay, and nobody gives a flying makes me proud in Scottish politics. Unfortunately for them all, it's going to another SNP whitewash...

Who are the main opposition in Scotland, the Tories, Labour or the Lib Dems, you can never be quite sure

 

[del1962]

Re:

Talking about the EU, in the UK the latest polls show the Leave group leading by 4. So, as it's British pollsters, it's probably 60-40 for stay.

In all seriousness, the Leave campaign could well take the UK out of Europe and Cameron out of PM. On a wider scale, it probably means traction for anti-EU parties in Europe, Austria especially and Le Pen too, although IIRC Le Pen is not strictly anti-EU. Brussels won't be too happy, although considering how China is toying with the UK at the moment it may work out quite well for the EU, if they (UK) then turn out to be as incompetent in dealings with the EU than with China.

I think Corbyn is hoping for a leave vote, for the damage it will do to Cameron and the Tories and I suspect he secretly harbors a anti eu streak like the clique he belongs to who have hijacked a once great party, he can't come out and say he is anti eu directly because it would no go down to well with many of those he has fooled into voting him into his position,

 

[Maxiton]

Re: Re:

I think Corbyn is hoping for a leave vote, for the damage it will do to Cameron and the Tories and I suspect he secretly harbors a anti eu streak like the clique he belongs to who have hijacked a once great party, he can't come out and say he is anti eu directly because it would no go down to well with many of those he has fooled into voting him into his position,

Corbyn is being advised by Yanis Varoufakis, so I seriously doubt he is "secretly anti-EU". And if I'm not mistaken it was Blair and his Blairite acolytes who hijacked a "once great party". Corbyn is just doing the needed reset, or trying to.

 

[del1962]

Re: Re:

I think Corbyn is hoping for a leave vote, for the damage it will do to Cameron and the Tories and I suspect he secretly harbors a anti eu streak like the clique he belongs to who have hijacked a once great party, he can't come out and say he is anti eu directly because it would no go down to well with many of those he has fooled into voting him into his position,

Corbyn is being advised by Yanis Varoufakis, so I seriously doubt he is "secretly anti-EU". And if I'm not mistaken it was Blair and his Blairite acolytes who hijacked a "once great party". Corbyn is just doing the needed reset, or trying to.

Of course the trot is anti EU, he just can;t come out and say it, and the scumbag has hijacked the party that gave us the NHS and other things, he and his cliche are very unpopuar with labour mps, he is known to have shared platforms with holocaust denier and after an election mauling he will be thrown out and the Labour party can rebuild itself, and actually do something about the Tories

 

[Maxiton]

Re: Re:

I think Corbyn is hoping for a leave vote, for the damage it will do to Cameron and the Tories and I suspect he secretly harbors a anti eu streak like the clique he belongs to who have hijacked a once great party, he can't come out and say he is anti eu directly because it would no go down to well with many of those he has fooled into voting him into his position,

Corbyn is being advised by Yanis Varoufakis, so I seriously doubt he is "secretly anti-EU". And if I'm not mistaken it was Blair and his Blairite acolytes who hijacked a "once great party". Corbyn is just doing the needed reset, or trying to.

Of course the trot is anti EU, he just can;t come out and say it, and the scumbag has hijacked the party that gave us the NHS and other things, he and his cliche are very unpopuar with labour mps, he is known to have shared platforms with holocaust denier and after an election mauling he will be thrown out and the Labour party can rebuild itself, and actually do something about the Tories

Tory-lite. I like it.

 

[blutto]

....more Panama stuff....at the very least the background on the investigating journalistical group in quite informative.....

http://off-guardian.org/2016/04/04/panama-papers-revealing-details-live-in-the-gaps-between-the-lines/

Cheers

 

[blutto]

The growing scandal over cooked ISIS intelligence just got much worse. Now, analysts are saying they’re being forced out for not toeing the Obama administration’s line on the war.

Two senior intelligence analysts at U.S. Central Command say the military has forced them out of their jobs because of their skeptical reporting on U.S.-backed rebel groups in Syria, three sources with knowledge of their claim told The Daily Beast. It’s the first known instance of possible reprisals against CENTCOM personnel after analysts accused their bosses of manipulating intelligence reports about the U.S.-led campaign against ISIS in order to paint a rosier picture of progress in the war.

One of the analysts alleging reprisals is the top analyst in charge of Syria issues at CENTCOM. He and a colleague doubted rebels’ capabilities and their commitment to U.S. objectives in the region. The analysts have been effectively sidelined from their positions and will no longer be working at CENTCOM, according to two individuals familiar with the dispute, and who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The analysts’ skeptical views put them at odds with military brass, who last year had predicted that a so-called moderate opposition would make up a 15,000-man ground force to take on ISIS in its self-declared caliphate. An initial $500 million program to train and arm those fighters failed spectacularly. And until the very end, Pentagon leaders claimed the operation was more or less on track. Lawmakers called the plan a “joke” when Gen. Lloyd Austin, the CENTCOM commander, finally testified last September that there were just “four or five” American-trained fighters in Syria.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/03/intel-analysts-we-were-punished-for-telling-the-truth-about-obama-s-isis-war.html

Cheers