The Panama Papers: Breaking the Story of How the Rich and Powerful Hide Their Money

In the vein of Wikileaks and the explosive revelations of Edward Snowden, Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer (nicknamed the Obermayer Brothers but unrelated) of Suddendeutsche Zeitung, one of Germany's premier investigative journals, have crafted a masterful account of their journalistic experience of handling one of the most massive and controversial leaks of confidential banking data in history. The Panama Papers is less about the content of this incredible journalistic coup than it is about how John Doe, their anonymous source, came to reach out to them, the massiveness of the data he sent them, their decisions as to how the data would be assessed, sorted, shared, and reported, and ultimately, the incredible weight of civic responsibility and informational security that bore on their shoulders during the time of the leak.The Panama Paper's title is a play on the classic American leak/scandal/journalistic coup called the Pentagon Papers that was published in 1971 regarding the US war in Vietnam. But the subject of the Panama Papers is off-shore banking i.e., those secret bank accounts used by the super-rich, by corrupt politicians, by corporate embezzlers, by hypocritical reformers, by drug lords, by celebrities, and by Mafioso of every stripe to avoid paying taxes or having, in any way, to account for their massive wealth. Panama is the off-shore banking corporate world headquarters (if such a thing existed) where dozens of law firms (many linked to liberal Panamanian Politicians who should know better) manage tens of thousands of front companies and faux corporate accounts designed to hide their true owners from public scrutiny.And the Panama Papers does name names. Many European politicians regarded as "progressively minded" were exposed in the journalistic products that came to light when the Obermayer Twins' team of hand-picked anti-corruption journalists from around the world released their work on the same, triumphant day.The anonymous tipper, John Doe, was clearly inspired by Eric Snowden to take this information public. Although the book never hints at his true identity, he does add an afterword that is full of hopeful challenges to the citizens of the world to use this information to bring about real reform of the global money-system. But with the exception of a few pols in places like Iceland and Argentina who were directly accused and publicly chastened by these news reports, the system, as a whole remains in place. Sadly, while the truth is out there for all to see, it seems that most of the world ignored the challenge to change things. The Mainstream Media, largely owned by the super-rich and the international bankers who manage their portfolios, lost interest in following the money trail to its logical conclusion. As the Pentagon Papers made little more than a dent in the armor of the military-industrial complex, so the Panama Papers accomplished little more in the Teflon exterior of the global banking system.For wannabe reformers out there -- Socialism is not the answer -- it's amazing how many "good socialists" among world politicians have benefitted from this largely illegal system. But corrupt capitalism is also evil. Something is rotten in Panama. And the Panama Papers tells it like it is.The Panama Papers is a good book. I read it while researching international money laundering for a national security consulting job. But I am glad I did. I learned much as the book is written by laymen for laymen and explains the system in clear, layman language. I highly recommend it to everyone who has an interest in fixing the global money system, in learning about the underground economy of the elites, or in understanding how global criminals move and hide money. Again: I highly recommend this book.

I was expecting the book to be more intense and a page turner. But sadly it was not to be. I’m sure if I will recommend this book unless you are really interested in the specific details of how each politician/country/corporation works they system. The specifics get pretty dry after you read the first one.Once you get the gist of how it is done and get surprised at some of the big names involved, there’s not much more to keep you interested.The company at the center of it is called Mossack Fonseca. It helps politicians, stars, corporations, etc hide their money. It is global, so this formula applies to the elite in almost every country. We’re the chumps paying taxes, the rich float above it all.The number of big names using their service was the most startling finding. Here’s a sample :Syrian President Assad and his wife, President of UAE, Former President of Jordan, Palestinian Deputy PM, Prime Minister of Pakistan, Brother in low of XiJing Ping, Putin, other high officials in the Chinese elite, Argentinian Prime Minister and the former Prime Minister as well, German companies hiding slush funds to influence various South American countries/companies to lean in their direction, Kofi Annan’s son, Kojo (Kofi was UN Secretary General), Iceland politicians and on and on.I just got about one fourth of the book. I’m sure more names were listed in the remainder of the book.This list of names that they list is based only on the documents leaked. It is not ‘all’ of the clients. The way the names keep unfolding in the book makes you suspect that if they managed to get all the documents, probably every major politician in EVERY country hides stuff through Mossack Fonseca.One technique often used by the culprits often is to use relatives and close friends to own the accounts. That way they can’t be tied to the money directly and thus escape prosecution. Also if the account is in a name with a different last name than the culprit (say a friend rather than a relative), you can’t tell who the real culprit is. For example, one could make the case that Kojo (Kofi’s son) maybe is hiding money for Kofi to allow plausible deniability. But Putin for example was using his best friend to hide his money. In his case though, they still managed to tie it to him. I suspect it would be much harder to do the same in other cases where this is not much public information available on the person.I never got far enough in the book to see if they addressed India. I have Indian friends who mention that everybody in India knows that every politician hides money in foreign bank accounts (most often Swiss). The prime attraction to be a politician in India is this ease of access to corruption and not public service. I suspect the same might apply to every politician in other third world country where financial oversight is pretty lax.

A very detailed account from two courageous journalists. I appreciate all the juicy details, but their broader implications require other writers to expand them. This is the task facing an inquisitive reader, and it's also a task that sadly covers all the guilty offenders from paying their full price. For a better world to emerge from all this, everyone needs to work hard, and reading this book is a good start.

These guys have the scoop of the century. They tell it, however, in a breathless, righteous style that is wearing, self-referential and ultimately juvenile. As a reader I am much more interested in what they have uncovered than the revelatory tone of their tale. Maybe it's a cultural bias but I don't recall Woodward and Berstein patting themselves on the back while they revealed their story. In addition, the book would have benefited from a native English editor. On the plus side, this is an important story that needs to be told and I applaud the writers' audacity and perseverance. Read it while suspending your critical eye/ear.

This expose really opened up my eyes to the world’s corruption and its effect on the countries. A must read for those peoplewho love dark expose and white dollar crime stories

I like this book. Breaks down the world of offshore companies into small understable bits topic by topic. The whistle-blower is also important considering the fact that she/he chose to remain anonymous. My takeaway is that offshore companies are the gateway to invisible slavery. And that the people must arise and break those chains. "from start to finish, inception to global media distribution, the next revolution will be digitized". Great book

I wish I could award an extra 12 stars for the Obermey/iers, the ICIJ team and everyone else contributing to the investigation. But this review is about the book. It is one of the most painful reads I ever had, including War and Peace and Ulysses.The book discusses a super interesting topic in the most boring way. Chapter after chapter, we start with some famous bloke (terrorist, football player, prime minister) who turns out to have shell companies, thus secretly siphoning off money from somewhere. Fascinating? Yes. Will you just skim through pages and pages of irrelevant details by reaching the third of the book? Absolutely.I also speak German, and for me it seems that the translator did not make much effort to “anglicise” the wording. So you will end up reading, and re-reading, long, convoluted sentences, like this actual example: “It was X Y who offered Z clients the ‘nominee beneficial owner’ on ‘natural person nominee’ service mentioned earlier in this book and sent them the relevant dcoumentation, in other words offering them the services of a real person who, in dealings with banks and others, passes himself off as the owner of the company in place of the actual owner, thereby making a mockery of anti-money laundering measures.”Yes, this was a single sentence, far not the worst one, and yes, you will wonder how many commas, semicolons, full stops etc. are missing and what did the editor do for the money. You will also find hundreds of footnotes; and again, by the middle of the book you won’t even make an effort to check them - as there is _nothing_ to gain. Approx. 99% of those will tell you, with the exact same wording, that ‘At the time of going to press, X Y had not responded to a request for comment’.I’m not saying one should ‘dumb down’ a complex subject, but trying, and failing, to use ‘advanced’ words, and writing an academic paper instead of a book simply makes no sense to me. Such a waste, as the tax avoidance phenomenon and this investigation should be taught to people at all levels - but all this book will do is deter anyone from trying to understand how the execs and politicians are gambling away their money.

You will be riveted, disturbed and amazed by this investigative account of the activities of Mossack Fonesca and many of their clients. The authors were contacted anonymously by a whistle-blower who subsequently forwarded on a huge number of files that exposed the 'offshore' activities of dictators, politicians, shady businessmen, sports organisations, etc. I have two caveats. Firstly, at one point the authors conflate the specific issues exposed with global capitalism in general and the whole inequality debate in particular. This is stretching things - global inequality has actually been declining due to the spread of capitalism. Look up any statistics on the number of people living on less than a dollar a day and you will see this cohort has been declining. GDP per capita has increased dramatically in many non-OECD countries and it has increased the most in those economies that have embraced market-based reforms. The issue with corruption is very real of course and deplorable (and I would fully support the suggested steps the authors make in terms of abolishing bearer shares and creating a register of beneficial owners) but that does not mean there is any realistic alternative to a market-based economy - just look at what has happened in Venezuela. Secondly, the comments on David Cameron/Blairemore Holdings are disingenuous. BH was structured to avoid things like double taxation of dividends and, of course, as a company paid a lower rate of corporation tax (in Panama) than it would have done in the UK. However it was not structured for investors as a tax avoidance scheme. DC paid all the relevant tax, in the UK, on dividends and capital gains in exactly the same way he would have if he had owner a UK-based fund. Lumping this is in with the very serious cases of tax avoidance and money laundering is more than unfortunate. If you don't believe me look at Robert Peston's comments on the ITV website.

One of the pain areas that the rich and the powerful have is about parking their excess money. It is more so if it’s procured in an illegal way. Such people might be having a compelling reason to camouflage their business dealings. They want to hide something from taxman, wife, business partner, business investor or prying eyes of the public. This something might be property, investments, shares, securities, bank account, or even paintings. They want to use their money without evoking any suspicion. They can bootstrap out from any predicament by making their dirty money clean and the means to do it through shell companies. There are thousands of them and their USP is anonymity. Though they have the outward appearance of being a legitimate business all they do is to manage money. They hide the true owners and origin of the money. The shell companies are part of a secretive industry where rich and the powerful hide their asset and set up companies in far-flung jurisdictions. They help their clients to operate behind the veil and secrecy. The clients are not only involved in tax evasion but also in bribery, arms deal, financial frauds, and drug trafficking. On 3rd April 2016, we came to know about the biggest data breach in history. The repercussion of the scandal touched every corner of the globe. The existence of tax havens was already known but the astonishment factor was the sheer scale of revelations, which dwarfs even the data size released by WikiLeaks in 2010. The biggest data leak was known as Panama Papers. It created an overnight sensation and caused widespread anger. Eleven million documents held by the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca was passed to the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which then shared it with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists(ICIJ). It contains 2.6 terabytes of data. For a year, a team of 370 journalists accessed and researched the collection. The matter was completely kept secret by all journalists until they agreed-upon a date when a report of the leak’s existence was published for the first time. The documents revealed how the firm had assisted companies and individuals from more than 200 countries to hide their money in offshore accounts, tax havens, and shell companies. It disclosed how the superrich avails these means to conceal their wealth, escape public scrutiny, dodge sanctions, and avoid paying taxes. Even suspected criminals use it to launder illicit earnings. Who leaked the documents to the German journalists in the first place? Nobody knows who leaked the documents. The person is anonymous even to the German journalist. Now, who all are mentioned in the papers? The names were revealed and related statistics made it not only interesting but staggering as well. Over 140+ politicians and family members of government officials from 33 countries were named in the leak. Some of the prominent names were Argentina President Mauricio Macri, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Iceland Prime Minister Sigmunder Gunnlaugsson and former Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawab Sharif. Other includes brother-in-law of China’s President Xi Jinping, son of former Egyptian President, former vice president of Iraq, associate and close friend of Vladimir Putin. Accomplices of African dictators, Central American drug barons and convicted sex offenders too figured in the list. The scandal also touches football’s governing body, FIFA. The list is endless. The list of famous people in this dirty and murkier world is so extensive that you are going to lose track. The chief protagonist Mossack Fonseca was the 4th largest provider of offshore services. It has acted as a registered agent for more than two lakh companies. The firm has handled around 3 trillion-dollar worth of transactions, for their clients from more than 100 countries. The firm was based in Panama and it ran a worldwide operation. It operated in tax havens like Switzerland, Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands. It administered offshore firms for a yearly fee. Its other services included wealth management. The firm had vehemently denied it’s involvement in any wrong-doings. It had always maintained that and had never worked directly with any end clients but only with intermediaries like an asset manager, manager, accounts, lawyers, bank and trust companies. It defended its conduct and claimed to comply with anti-money laundering laws and carry out thorough due diligence on all its clients. It has been masquerading its identity and intent from the world. What ensued after the leak? As expected, the aftermath was on the predicted line. The story attracted attention among the media and the public. It triggered far more responses from the political sphere. Tax evasion was considered a serious and pressing problem that needs to be tackled. The dedicated committee was set up for inquiry. Raids and investigations were carried out in several countries including Mossack Fonseca's headquarters in Panama. The banks were instructed to hand over all their data on business dealings with the firm. It besmirched the reputation of politicians and particularly people holding high positions in government came under tremendous pressure. The protesters hit the streets and there were demonstrations outside the government offices. Due to the Panama Paper leaks, around 6000 individuals and companies were under investigation worldwide. A large number of clients have fled Mossack Fonseca and switched to competitor offshore companies. The leak obviously had a deleterious effect on the company, who started it all. Due to the damage that is done to their finance and reputation, Mossack Fonseca closed down in 2018, after 41 years in the business. The country which has been at the receiving end is Panama. There was a time when a huge proportion of drugs used to pass through it. It was notorious for the same reason and was called narcokleptocracy, a term coined by a former presidential candidate John Kerry. It has emerged out of the uncertain past but the dishonesty and illegal tag refuse to go. There has been an allegation that the country is filled with dishonest lawyers, dishonest bankers, dishonest company formation agents, and dishonest companies. It’s an attractive destination for money laundering and had become a hub for shenanigans. It’s a neo-feudal concentration of wealth, where a small group of rich people is not only hiding their money and avoiding taxes but also evading the law. There are dozens of companies worldwide that specialize in selling shell companies. In the tax havens, you simply cannot set up shell companies yourself and would need a registered agent, who would prepare all the paperwork required by the local authorities and looks after the payment of the annual fee. As mentioned before, most of these companies do not directly interact with the intermediaries. At least, that’s what most of these companies claim but it’s not always the case. Usually, the official address of the shell companies is the same as that of the registered agent. When you have a shell company, you don’t want it in countries like London, New York or Paris. The authorities can easily find out who owns it if they really want to. Instead, you need a tax haven and usually, it’s based out in small countries with a great deal of banking secrecy and very low non-existent taxes on financial transactions. It’s the secrecy that makes them attractive to tax evaders and crooks the world over. Whether the leak has completely vanquished such activities are debatable. It’s just the tip of the iceberg and difficult to predict any downturn in such a secretive world. Using offshore structures is legal though. There are many legitimate reasons for doing so like protecting it from raids by criminals and get around hard currency restrictions. Other use can be for the reason of inheritance and estate planning. It’s an exhaustive account of the dirty, unsavory, murkier and opaque world of offshore companies. Despite the leaks and countless articles that followed, it’s still a difficult subject to grasp initially. You need to have a fair bit of understanding and about the modus operandi of these companies. Otherwise, it’s extremely difficult to follow. If you had not studied about the leaks in detail before, then the revelation of some names is still going to surprise you. It breaks your trust too in the system. If you have a basic understanding of the subject matter, then you are going to find it well narrated. Kudos to the author. Beyond that, the German journalist Bastian Obermayer with whom the whistle-blower first connected deserves praise for his dexterity and deft handling of the matter. So is, ICIJ for gathering such a large team from different countries for the project, who followed the necessary protocol of secrecy. Any book that has come out on the subject is the result of piggybacking on the team’s work. The subject matter deviates from what you and I usually read. The content is the king, which makes this book highly recommended

Yet when one hears at present of long waiting lists for super yachts and the waiting lists for exclusive watches costing many ten of thousands of pounds in contrast to the increasing numbers of people round the world living on the breadline, have the ranks been closed against effective action against money laundering and tax havens?

it is deeply disappointing and frustrating that this book has not yet reached the wide enough audience it deserves, I speak to mamy people who have heard aboit it, are interested in the subject but have not got to reading it. The world is idebeted to the whistlewblower, the authors and the wider world of joirnalism, one can not stop admiring their courage!