
Tax authorities in Denmark buy 'Panama Papers' evidence - sjreese
http://m.dw.com/en/tax-authorities-in-denmark-buy-panama-papers-evidence/a-35928320
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klausjensen
I don't understand how buying stolen property is suddenly not illegal, when it
is the tax authorities doing it. But there are almost no limits to what the
tax authorities can get away with in Denmark.

This is the press release from the Danish tax authorities, confirming the
purchase:
[http://www.skat.dk/SKAT.aspx?oId=2234275&vId=0](http://www.skat.dk/SKAT.aspx?oId=2234275&vId=0)

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Tomte
Even if buying was illegal, the United States have a much stronger "fruit of
the poisonous tree" doctrine than many other countries.

Germany for example doesn't have that, at all, as our Federal Constitutional
Court has rules in exactly such a case (tax evasion lists bought by a German
state and used to search someone's home).

I wouldn't be surprised if Denmark did it the same way.

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tobltobs
Does this stronger "fruit of the poisonous tree" doctrine of the US does apply
for all those three letter agencies in your opinion? Or just for the RSI?

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arethuza
Doesn't the CIA (like all external intelligence agencies in all countries)
pretty much exist to obtain information through extra-level means?

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furyg3
Yes. All intelligenge agencies are by definition criminal organizations
outside their home country.

While conducting these clandestine operations they may also collect
information which could convict someone domestically in court... but US courts
will not permit that evidence to be submitted as it was collected illegally.

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lsaferite
And that's where parallel construction was born.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_construction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_construction)

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nisa
Am I the only one who got the impression that this is strange!?

Why do the journalists don't share the data with the governments for free?
Establishing trust that the government is serious and real should be possible
for them.

Could the anonymous source just be a journalist who wants to profit of the
data?

I'm all for fighting tax avoidance but considering that most of the EU member
states have an interest in the data this could be quite a sum of cash that is
someone obtaining from an illegal hack. It's also not clear who benefits here.
It's pretty shady isn't it? Even it's legal.

~~~
charlesdm
In most jurisdictions (and I know this is true in Belgium), you cannot use
illegally / stolen data as evidence in a trial. So there would be no point
purchasing this data, because it would be thrown out in court. Maybe it could
be used to pressure someone into taking some sort of settlement?

~~~
nisa
In Germany, while the use of the data was still uncertain, they implemented a
possibility to pay back taxes and some fee if you self-indict your tax
avoidance and you would have been out of trouble. This was pretty popular and
gained more money than the data they bought if I remember this correctly.

~~~
charlesdm
I believe you mean evasion. Nothing illegal about avoidance.

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lagadu
I live in Denmark, so this is being bought with my tax money, and I see no
problem with this. I'm sure that most of the money there is legal and was
correctly taxed where applicable but it's good that the few who might stealing
from the rest of us get potentially brought to justice.

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RaleyField
I wonder if this would fly in US.

> and I see no problem with this

It goes against fruit of the poisonous tree principle[1], what Danish
government is doing should be wrong because it tacitly approves future illegal
activity.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_of_the_poisonous_tree](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_of_the_poisonous_tree)

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hvidgaard
There is no such thing as invalid evidence in Denmark, merely because it was
obtained illegally. You might be on trial if you obtained evidence illegally,
but the evidence itself will be usable in a courtroom.

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scotty79
Tax authorities pay taxes for the purchase of stolen documents. Quite funny
but also nice to see that Panama Papers will receive some public scrutiny.

~~~
Tomte
German states (most notably Northrhine-Westphalia) have been buying tax evader
lists for years, sparking lots of public debate.

Switzerland and Lichtenstein really hate that.

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scotty79
I'm mostly amused not by the fact they bought stolen document, but paid tax on
this transaction. This speaks to me that there are laws and there are taxes.
Laws are fuzzy but taxes are sure.

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Tomte
"Spy tax", even. You can't make this up.

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jugbee
The Baltic states' tax authorities are to do the same. Heard a debate on the
radio few days ago, with the host asking "is this even legal" and the chief of
the tax authority responded: "and is this legal to evade taxes?"

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peteretep
That's a pretty shitty counter question by the tax authority guy. There are
exceptional reasons for laws that bind the hands of the authorities

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lordnacho
How will a court view the way in which this evidence was obtained? And what
about the veracity? Surely anyone who appears in the purchased data will say
that it is unreliable.

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mrweasel
I'm not completely sure, but I think SKAT (the Danish tax authorities) handle
everything, outside the courts, when dealing with tax avoidance situations.

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hvidgaard
Doesn't really matter. They use this information to figure out where to
collect the real evidence. This is used purely to pinpoint what information to
obtain through official channels.

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brador
In which currency is "805,000 euros ($903,000) " a round number (say a
million)? That could be a hint to origin.

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Fjolle
Denmark.

6.000.000 DKK ~ 805.000 EUR

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mathiasrw
They might try to use the information to see if they can get some of the
€800.000.000 back lost:

[https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/aug/27/denmark-
fea...](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/aug/27/denmark-fears-it-has-
been-victim-of-biggest-ever-800m-tax)

