One of the people listed in the Panama Papers lives kitty-corner from me. I don't know them, but I'm quite curious how someone from my 'hood ends up on such such a list.
I found him by searching for addresses close to mine back when people were posting Panama Papers search engines.
i don't know the specifics of this particular person but not all people in the panama papers are "evil" or dodging taxes but just people that are high profile but need anonymity for one reason or another. film crews use shell corps for legitimate reasons because if the people they were coming to to rent a venue or rent some stuff for a shoot were to know the reason for the rental they would jack up the price to AAA blockbuster movie prices instead of the normal rate. they probably should be paying those blockbuster rates but it is not illegal per se.
Having a shell corporation isn't inherently illegal, but having one in a different country is pretty damn sketchy. If you're a film crew you could register a new local company to get the same anonymity.
My (now ex-)lawyer disagreed with you. "Money is international", he said, and "if you're going to own some Nestlé shares, it doesn't matter whether you own them through a shell in this country or that." The most important factor according to him was that the shell company should be in a country with a stable, predictable taxman.
I think you misunderstand. He didn't talk about tax sums but rather about tax rules. About whether the tax rules for the financial year 2023 are known well before the start of that year.
(BTW, he also said that location choice would not avoid Norwegian taxes. I lived in Norway at the time. Defer taxes yes, avoid no. A lot of people confuse deferring and avoiding.)
It's always true to some degree (the UK springs to mind). I still think the Panama Papers was the biggest catalyst to global financial transparency laws in my lifetime.
Here in the US, Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act[0], which certainly was borne on the back of the leak.
I think the difference is that the Russian kleptoautocracy (hesitate to call it a government) do actually kill people they don’t like, and try hard to make it look like an assassination by Russians.
You think it's OK that Zelensky has had all of his operation offshore for years? And that it's also OK that this hasn't been covered by the media? This doesn't raise any red flags for you?
the panama papers were published in 2016. Zelensky was elected to office in 2019. i.e. while ukrainians might care that he was trying to avoid their taxman, anythign documented in them wasn't him looting the countrg or being an autocrat as he had never been involved with the government until that time.
There's a fundamental difference. I personally believe only one trying to obfuscate the issue would bring it up.
And his companies started earlier than 2016... This is a setup that is long in the making.
You don't think it's problematic that the Ukrainian president is known to have off-shore companies to manage his businesses? Do you realise that lots of his governmental staff came from his TV companies?
Is this not at least newsworthy? Should he fêted as he has been? Is it really OK to sweep this sort of info under the carpet? As the accounts are known, should he not be forced to open up these accounts and let us see what payments, etc he has received, in case of conflicts of interest?
For me, it is amazing that the press do not talk about this. Its also a fanatic illustration of how they are just a arm of the governance structure and have little to do with serving us the truth.
Your (bizarre) original comment was that the whistleblower should be just as worried about Ukraine coming after them. I pointed out the obvious error in this thinking, since Russia is a vicious and vindictive regime with no equal. Now you are talking about something completely different, an equally bizarre anti-Zelensky bugbear. One must question your motivation for making these comments.
It's not bizarre to you to say 'Russia is vicious and vindictive with no equal', as if its a dog or psychopathic nutcase. As if an imagined fiction (government) can have some sort of inhuman motivations.
(You know governments aren't really alive, that they don't think or act, except in the way that they are manipulated to do so by those who hold the levers power, and then by those who follow their orders, right? Its nothing except an idea, really a manipulation..)
No, believing in 'Vindictive Russia' is perfectly normal, not bizarre at all.
But to you, it is bizarre that I point out that Zelensky has dodgy financial dealings, and that this might be a motivation for his actions. These dealings can be verified in the Panama papers and are not in dispute. This is not information with any merit to you, apparently.
And you appear to entirely ignore the point I make about the free press failing to report this information.
Is there any doubt that free press is actually a public relations/messaging tool again used by those holding the levers of power, rather than faithfully relaying salient information to provide us with a full picture? No, there is no doubt.
Suggest you read my comment properly. I said the Russian regime is vindictive, not Russia.
Characterising the Russian regime as a psychopathic nutcase would be more correct than a government, although as we have seen from their shambolic military it is probably more correct to say they are not coherently anything at all.
Yeah. The whole article is filled with rusofobia. Something, something narrative. Russians are a drop in the ocean of the Panama papers, yet they are covered as it is about them.
I found him by searching for addresses close to mine back when people were posting Panama Papers search engines.