After ‘Panama Papers’ leak, UN expert calls for end of financial secrecy to halt illicit fund flows UN News Centre Panama Papers Shows Yet Again Why We Need An Intergovernmental Tax Commission In The UN Huffington Post Counting The Cost - Panama Papers: Inside The Shadowy World of Tax Havens … [Read more...]
Finance Sector
The Panama papers are not about tax
Update: see TJN writer in UK's Prospect Magazine making this general point. This deliberately provocative headline is of course not fully true: tax is clearly a tremendously important aspect of the Panama papers scandal, as it continues to roil governments and élites and their advisers, around … [Read more...]
Oxfam: the International Finance Corporation and tax havens – new report
Monday 11th April Oxfam has launched a new briefing on the IFC and tax havens. This briefing will also be presented and discussed at our event at the World Bank CSO forum on Friday 15th of April at 11 am-12.30 in Washington DC. … [Read more...]
Links Apr 8
The Panama Papers: Victims of Offshore ICIJ Video animation: "Behind the email chains, invoices and documents that make up the Panama Papers are often unseen victims of wrongdoing enabled by this shadowy industry. This is their story." The fallout from Panama Papers revelations so far, country … [Read more...]
Mossack Fonseca: why so few American clients? (Hold the conspiracy theories)
There has been a lot of buzz about one aspect of the Panama Papers: why have so few U.S. citizens been exposed in these leaks? Panama was set up originally as a country - and as a tax haven -- with the help of U.S. financial interests, and it has been substantially within the U.S. orbit (mainly with … [Read more...]
As #PanamaPapers break, Europe plans to water down company ownership transparency
Press Release: As Panama Papers break, Europe plans to water down company ownership transparency Just as the Panama papers reveal the mayhem that can be caused by secret shell companies, the European Union is set to relax ownership transparency requirements for shell companies in its forthcoming … [Read more...]
Links Apr 7
The Panama Papers’ Sprawling Web of Corruption The New York Times Op Ed: "The papers chronicle a global industry developed to enable an international elite enriched by corrupt or illegal means to conceal its wealth and dealings from taxation, prosecution and public wrath." The Panama Papers … [Read more...]
Links Apr 5
Panama Papers: Hunting the pinstriped octopus hiding in offshore tax havens International Business Times By TJN director John Christensen Panama is only one head of the tax haven Hydra Financial Times (paywall) By TJN's Nicholas Shaxson, author of Treasure Islands #PanamaPapers - stories … [Read more...]
Links Apr 4
The Panama Papers: world reacts to huge offshore tax files leak - live The Guardian Panama Papers: Leaks spur global investigations BBC World figures deny wrongdoing as 'Panama Papers' turn spotlight on tax evasion Reuters The Panama Papers - Secrets of the Super Rich abc Panama Papers: … [Read more...]
The Panama Papers: the enablers of financial secrecy know what they are doing
Press Release: Tax Justice Network The enablers of financial secrecy know what they are doing … [Read more...]
Guest blog: how the European Trade secrets Directive will silence tax whistleblowers
From Corporate Observatory Europe, the basic background for our guest blog: "The proposed EU legislation on “Trade Secrets Protection”, which the European Parliament will vote next April 14, creates excessive rights to secrecy for businesses: it is a direct threat to the work of journalists and … [Read more...]
Links Mar 31
Unfamiliar with irony, Swiss bankers are complaining of a “lack of transparency” Quartz New Zealand Foreign Trusts and the Unaoil Scandal: More Chickens Coming Home to Roost, and They’re Big naked capitalism See also: Mainstream Media Ignores Blockbuster Expose of Massive Bribery in Iraq by … [Read more...]
Links Mar 30
There’s A Huge New Corporate Corruption Scandal. Here’s Why Everyone Should Care HuffPost See also: The Bribe Factory The Age / HuffPost - "An extraordinary case of bribery and corruption in the oil industry, centred on Monaco-based company Unaoil". Canada Joins 21st Century Fight against Tax … [Read more...]
Panama: the making of a tax haven and rogue state
Panama is attracting much media attention at the moment, and for good reason. Earlier this month we blogged on a BBC Hard Talk interview with Panama's Vice President which referred to our comment that Panama gives "the middle finger" to the rest of the world when it comes to tackling financial … [Read more...]
Links Mar 29
The gnomes of Zurich are silent no longer Financial Times "Past actions are catching up with some Swiss banking clients". On links between Brazil's Petrobras, Malaysia's 1MDB, Fifa, and Spanish political slush fund scandals... Swiss banks to cooperate in probe of Venezuela’s state oil and gas … [Read more...]
