The Panama Papers

A lot of emails have been coming in with regard to the Panama Papers. Let me say this from the outset; Panama has been the key place to establish offshore accounts for decades. An insider has stolen all documents and handed to the press. This was not a government hack. The press has not made all the documents available and that is curious for they too can be protecting favored people. We now have the biggest document leak in history exposing world leaders and their secretive offshore financial dealings. Some 11.5 million documents have been leaked from a Panama-based law firm with offices in 35 countries; Mossack Fonseca. This leak has exposed a trove of confidential financial dealings by the elites of aides to Russian President Vladimir Putin all the way to relatives of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Naturally, the press likes to focus on Putin. There is much more hidden behind the press curtain.

The stash of records from legal firm Mossack Fonseca was obtained from an anonymous source by German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung which they then shared with more than 100 media groups by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The documents show links to 72 current or former heads of state including dictators. The ICIJ is hell bent on attacking the rich, not politicians. So the question really is, are the protecting fellow socialists?

While the elite seek to hunt people for taxes, they often live separate financial lives. What has been also exposed is the tremendous conflicts of interest. Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson had secretly owned millions of dollars of bank bonds during his country’s financial crisis when the country’s financial system collapsed and banks had to be bailed out. Thousands are now demanding Iceland’s Prime Minister resign over ‘Panama Papers’ revelations.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. I would suspect that the Clinton’s might have some exposure here as well but time will tell. When Obama came to office, he and Hillary immediately pushed through Congress a free trade deal for Panama which enabled money laundering to move into high gear. Hillary is worth $45 million more than any other Republican hopeful except Trump. How has she earned so much yet working in government? All my sources have warned about the Clintons for years being available to the highest bidder. Hillary and Panama go much deeper. If you open a corporation in Nevada, you do not have to declare who is the actual owner. That company can then engage in Panama and such names will never show up in the leak. Hillary is notorious for such back door schemes just as donations to her money laundering charity were made to Canada as a front and then to USA to clean the money from foreign governments. She forgot to declare that one. The shady mining deal in Russia that resulted in her getting a few million is typical. Then there was her deal getting a mining contract in Hati for her brother while Secretary of State. She knows it creates a shit-storm, but for a week and everyone cheers her again.

Then there is  David Cameron’s father, who died in 2010, who is reported to have used Mossack Fonseca to shield his investment fund, ­Blairmore Holdings Inc, from UK taxes. Cameron has come under pressure to take real steps to end tax evasion. This will probably have some impact of distrust of Cameron given his father’s involvement in the Panama Papers.

The question that needs to be answered is really how extensive is this leak? A really smart person would set up a corporation in another jurisdiction such as Nevada and then have that would be the entity  Mossack Fonseca dealt with yet not knowing the true identity of the person behind the mask. I have personal experience in this matter because offers to manage money often traced back to Panama. There were only about 213 Americans in these documents because Americans can use this structure to hide their names even more.

I personally gave up managing money for individuals because in one instance, I discovered I was managing money for Libya’s former leader Muammar Gaddafi not once, but TWICE. The back office of Rudolf Wolf in London where clients opened accounts, were diligent in checking who was behind the companies for me. It was not illegal back then in the mid 1980s to deal with such accounts. Nonetheless, we traced shell company to shell company and after about 6 months, they informed me they established the real owner of the funds. It was  Muammar Gaddafi and it was through Panama. I had thought I was dealing with a Royal family member of Saudi Arabia. I closed the account. Within months, I found myself again managing money for Gaddafi once again unknowingly and it traced to Panama.

In Geneva, the Gaon family threw a big party for me and had offered $5 million to create Armstrong Brokerage using my name but did not have to do anything; just provide my name. The family originated in Turkey but moved to Egypt. The family business was established in the Sudan. In 1957 David Gaon moved to Geneva where he built up a world-wide business corporation in import-export, investment, and real estate, including one of Geneva’s biggest hotels, the Noga (GAON) Hilton. The Gaons invited me to the grand opening of Herald Center in New York City which they constructed on the old E.J. Korvette site. This turned out to be one of four prominent Manhattan buildings secretly owned by Philippine head of state Ferdinand Marcos.The press claimed it was fronted by New York brothers Joseph and Ralph Bernstein. However, there was a lot more behind that. Silent partners included not just Marcos, but Gaddafi and the notorious alleged arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, who was a Saudi Arabian businessman. At his peak in net worth at that time during the 1980s, he was said to have been worth up to $10 billion and was considered one of the richest men in the world. The FBI even visited my office back then when Marcos fled the Philippines asking me where was his gold he stole from the country’s reserves. They would not believe me that I did not personally advise Marcos.

What I can say is that everything for decades seemed to trace back to Panama. It became one giant masquerade party when you really did not know who you were dealing with. This is what really led me to turn only to institutions back in 1985.

This leak is going to prove to be devastating. While Hollande of France cannot wait to get his hands on whatever money he can grab from this, let us make no mistake. There are 72 current or former heads of state including dictators all involved in these documents. Will the ICIJ really release everything? Or will they protect still some politicians because they are socialists out to get the rich as they are? What this illustrates above all, how can you trust any such firm anymore.