Panama Papers

[ursus arctos]

It isn’t naïveté, but its opposite.

You wouldn’t go to them for tax evasion advice (nor would I).

[Ginger Yellow]

Missed it a week ago but the Cayman Islands has finally committed to introducing a public beneficial ownership register. Not until 2023, mind.

[ursus arctos]

Will still be far ahead of Delaware and other US states, I expect.

[Ginger Yellow]

It still boggles my mind that private US companies don't even have to file public accounts.

[ursus arctos]

Why do you hate Freedom?

[Hot Pepsi]

New Soderberg film on Netflix about Mossack Fonsecaz sort of. It’s interesting. Not what I expected.

[ursus arctos]

That's the one that they tried to enjoin from being broadcast.

Unsuccessfully.

[Felicity, I guess so]

I saw it in the cinema. Generally funny, and biting where necessary, but a couple of bum notes. I said to Ms F that it would’ve worked better as a Michael Moore-style tv show

[tee rex]

So now it's the Pandora Papers. Except it's no longer a slow news day (year) so a huge story from 2016 might not get the same headlines in 2021. Sequels rarely do.

I'm trying to recall if there was any substantive change 5 years ago. There wasn't much in our little corner of the world, a year later the election campaign coverage barely mentioned it. On the bigger stage, 7 months after the Panama Papers a known tax-dodger entered the White House.

[ursus arctos]

I'm curious to see what tack Mr Blair is going to take

[Ginger Yellow]

This is such a weird table.

[ursus arctos]

True

[Sporting]

You're going to have to explain to me why it's weird.

[ad hoc]

Because it seems to imply that the volume of data is the key thing, rather than what the data actually is

[Guy Profumo]

I'm curious to see what tack Mr Blair is going to take

Ms Booth has already replied, hasn't she?

[Ginger Yellow]

Because it seems to imply that the volume of data is the key thing, rather than what the data actually is

Exactly.

[ursus arctos]

Is the avoidance of stamp tax on the Mayfair office purchase all that there is on the Blairs?

Because that is quite weak beer by the standards of such people.

[Ginger Yellow]

It's the only thing I've seen reported. I don't know how much lead time the journalists had though, to so it's possible there could be more. Amersi seems to be the biggest UK news so far. Though "Tory donor is dodgy" doesn't really seem like news.

[ursus arctos]

I have done some work for/with the ICIJ.

My guess is that the teams had several weeks to work with the data, but the volume is so vast that they will have relied a great deal or name and key word searches.

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/BCAppelbaum/status/1444837573310955523?s=20

A corollary to this is that the USians who get done for tax evasion are virtually always truly odious individuals

[caja-dglh]

Why avoid tax when there are ways you can pay none anyway?

[Eggchaser]

For some, everything is not enough

[ursus arctos]

The relative normalisation of that view, which was once largely reserved for sociopaths, has a great deal to do with the current state of the developed world.

[ursus arctos]

The Italian member of the consortium has discovered that both Mancini and Vialli show up as being the owners of BVI companies. Mancini's appears to own a plane or interest in one; the purpose of Vialli's is unclear.

[ad hoc]

Seems like the pandora papers have claimed their first victim

https://twitter.com/VALERIEin140/status/1447210622526148610