According to the FT:
The UK's financial regulator has given banks and other financial firms until next week to carry out urgent reviews of whether they are linked to the law firm at the centre of the Panama Papers data leak.
According to a letter seen by the Financial Times, the Financial Conduct Authority has given banks until April 15 to complete initial investigations on ties to Mossack Fonseca or to companies formed or managed by the firm.
Very politely, this is mere tokenism. It is the supine FCA pretending it is doing something when it is actually entirely missing the point.
Let's not pretend for a minute that there was anything unusual about Mossack Fonseca, because there was not. This is one of a host of law firms in tax havens doing remarkably similar things. In that case for the FCA to focus on Mossack Fonseca is absurd and a deliberate red-herring in my opinion. The need is for the FCA to demand that banks put on record all their connections with secrecy jurisdiction lawyers, using the Tax Justice Network Financial Secrecy Index as a starting point.
Then we will have a real response.
Right now it looks like the whitewash is being broken open, and that is the last thing we need.
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Or that there is actually something else driving this whole scandal of which the FCA investigation may be just a small part. Something very political and international in nature!
I am still very intrigued by who the “source” is, what are their objectives and whether the whole data was supplied to the journalists or just the parts that the source wanted to disclose?
Add in the fact this data was apparently supplied over a year ago by the source and was being worked on in apparently complete secrecy from international governments, their very intrusive intelligence agencies and the wider media. There are clearly many oddities about this very welcome story?
My thoughts exactly, Keith.
Global Research has a number of articles on the Panama Papers story, ranging from the conspiratorial to “tip of the iceberg” themes.
A couple that caught my eye for different reasons:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/tax-havens-an-appendage-of-britains-banking-industry-the-panama-papers-barely-scratch-the-surface-of-uk-complicity/5518866
http://www.globalresearch.ca/selective-leaks-of-the-panama-papers-create-huge-blackmail-potential-smear-people-the-u-s-dislikes/5518635
From just a pure technology perspective 2.6 terabytes of data is not something the average hacker would go looking for or be able to easily deal with, so “industrial scale” espionage looks far more likely (whether private or state sponsored this seems to be seriously techy stuff).
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2016/04/04/contextualizing_the_2_6_terabytes_of_leaked_panama_papers_data.html
Some more reading for those interested in the technicalities of the data breech.
The author also raises the intriguing legal question of how the ICIJ may have been able to justify publishing “stolen” data from an international law firm, which does imply to me some form of state protection from prosecution (presumably the US where the ICIJ is based, as it is unlikely to be the UK, Iceland, China or Russia etc etc for obvious reasons).
Does that in any way contribute to the debate about why there are no high profile US political or commercial figures in the published data? Who knows, but it is worth thinking about.
“You’d think that publishing those details would be off limits, given that the 13 tonnes of information about Mossack Fonseca’s customers was stolen, and everyone knows it was stolen…
…but the justification for writing about it seems to be that if you’ve ever made use of confidential (OK, secret) offshore banking, legal and taxation services, then you are, by implication, up to no good and therefore no longer deserve to have your privacy respected.
As a result, the stolen data is now as good as in the public domain.”
https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2016/04/05/panama-papers-it-was-an-email-server-attack/
I have explained already why I think it unlikely why there are US figures in this data
Of course, but it would be very likely be more than just a few obscure US citizens in the data if the next group of hackers chose to target some prime institutions in the Cayman Islands or Bermuda. Now that would be worth looking forward to (not that I am condoning any illegal activity of course!!)
Agreed
And I am not condoning illegal activity either
You are surely right. In its way this seems almost the most depressing bit of news to emerge so far. We are in classic Casablanca territory:
Renault: Everybody is to leave here immediately! This cafe is closed until further notice. Clear the room, at once!
Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?
Renault: I am shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
Croupier: [hands Renault money] Your winnings, sir.
Renault: Oh, thank you very much. Everybody out at once!
It is a serious problem, the public will stop paying their taxes.
huge amount of undeclared earnings are lying idle.
The property markets could collapse.
Another recession may be accelerated.
The Economy is run on integrity and trust.
this is a symptom of an unfair society.
Small amendment, if I may.
Society as a whole should be built on integrity and trust.
Thank goodness that as a result of Richard’s writings, and many more like him, public awareness of the need for such a society is rapidly growing.
Yes, a classic PR stunt, Richard. And so similar to what we’ve seen from Cameron over tax avoidance and evasion over the past six years that it’s difficult to believe the approaches aren’t related. To be honest, I’ve long believed that there’s a unit or team of people somewhere in the City who plan and orchestrate this PR strategy: talk tough, do little. Meanwhile, there’s another group that continue to oversee and orchestrate the capture of HMRC as well any other regulatory body that might in any way do something that threatens the hegemony of the City.
You may well be right
Frankly, I’m surprised and delighted that the Panama Papers are headline news, in no small part to No. 10’s fumbling over the PM’s entanglement.
Still, however much excitement and outrage the revelations have caused there is still an army of quietly powerful interests in the shape of the professional classes that are making a fine living out of their share of the avoided tax revenues. Even in today’s climate of cuts and austerity I doubt that public interest will last long enough for the long hard battle needed to tackle the problem. Are we at that moment when real change can happen or is this the Arab Spring of tax reform?
I hope I’m wrong, but summer is coming with holidays and ice-cream and showbiz, and there’ll be other crises for the more serious minded.
Private Eyes deciphering of the acronym FCA: Financial Cockup Authority