Image by bbc.com By Etan Khlevnoy
Staff Writer Worldwide corruption has been rapidly increasing in the world during the last recent decades and the Panama Papers are only one example of the schemes plaguing society. The Panama Papers are documents proving that wealthy billionaires had been laundering money and evading taxes in tax havens like Panama. The papers were found and leaked by various journaling companies like The Guardian “To our knowledge this is the biggest leak that journalists have ever worked on” (Sueddeutsche Zeitung reporter Bastian Obermayer) The papers have shown that national leaders, 143 politicians, and their families and close friends from around the world are getting help from law firms and banks especially the firm Mossack Fonseca to put their money on offshore tax havens to avoid taxes, and throwing more tax on you and creating more income inequality. Important billionaires involved with the money laundering scheme include Politicians with money in these offshore tax havens include Prime minister of the UK David Cameron, President of Russia Vladimir Putin, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, the relatives of China’s President Xi Jinping, etc. Putin is believed to have two billion dollars in offshore accounts that trace back to him. The United States’ trade deal with Panama served only the purpose of making money laundering there easier and thus it had bipartisan support when being enacted. People around the world are in an uproar because of the newly found knowledge about the corruption of their politicians and the fallout from this leak is just beginning with the prime minister of Iceland, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, resigning because of the money he placed into Panama, and how his wife owned companies that helped offshore tax havens function and had claims on failed Icelandic banks. “Myself? No. … Well, the Icelandic companies I have worked with had connections with offshore companies,” explained Gunnlaugsson, (Prime minister of Iceland 2009). Gunnlaugsson had previously lied about being involved with offshore tax companies, making his actions more despicable. “We’re looking at a system that’s actually broken. You´ve got a system that sells, as a primary product, secrecy,” said Gerard Ryle (CNBC). The Panama papers are only an example of many illegal secret money laundering schemes of political officials. With more aggressive journalism such as the journalism that exposed the Panama Papers, corruption can be routed out of society. Comments are closed.
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October 2018
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