Panama Papers – Mossack Fonseca founders arrested

Written By: - Date published: 8:09 am, February 13th, 2017 - 30 comments
Categories: capitalism, crime, International - Tags: , ,

Story keeps on rolling – Panama Papers: Law firm bosses arrested

Prosecutors in Panama say they have formally arrested the partners of a law firm at the centre of last year’s Panama Papers scandal, in which thousands of documents related to off-shore accounts were leaked.

Arrested for money laundering.

MF were fond of using NZ for their purposes, we were “the quiet tax haven achiever”. Why didn’t we sign up to the international agreement to tackle this corruption?

(Might be a good time to re-read – Why was John Key singled out by Panama Papers hacker?)

30 comments on “Panama Papers – Mossack Fonseca founders arrested ”

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  1. Ad 1
    13 February 2017 at 9:31 am

    This is going to be hot salted buttered popcorn for the ages.

    Hopefully the Discovery parts of the trial will coincide with the tepid little reform paper this government has going through Parliament.

    Then we will start seeing all those deals New Zealand trust law has enabled, writ large across the global financial firmament.

    All of Jane Kelsey’s prophecies about the FIRE (Finance, Insurance, Real Estate) economy will be burnt black, live in front of a tv audience.

    • Draco T Bastard 1.1
      13 February 2017 at 10:38 am

      All of Jane Kelsey’s prophecies about the FIRE (Finance, Insurance, Real Estate) economy will be burnt black, live in front of a tv audience.

      What do you actually mean by that?

      • Ad 1.1.1
        13 February 2017 at 11:29 am

        As noted, the Jane Kelsey used the mnemonic as a metaphor. You can see it as a sidebar on this site. I extended this metaphor fractionally.

        In her book she extended that metaphor across much of the New Zealand economy, in particular how destructive those parts of the economy were and are. She also demonstrated how permissive our trust laws are that enable this.

        The upcoming trial of Mossack Fonseca in Brazil will be in the news right across the world, including here. We will be able to see how New Zealand law is a global enabler for the massive funds of the global .1%.

        Everyone who is named in this case, and all the trust members, will be exposed. Being exposed in public is often termed being “burned”.

        • Draco T Bastard 1.1.1.1
          13 February 2017 at 11:35 am

          That’s what I thought you probably meant but the sentence you used actually has the opposite meaning. It has the meaning the Jane Kelsey will be burned.

          • mac1 1.1.1.1.1
            13 February 2017 at 11:41 am

            “All of Jane Kelsey’s prophecies about the FIRE (Finance, Insurance, Real Estate) economy will be burnt black, live in front of a tv audience.”

            You read that to mean Kelsey will be burned, and not her prophecies?

            • Draco T Bastard 1.1.1.1.1.1
              13 February 2017 at 12:23 pm

              Either or.

              Of course, Ad meant neither.

              He meant that all of her prophecies were going to come true and shown to the public on live TV and thus burning all those who naysayed her and the rest of us who said that this was bad both from a PR perspective and for the economy as a whole.

    • tc 1.2
      13 February 2017 at 10:53 am

      Doesn’t this depend of the rigour and process of the authorities in control here ? We may see why they chose panama over other amicable sovereign entities

      My money would be on a billionaires backed whitewash with all the look and feel of a proper job with zero interest from compliant western govts like the Donald’s.

      These folk aren’t stupid as they pay the best legal/tax minds to make it very hard to track and prove with rat cunning contingencies in place should something like this happen.

      • Ad 1.2.1
        13 February 2017 at 11:32 am

        It will be up to jurisdictions like Panama and Brazil to follow this through.

        If it were up to New Zealand authorities, you would be right in the current legislative framework.

        The recommendations from the inquiry that followed the release of the Mossack Fonseca papers were all accepted by the current government, but their passage through Parliament looks really slow to me.

        I hope this will be a spectacularly negative story in time for our elections.

        • gsays 1.2.1.1
          13 February 2017 at 1:00 pm

          i like yr optimism, ad.
          i heard a month or so ago, the auckland university independent journalism unit do an annual enquiry into media ownership in nz.
          i seem to recall the papers are 85% owned by banks.
          maybe the message will be slow in getting out.

  2. saveNZ 2
    13 February 2017 at 9:48 am

    Interesting turn of events.

  3. Robert Guyton 3
    13 February 2017 at 10:55 am

    Where’s Puckish Rogue?

    • saveNZ 3.1
      13 February 2017 at 11:01 am

      Maybe at an emergency meeting!

    • adam 3.2
      13 February 2017 at 11:15 am

      I was thinking the same thing Robert Guyton – remember how vehemently he argued there was nothing to see here, and we were all idiots for talking about it. Plus we got it wrong, so wrong, nothing bad was ever going to happen about this. Usual left getting it’s nickers in a twist.

      Funny Puckish you looking a bit like a idiot these days over this, out of touch, arrogant and smug – bit like the national party these days.

      • reason 3.2.1
        13 February 2017 at 9:51 pm

        Puckish is pretty thick ….. and I say this as he was the only troll stupid enough to take up a john key river water drinking challenge I was offering up ……

        But on the whole he performs well above his low intelligence quota ….. he does that by going back to the one truth in his trolling/arguments …

        …. and that is the nats polling above Labour ……

        By Referring to whatever topic is being discussed …….. and asking Puckish the potential impact on the nats polling …. would be the tactic I’d use against his derail/arguement ….

        Ie ” Do you think designing and implementing a tax system allowing corruption and cheating by the rich will lower support for National ?.” …..

        or …… ” Do you think river water being poisoned and unsafe to swim in will lower support for National ? ” …..

        etc etc etc

      • Yawning Man 3.2.2
        14 February 2017 at 1:23 pm

        Nothing about this was linked to the Panama Papers release or because of it. The inquiries have been going on before the papers were actually released.

        Predict they’ll be home before lunchtime on the first court date.

        http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN15Q0TK

    • Andre 3.3
      13 February 2017 at 12:22 pm

      If I recall correctly, Puckish got banned. I vaguely recall it was for 6 months, starting a few weeks back.

    • rob 3.4
      13 February 2017 at 4:50 pm

      In a galaxy far far away i hope.

  4. saveNZ 4
    13 February 2017 at 11:08 am

    Part of the issue is this ‘kinda legal’ system that politicians like to advocate. There is purposely loopholes left in to exploit legally. Then everyone starts doing it, so they do a mock crack down, show down crack down (Mossack Fonseca sounds like this) or a crack down on political enemies.

    Look at how reluctant John Key and National are to clean up the NZ tax haven swamp while at the same time they have emergency cabinet meetings to make sure school lunches should not be healthy!

    Now that’s priority politics!

  5. Tamati Tautuhi 5
    13 February 2017 at 3:12 pm

    The Natzis will keep filling the swamp that’s the way they roll you are either in the game or you aint?

  6. North 6
    13 February 2017 at 10:10 pm

    Will it be that the engine of Trump (a phenomenon which has absolutely nothing to do with that twisted, botoxed-to-fuck man-child btw)……manifests here in NZ come September ?

    It’s fascinating. Which maybe explains why I’m more or less permanently set to CNN. To track relentless ‘breaking news’ from Washington DC to Rawlings, Wyoming.

    Acknowledging that I dice with madness in that……CNN shows much, much more vigour in political commentary than New Zealand’s pathetically arse-licking ‘Cafe Society’ media.

  7. Tamati Tautuhi 7
    14 February 2017 at 2:41 am

    Unfortunately in NZ we do not have any Press Reporters / Journalists that can critically analyse Government policy and if you step out of line like John Campbell did you will be removed and sent to the salt mines in Siberia.

    Control of the Press by the likes of Simon Joyce and the Governments advisors Crosby Textor is part of the strategy, look how Goebbels and the Nazis took control of the German people prior to WW2.

    Critical thinking and investigative journalism has been banned in NZ, and if you think outside the square you are labelled a conspiracy theorist?

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