Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Doctor RJ, rfall, annetteboardman and Man Oh Man with guest editor Chitown Kev and Magnifico. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00AM Eastern Time. Special thanks to JekyllnHyde for the OND banner. Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
Special thanks to JekylinHyde for the OND banner.
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Editor’s note: There were so many articles reporting on the Panama Papers that it seemed appropriate to begin today’s OND with some of these stories.
RUSSIA, PAKISTAN AND OTHERS ON DEFENSIVE FOLLOWING RELEASE OF 'PANAMA PAPERS'
DW News
Public figures from around the world have reacted to the leak, which exposes a vast network of offshore entities. 12 current and former leaders are among those named in the trove of documents.
Leaders around the world have begun to react to the leak, and most of them, predictably, have struck a defensive tone.
Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson and the family of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif were among those who defended themselves after being named in the "Panama Papers," a giant leak of offshore fianancial records first published by German newspaper "Süddeutsche Zeitung" on Sunday.
For Gunnlaugsson, who was elected prime minister in 2013, the revelation came in one of the most awkward ways imaginable.
During a television interview for Swedish channel SVT, Gunnlaugsson was asked if he'd ever had illicit dealings with an offshore company.
"As I say, my assets have always been on the table," said Gunnlaugsson, growing visibly uncomfortable.
GERMAN BANKS ENMESHED IN PANAMA PAPERS LEAK
DW News
After journalists published a tranche of documents exposing the shadowy world of offshore business, two German banks have said helping customers set up shell companies abroad is not illegal per se.
The two German financial institutions specifically mentioned in media reports as having helped high-ranking politicians, celebrities and sports stars hide their money abroad were Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest lender, and the Hamburg-based Berenberg bank.
The allegations were part of the so-called Panama Papers, a massive trove of leaked emails, PDFs and other records that expose a world of letterbox companies and business arrangements that until recently had been largely hidden from public view.
The Panama Papers were first obtained by reporters at the German daily "Süddeutsche Zeitung," and on Sunday, the head of the paper's investigative unit suggested to a German TV host that every bank in Germany was somehow implicated.
A WELL-CONNECTED MEXICAN TYCOON STASHES A FORTUNE OVERSEAS
McClatchy DC
One of Mexico’s wealthiest tycoons, a burly civil engineer who built his fortune on government contracts, sought to conceal his wealth in this past year in an elaborate chain of offshore trusts and companies.
Juan Armando Hinojosa Cantú has a golden touch at winning government business, and has become successful under the protective wing of President Enrique Peña Nieto.
A security breach at a Panamanian law firm that specializes in registering offshore companies around the globe revealed the efforts of Hinojosa’s advisers to create a chain of offshore entities that stretches to New Zealand.
Hinojosa, a 59-year-old native of Reynosa, a crime-ridden city abutting the border with Texas, is both renowned and mysterious in Mexico.
FUND RUN BY DAVID CAMERON’S FATHER AVOIDED PAYING TAX IN BRITAIN
The Guardian
David Cameron’s father ran an offshore fund that avoided ever having to pay tax in Britain by hiring a small army of Bahamas residents – including a part-time bishop – to sign its paperwork.
Ian Cameron was a director of Blairmore Holdings Inc, an investment fund run from the Bahamas but named after the family’s ancestral home in Aberdeenshire, which managed tens of millions of pounds on behalf of wealthy families.
Clients included Isidore Kerman, an adviser to Robert Maxwell who once owned the West End restaurants Scott’s and J Sheekey, and Leopold Joseph, a private bank used by the Rolling Stones.
The fund was founded in the early 1980s with help from the prime minister’s late father and still exists today. The Guardian has confirmed that in 30 years Blairmore has never paid a penny of tax in the UK on its profits.
World figures deny wrongdoing as 'Panama Papers' turn spotlight on tax avoidance
Reuters
Governments across the world began investigating possible financial wrongdoing by the rich and powerful on Monday after a leak of four decades of documents from a Panamanian law firm that specialized in setting up offshore companies.
The "Panama papers" revealed financial arrangements of global politicians and public figures including friends of Russian President Vladimir Putin, relatives of the prime ministers of Britain, Iceland and Pakistan, and the president of Ukraine.
While holding money in offshore companies is not illegal, journalists who received the leaked documents said they could provide evidence of funds hidden for tax evasion, money laundering, sanctions busting, drug deals or other crimes.
Panama Papers: Leaks spur global investigations
BBC
Authorities across the world are being spurred into action after a huge leak of confidential documents revealed how tax havens are used to hide wealth.
Eleven million documents were leaked from the secretive Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.
They show how the company has helped some clients launder money, dodge sanctions and avoid tax.
The company says it has operated beyond reproach for 40 years and has never been charged with criminal wrong-doing.
Since the first revelations late on Sunday a number of investigations have been launched by French, Austrian, Dutch and Australian authorities, among others.
Panama Papers’ Leaks Put Iceland Leader Under Pressure to Quit
New York Times
LONDON — Iceland’s prime minister faced calls for his resignation and a large demonstration outside Parliament on Monday in one of the first repercussions of an enormous leak of documents about offshore shell companies and tax shelters from a secretive Panamanian law firm.
The prime minister, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, insisted he would not resign after documents revealed that he and his wealthy partner, now wife, had set up a company in 2007 in the British Virgin Islands through the law firm. The documents also suggest that he sold his half of the company to her, for $1, on the last day of 2009, just before a new law took effect that would have required him as a member of Parliament to declare his ownership as a conflict of interest.
Mr. Gunnlaugsson said the leak contained no news, adding that he and his wife, Anna Sigurlaug Palsdottir, had not hidden their assets or avoided paying tax.