http://www.firstpost.com/business/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-panama-papers-leak-2711328.html
Why is it called the Panama Papers?
The tax evaders stashed funds in Mossack Fonseca, a law firm and corporate service provider based in Panama.
The Republic of Panama is located between and North and South America.
Mossack Fonseca, founded in 1977 by German-born Jurgen Mossack and Ramon Fonseca, specializes in commercial law, trust services, investor advisory and international structures. The law firm’s website claims it is one of the largest firms in the corporate services industry and has over 40 offices globally. It also offers intellectual property protection and maritime law services.
The Munich-based daily, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which got the secret papers and shared it with ICIJ, says in its report that Mossack Fonesca sells anonymous offshore companies around the world. These shell firms enable their owners to cover up their business dealings, no matter how shady.
Mossack Fonesca is the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm.
Who leaked information?
The story has the pulsating adrenalin rush of a James Bond film. The Munich-based daily Sueddeutsche Zeitun received 11.5 million data spanning a time-frame of 40 years (1997 to 2015) through an encrypted channel. Bastian Obermayer, a reporter of the daily says the whopping information was given gratis with a request for security in return.
After receiving the records of 214,488 offshore entities through emails, financial spreadsheets, passports and corporate records, the ICWJ put 370 journalists from across 80 countries on the job of tracing the hidden offshore assets of a roster of people in over 200 countries, including 12 current and former heads of state.
What is the India link?
The Panama Papers have a few Indian names from business families, well-known lawyers and family members, Bollywood actors and also criminals.
Amitabh Bachchan
Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan
Kushal Pal Singh, DLF owner and 9 members of his family
Sameer Gehlaut, Chairman & Founder, India Bulls Group
Vinod Adani, industrialist Gautam Adani’s elder brother
Shishir K Bajoria – promoter of SK Bajoria Group and politician from West Bengal
Anurag Kejriwal, former chief of the Delhi unit of Loksatta Party
Onkar Kanwar, chairman of Apollo Group
Anil Vasudeva Salgaocar , Goa-based mining baron and former MLA
Mohan Lal Lohia, chairman emeritus, Indo Rama Synthetics, Chairman – Indo Rama Holdings Ltd.
(late) Indira Sivasailam, wife of Anantharamakrishnan Sivasailam, chairman of Amalgamations Group. Her daughter, Mallika Srinivasan – chairman and CEO of Tractors and Farm Equipment Ltd.
Harish Salve, former Solicitor General of India (1999-2002)
Tabasum and Abdul Rashid Mir, Founder and CEO, Cottage Industries Exposition
Zavaray Poonawalla,head, managing committee, Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) and brother of Dr Cyrus Poonawalla
Rajendra Patil, owns medical and engineering colleges in Davangere. He is the son-in-law of Congressman and Karnataka horticulture minister Shamanur Shivashankarapppa
Jehangir Soli Sorabjee, honorary consultant physician at Bombay Hospital. He is the son of former attorney general Soli Sorabjee
Iqbal Mirchi, underworld don, now dead
Who is the global who’s who?
Mauricio Macri, President, Argentina
Vladimir Putin (to be fair, his name does not appear in the records) but his inner circle including his family and best friend and professional musician Sergei Roldugin
Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, Prime Minister, Iceland
Salman bin Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Saud, King of Saudi Arabia
Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates and emir of Abu Dhabi– one of the wealthiest man in the world
Pavlo Lazarenko, former PM of Ukraine, one of the world's 10 most corrupt politicians by Transparency International,
Petro Poroshenko, President of Ukraine and billionaire ‘chocolate king
Fifa Players
Lionel Messi and his father who was his agent
Michel Platini
Leonardo Ulloa, a top scorer for Leicester City
Gabriel Iván Heinze from Argentina who played with Manchester United and Real Madrid
Who are the other beneficiaries?
Li Xiaolin, the second child and only daughter of former Chinese Premier Li Peng
Ian Cameron, father of British Prime Minister David Cameron. He died on September 8, 2010
Mariam Safdar, daughter of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his sons Hasan and Hussain
Alaa Mubarak is a wealthy Egyptian businessman and the eldest son of ousted former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
Mounir Majidi, a businessman and entrepreneur, who was the personal secretary to the King Mohammed VI of Morocco, in 2000.
Clive Khulubuse Zuma, nephew of South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma.
Where were the intermediaries set up?
Fonseca worked with over 14,000 banks, law firms, company incorporators besides other middlemen to set up companies, foundations and trusts for customers. The top preferred 10 countries are: Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Switzerland, United States, Panama, Guatemala, Luxembourg, Brazil, Ecuador and Uruguay
Reactions from people involved
"This is a crime, a felony," Ramon Fonseca, one of the founders of the Panamanian firm Mossack Fonseca, told AFP, describing the data that was leaked as a 'limited hack'. He was an advisor to Panama's President Juan Carlos Varela until last month, described the extraction of the data as a "limited hack". The company washed its hands off the expose and said that the role of the firm was limited to that of an intermediary.
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