Ride the Lightning

2400 American Clients Revealed in the Panama Papers

June 7, 2016

The New York Times reported yesterday that at least 2400 U.S. based clients had retained Mossack Fonseca, the law firm whose exposed documents became known as "the Panama Papers." Some transactions were clearly legitimate. But e-mails, bank transaction ledgers and other documents fundamentally show that Mossack Fonseca offered a guide to evading U.S. tax and financial disclosure laws.

The article goes into great detail about how Mossack Fonseca operated. It was interesting to read that the law firm set up a secret e-mail account (apparently a customary practice) which an American businessman used to ask a common question, ""How does a US citizen legally get funds to Panama without the knowledge of the US government and how can those funds be profitably invested without the US government knowing about them?"

The answer from a law firm partner was that the firm could set up an offshore company and various accounts – and that any monies placed in these accounts would essentially go into a black hole.

Making sure that the beneficial owners of some of these accounts couldn't be traced appears to have been a prime directive. In some cases, law firm employees were named as company officers.

The individual stories are remarkable narratives of greed and corruption. I commend the article for a thorough reading. The individual stories pieced together are morbidly fascinating and morally repulsive.

Gordon Gekko would have been right at home in this world.

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