It may be the biggest global political scandal in history
A massive leak of documents exposes the offshore holdings of 12 current and former world leaders and reveals how associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin secretly shuffled as much as $2 billion through banks and shadow companies.
The leak also provides details of the hidden financial dealings of 128 more politicians and public officials around the world.
The cache of 11.5 million records shows how a global industry of law firms and big banks sells financial secrecy to politicians, fraudsters and drug traffickers as well as billionaires, celebrities and sports stars.
These are among the findings of a yearlong investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and more than 100 other news organizations.
- Files reveal the offshore holdings of 140 politicians and public officials from around the world
- Current and former world leaders in the data include prime ministers of Iceland and Pakistan, the president of Ukraine, and the king of Saudi Arabia
- More than 214,000 offshore entities appear in the leak, connected to people in more than 200 countries and territories
- Major banks have driven the creation of hard-to-trace companies in offshore havens
The New York Times suggests that the playas should have seen it coming:
The leak followed a series of high-profile breaches in recent years in which individuals working for governments or companies have amassed internal files and then given them to media organizations. In 2014, Edward J. Snowden, a contractor for the National Security Agency, gave reporters what intelligence officials have estimated was at least 1.5 million documents from the agency. Hundreds of articles have been published based on those documents.
The media organizations looking into Mossack Fonseca are expected to publish many more articles based on the new documents in the coming days.
Some of the most damning information involves the afore-mentioned dyspeptic strongman from Moscow:
Vladimir Putin and Sergey Roldugin forged a bond as young men. Fast friends, almost like brothers, they cruised the streets of Leningrad, singing and, in Putin’s case, occasionally getting into fistfights.
As Putin rose to power as Russia’s supreme leader and Roldugin made a name for himself as a classical cellist and conductor, the two remained close. Roldugin has performed for Putin and high-profile guests at the president’s official residence and has given media interviews that softened Putin’s fearsome image.
Now a leak of secret documents reveals another, hidden side of their friendship.
The records show Roldugin is a behind-the-scenes player in a clandestine network operated by Putin associates that has shuffled at least $2 billion through banks and offshore companies, an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung and other media partners has found.
In the documents, Roldugin is listed as the owner of offshore companies that have obtained payments from other companies worth tens of millions of dollars. A company linked to the cellist also grabbed secret influence over Russia’s largest truck maker, another snagged a big slice of Russia’s TV advertising industry.
It’s possible Roldugin, who has publicly claimed not to be a businessman, is not the true beneficiary of these riches. Instead, the evidence in the files suggests Roldugin is acting as a front man for a network of Putin loyalists – and perhaps for Putin himself.
Roldugin did not respond to detailed questions.
You wouldn’t either, otherwise there might be a little bit of polonium along with the creamer in your morning coffee!
Naturally, the “mainstream media” will continue to be fascinated by that big shiny object with the ginger tribble on his head, but make no mistake: this is shaping up to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, international political scandal of them all. ‘Nuff said.
Click here for reuse options!Copyright 2016 Liberaland
By: dave-dr-gonzo
David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.
* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.
18 responses to It may be the biggest global political scandal in history
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Kevin April 4th, 2016 at 03:56
This is certainly going to be a big and quite interesting story, but only if it is reported without political bias. Already despite dozens of politicians and corporate leaders being implicated WHY does the MSM have to focus immediately on poor old Vlad, who himself is not implicated, though a few of his friends seem to be. US presidents past and present claim friendships with many of the other world leaders implicated and they have much more bearing on US policy than Vlad’s mates might be expected to have, the King of Saudi for instance. Still I suppose Vlad makes good copy and besides we don’t want to upset any allies.
William April 4th, 2016 at 08:17
“It may be the biggest global political scandal in history”
Even more than the outrage and unbearable shame we had to bare (courtesy Faux “news”), when someone held an umbrella for the President of the United States?
jybarz April 4th, 2016 at 12:06
Hahaha
Bunya April 4th, 2016 at 13:29
That’s a pretty big scandal (given the fact that the president isn’t exactly lily white), but my all time favorite worldwide scandal was the also unbearably shameful “BJ in the White House”.
mea_mark April 4th, 2016 at 09:29
So much corruption in the world … what are we going to do?
~ Eat The Rich
Anomaly 100 April 4th, 2016 at 09:33
Yummy!
jybarz April 4th, 2016 at 12:08
Leave it to idiot voters.
Mensa Member April 4th, 2016 at 09:51
Someone needs to directly ask Donald Trump if he has any accounts in off-shore tax havens.
Not that Republicans care.
Mitt Romney refused to say how much money he had offshore.
mea_mark April 4th, 2016 at 09:57
I heard somewhere it is like 2.6 terabytes of data. There will be stories coming out of this data for years. I bet all sorts of people take a fall over this leak.
Mensa Member April 4th, 2016 at 10:00
I am so cynical about white collar crime so I don’t expect Americans to go to jail over this.
But, that is the only think white collar criminals fear. Fines, even large ones, are the cost of business for them.
MerryMarjie April 4th, 2016 at 10:00
I know this is considered “criminal activity,” releasing heretofore secret documents, but when it’s the public’s money, it is our right to know where it is going. No one in power wants these papers exposed, but perhaps we’ll get a glimpse of just how master manipulators control and direct the world’s economy. The bottom line is US! We’re the ones who eventually pay for all the wealth in the world.
mea_mark April 4th, 2016 at 10:32
The rich have been slowly legalizing their criminal activity. It is time for an overhaul of the system.
anothertoothpick April 4th, 2016 at 10:09
High level Russians are saying бред какой
Jimmy Fleck April 4th, 2016 at 11:14
Is anybody a fan of the Tom Clancy novels? It seems like several of his fictional story lines seem to come true a few years later. For instance – in one book he had a disgruntled airline pilot crash his jumbo jet into the Capital during a State of the Union address killing most of the US government officials. A few years later we had the 9/11 attacks where hijackers used planes to attack the US. One of his last books had a story line where the Russian head honchos were siphoning money into off shore accounts similar to what this headline implicates. Seems freaky what Clancy was able to come up with that has somewhat come to pass.
MerryMarjie April 4th, 2016 at 13:13
Didn’t the Bush Administration say about 9/11 that no one ever considered a plane crashing into a tower to destroy it? Guess none of them read Tom Clancy’s novels.
oldfart April 4th, 2016 at 11:50
Exposed, the lifestyles of the rich and powerful. Turns out they cant control everything. Yet.
What Russia could use is an extremely intelligent computer hacker who goes by the name of Lenin…
jybarz April 4th, 2016 at 12:04
Pretty surprised to see the Saudi King in the list.
Is it in case he gets dethroned?
Well, Bloodymir, I hope you’re implicated.
You’re evil enough to deserve it.
lindsncal April 4th, 2016 at 14:07
We need the same investigation here.
Our wealth disparity is even worse and our media, which ignores this country’s biggest problems, couldn’t be any worse than it is.
15.7 million millionaires (46% of world’s) live in the U S (903,000 millionaires added in the last year) and we have 536 billionaires – no other country even comes close. The U.S. also dominates the list of the ultra-rich. Of the 123,800 people worldwide worth more than $50 million, almost half are in the U.S.
And…at the same time..we.have an obesity problem and a hunger problem.
We have … the most people without health care (all other countries have healthcare for all) and are the fattest and sickest, live shorter lives, a poorer middle class that makes less money and have proportionally the most poor and homeless people of any developed country. (the ones republicans tell you to blame for it all)
On the face of these things alone, there is something wrong with the country.
From FDR to Reagan, it was the opposite and we were always #1 in quality of life. After Bush, we fell to about 15th.