Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search
 

JEB

(4,748 posts)
Tue Apr 5, 2016, 12:52 AM Apr 2016

One Number Explains the Devastating Impact of the Panama Papers on Regular People

http://www.attn.com/stories/7075/one-number-explains-impact-panama-papers?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=internal

By Alex Mierjeski

snip>

Simply put, Heritage Oil and Gas Ltd Company (HOGL) didn't want to pay the $400 million in taxes associated with the sale of an oil field it owned in Uganda, according to a video by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which played a key role in analyzing the Panama Papers.

<snip>

As the ICIJ video notes, $400 million is a significant amount in Uganda, where one in three people live on less than $1.25 per day.

Basically, that statistic contextualizes just how impactful the actions of shell companies can be; $400 million is more than the government's annual health budget, according to the video.

That means that while the company who sought the help of Mossack Fonseca to dodge taxes, the intended recipients — places like hospitals — were forced to operate on shoestring budgets. The video notes that patients slept on floors and were asked to provide basic medical supplies such as sterile cotton balls or protective gloves.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

More at the link including informative video.

http://www.attn.com/stories/7075/one-number-explains-impact-panama-papers?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=internal
12 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
One Number Explains the Devastating Impact of the Panama Papers on Regular People (Original Post) JEB Apr 2016 OP
But Don't Worry scottie55 Apr 2016 #1
Phew!! Victor_c3 Apr 2016 #3
K&R suffragette Apr 2016 #2
HOG is right. Octafish Apr 2016 #4
HOG is a drop in the bucket. JEB Apr 2016 #5
It's up to us, JEB. Octafish Apr 2016 #6
Exposing them is the first and most important step. JEB Apr 2016 #7
''Sunlight is the best disinfectant.'' Octafish Apr 2016 #8
Putin is reportedly cueing up a big release of 1930-1989 classified archives, Octafish. roamer65 Apr 2016 #10
"...if it was Jones not Bush" intrepidity Apr 2016 #11
Where have the corporate flag wavers run off to? Rex Apr 2016 #12
They get to be called white collar crimes felix_numinous Apr 2016 #9
 

scottie55

(1,400 posts)
1. But Don't Worry
Tue Apr 5, 2016, 02:05 AM
Apr 2016

None of the Heritage Oil and Gas Ltd Company execs will ever be prosecuted.

Get caught with a piece of crack, get time.

Get caught ripping off a 3rd world country for $400 million get a bonus.

Welcome to the new world order.

Victor_c3

(3,557 posts)
3. Phew!!
Tue Apr 5, 2016, 05:40 AM
Apr 2016

I was beginning to worry that people were going to get angry at the wealthy people who hide money from governments I mean the "job creators". We can't have that happen!

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
4. HOG is right.
Tue Apr 5, 2016, 08:20 AM
Apr 2016

Until this leak, companies and individuals thought no one would ever know they are criminal.

 

JEB

(4,748 posts)
5. HOG is a drop in the bucket.
Tue Apr 5, 2016, 10:33 AM
Apr 2016

There are enough criminals involved in this to keep the prison industrial complex alive for another generation. People are dying because of this greed. Will anything meaningful be done to put a stop to this behavior, let alone punish the offenders?

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
6. It's up to us, JEB.
Tue Apr 5, 2016, 10:38 AM
Apr 2016

Corporate McPravda's job is to entertain and misinform. They want nothing to do with this story. It shines light on where the owners and operators of the Media Monopoly hide their wealth.

The Internet may be the most Democratic thing ever. It puts the First Amendment into action on a global basis.

 

JEB

(4,748 posts)
7. Exposing them is the first and most important step.
Tue Apr 5, 2016, 10:43 AM
Apr 2016

Tax evasion used to be a serious crime. Didn't they nail Al Capone on that basis?

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
8. ''Sunlight is the best disinfectant.''
Tue Apr 5, 2016, 11:01 AM
Apr 2016

We may never know all the "Who's," but exposing their "sources and methods" goes a long way to putting a stop to their criminality.



Like banking, it's almost an ENIGMA, what the rich and powerful say. It's to hide what they do.

Case in point: One Neil Mallon Pierce Bush, son of then-president George Herbert Walker Bush and caught with his hand in a billion-dollar S&L cookie jar called Silverado Savings & Loan. Here he is talking in code for the benefit of his fellow denizens living under rocks:



How the Elite Talk in Code

EXCERPT...

A perfect example of code talk comes from a true master insider, George H.W. Bush, when his son, Neil, was caught red handed in the middle of the S&L crisis as a director of Sliverado Bank.

Did Bush lay out his cards and call in his operatives and say pull some strings, get my son out of this investigation (Remember Bush was president at the time.) No. Bush is too smooth. In his published collection of letters, All The Best, George Bush, he shows us how the heat is delicately taken off Neil. On page 449, there is this letter to Thomas Ludlow Ashley.

Ashley is a Yale University grad, and member of the secret society Skull and Bones along with Bush. Here's the letter:

The Honorable Thomas Ludlow Ashley
Association of Bank Holding Companies
Washington, D.C. 20005

Dear Lud,

Thank you for your good memo December 8th.

I would appreciate any help you can give Neil. He tells me he never had any insider dealings. He got off the Board early--long before I was elected President. The Denver paper apparently ran a very nice editorial about him on that. He is an outside director, and thus I guess has liability, but I can't believe his name would appear in the paper if it was Jones not Bush. In any event, I know that the guy is totally honest. I saw him in Denver and I think he is worried about the publicity and the "shame". I tell him not to worry about that but any advice you can give as this matter unfolds would be greatly appreciated by me. If it turns out there has been some marginal call, or he has done something wrong, needless to say there will be no intervention from his dad. But, I'm quite confident this is not true...

Warm regards,

George


Notice how smooth. No talk about getting Ashley anything for taking care of the matter. The nice touch about if Neil "has done something wrong", but the clear finish, he didn't.

CONTINUED...

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2009/07/how-elite-talk-in-code.html



When it comes to money and power, it really is a small world. We'd hear it more often, if only we were privy to the conversation.

The public discovering the kinds of treason and corruptions these characters are perpetrating frightens the crooks like nothing else. I know this is Old News to you, JEB. It's also why DU and the Web matter: They're how We the People get the Truth.

roamer65

(36,747 posts)
10. Putin is reportedly cueing up a big release of 1930-1989 classified archives, Octafish.
Tue Apr 5, 2016, 07:53 PM
Apr 2016

See my thread for the link on it in GD. Looks like we have full blown information war.

Let the sunshine in!

intrepidity

(7,335 posts)
11. "...if it was Jones not Bush"
Tue Apr 5, 2016, 08:17 PM
Apr 2016

Aw, wonder if that applies to GW too? We could have been spared 8 years of supreme tragedy if GW had been GWJones.

 

Rex

(65,616 posts)
12. Where have the corporate flag wavers run off to?
Tue Apr 5, 2016, 08:26 PM
Apr 2016

Wall Streeters seem to have dropped off with the never ending Obama hatefest. No dots there, probably just my conspiratorial mind.

You think people are finally realizing they live in a militant plutocracy? That the Congress, the SCOTUS, the POTUS and the M$M are just middle management?

felix_numinous

(5,198 posts)
9. They get to be called white collar crimes
Tue Apr 5, 2016, 07:26 PM
Apr 2016

and not crimes against humanity, ecocides or robberies, as if they are cleaner somehow.

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»One Number Explains the D...