Secret off-shore banks - where the mega-wealthy hide their money

[Sarah Ibarruri]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2009/03/23/big_clawback/index.html?source=newsletter

AIG is chump change -- let's find corporate America's hidden billions

It's time to reform offshore banking, and see what untaxed wealth big business is hiding in overseas tax shelters.

By Joe Conason

Mar. 23, 2009 |

The popular urge to claw back the bogus bonuses paid by American International Group is irresistible and fully justified, but should the Treasury someday retrieve every single bonus dollar, that total of $165 million will make no difference to anyone except a few disgruntled traders. From the jaded perspective of the financiers, the uproar over the AIG bonuses may provide a welcome distraction from far more important (and lucrative) abuses in the world's offshore tax havens.

So rather than continue arguing over chump change, it is long past time for the United States, with its international friends and allies, to demand accountability from the long list of tiny countries and principalities, from Andorra and the Cayman Islands to Singapore and Switzerland, where corporations, wealthy clients and unrepentant evildoers hide their assets.

The big claw-back will reach into quaint islands and mountainous principalities, because the same banks, hedge funds and private equity firms responsible for the world financial meltdown keep their profits in those "secrecy spaces" -- alongside the ill-gotten gains of numerous drug dealers, dictators and delinquents of every description.

According to the Government Accountability Office, nearly all of America's top 100 corporations maintain subsidiaries in countries identified as tax havens. As the GAO notes, there could be reasons other than avoiding the IRS to set up branches in places such as Singapore, Luxembourg and Switzerland, where taxes are light or nonexistent and keeping clients' illicit secrets is considered a matter of national pride.

(continued at link)

[maddezmom]

1. Sarah Ibarruri

Please be aware that DU copyright rules require that excerpts of copyrighted material be limited to four paragraphs.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

2. oops - overdid it nt

[MikeNearMcChord]

3. Can't blame you though, this is outrageous.

Personally I would totally confiscate the assets any rich person or corporation has here on American soil and redistribute it. And I would do it while singing "The Internationale"(Billy Bragg version):evilgrin:

[Sarah Ibarruri]

4. I totally agree - 30 years of Republican domination has helped the rich

fleece us and leave us naked and themselves rich as emperors.

And I love that about doing it while singing "The Internationale"


:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[maddezmom]

14. no problem, thanks for editing it

:hi:

[Fireweed247]

5. Yes!

As the economy has been tanking, the stock market tanking...that money ended up somewhere!

Why is this even legal?

"But what reason other than evasion could there be for Goldman Sachs Group to set up three subsidiaries in Bermuda, five in Mauritius, and 15 in the Cayman Islands?"

[Sarah Ibarruri]

6. Exactly right. The $$$ the rich extracted from us under the tutelage of Republicans....

is in those off-shore banks.

[earth mom]

7. So is this where rich movie stars and celebrities keep their money too?

You know, the people we all are supposed to be ok about having more cash than they can count simply because they are beautiful, famous and ultra cool.

And what about Oprah, Obama's best buddy?

Anyone know? I've long wondered what these people do with their money.

[alfredo]

13. Much of their money comes from a medium that costs us little, in fact all

it cost us is the price of the TV and 8 to 9 minutes a half hour. There's noting unethical about what they do. They entertain. If we don't like them, in time they disappear.

[earth mom]

15. Hey, I love movies myself. I'm just wondering how they protect their money.

Maybe it sounded like I was totally dogging rich celebrities, but I wasn't-not much anyway.

I don't hold much if anything against celebrities or authors or people like Al Gore or Michael Moore who earn their money honestly and who don't exploit others to get there.

The world would be a bleak place without most of these people.

However, I do have a huge beef with rich bastards who exploit others to the nth degree which includes those who make money off the stock market.

So, again, does anyone know how rich movie stars, celebrities, authors, etc., hang on to their money? Especially these days.

[alfredo]

17. The movie industry had its share of skin flints, Fred McMurry was one.

The ones with money, have a lot. Some plow the money back into the industry by producing their own projects, some buy property in the outback.


How do artist hold onto their money? They have to be smart and lucky enough to gather ethical people around them to manage the money.

[earth mom]

23. Well, I still didn't get an answer to whether rich celebrities have their money in offshore

or foreign banks.

I'm starting to think it's a hush hush secret which doesn't sit well with me.

[alfredo]

24. If they earned it legally, it's none of our business.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

18. There's a difference between going to a movie to see Angelina for which I pull out my wallet

And Wall Street pulling my wallet out and ransacking it, leaving me penniless. However, I'd say the answer is no. What would they have to hide? They make their money honestly. The AIGs, JP Morgans, Goldman Sachs, etc. of the world do not make their money honestly.

[SlowDownFast]

8. K&R! This article is Where It's At.

This is the direction we need to look if we are to find out the WHO, How and the Why of this economic crisis.

Don't delude yourselves.

This was engineered at some point to loot the US and the rest of the global economy.

[Fireweed247]

11. "This was engineered at some point to loot the US and the rest of the global economy."

exactly!

K&R this people...these bastards didn't lose their money....AIG 'lost' 60 billion in 3 months??!! Bullshit!
They offshored it all, then stole some more....they are stealing borrowed money, the interest alone is more than we(or our children or grandchildren) can ever pay off....we are truly screwed if we don't expose this world's biggest bank heist ever!

[Sarah Ibarruri]

20. I agree. And Swiss banks have been complicit in all this forever nt

[Sarah Ibarruri]

19. Somebody needs to post this article again tomorrow nt

[ForrestGump]

9. Hmmmm...

I wonder what the minimum balance is.

I wonder if they'll give me a debit card...

[cobalt1999]

10. I've seen some of those private banks in Switzerland & the Caymans

Large impressive buildings with a sign "Open by appointment only"

That always blows me away. How much friggin' money do you have to have to get a bank like that to open just for you?

[Sarah Ibarruri]

21. Can you imagine? This sh*t has got to stop. nt

[redqueen]

12. THANK YOU!

It's beyond sad seeing so many people get so easily distracted.

Even among the scandals involving AIG, the bonuses are a distraction: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5309526&mesg_id=5309526

[Egalitariat]

16. DU has as much jurisdiction over those banks as US lawmakers

Why don't we just do it here by ourselves?

We could put up a poll and have something passed by supper time.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

22. We don't have jurisdiction, but there's got to be something that could be done nt