#PanamaPapersVenezuela

#PanamaPapers
Taken from http://panamapapersvenezuela.com/quienes-somos/ by /u/soeri
*Any weird language  or grammar is due to Google Translate.

As part of a global project, Venezuelan journalists participated in the review of millions of files that were leaked from a Panamanian firm specializing in the registration of companies in tax havens. The documents, obtained by the German newspaper 'Süddeutsche Zeitung' and processed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), patterns are evident for government officials and business groups hide their identities or money

The numbers speak for themselves in this case: the word "Venezuela" appears in a little more than 241,000 documents in the database in which the International Consortium of Journalists (ICIJ, for its acronym in English) became the largest filtration never registered companies in tax havens.

The Süddeutsche Zeitung of Munich, Germany, obtained from a source a voluminous package of documents, more than 11.5 million electronically filtered by a Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca (MF), which from the isthmus and through its 38 branches worldwide industry leading companies incorporated in tax havens like also the same Panama, the British Virgin Islands, the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean or the US states of Nevada and Delaware, among others.

The data includes emails, financial forms, passports and corporate records that reveal the secret owners of bank accounts and offshore companies in 21 jurisdictions. Leaked internal files contain information about MF offshore entities connected to 214,488 people in over 200 countries and territories.

The unimaginable amount of data led the newspaper to go to ICIJ, based in Washington DC and with previous experience in this type of project, which built an ad hoc team to organize the data and process it. The database was shared with a network of more than 370 journalists and 100 media around the world.

In the case of Venezuela, the investigation began in June 2015 and involved 11 journalists from various electronic media. While much of the hundreds of thousands of documents relating to Venezuela do not include relevant information, the mere review, analysis and data processing meant months of work.

It is clear that constitute an offshore company is not a crime in itself and even it is natural for certain business transactions.

Most of the services provided offshore industry are legal if they use those who obey the law. But the documents show that banks, law firms and other offshore players often did not follow the requirements of law to ensure that their customers are not involved in criminal activities, tax evasion or political corruption. In some instances, records show, offshore intermediaries protected themselves and their customers by hiding suspicious transactions or altering records.

Sometimes the provider could check through your due diligence efforts a prospect was a Politically Exposed Person (PEP for short) or someone suspected of criminal activities, but ignored the finding.

This unusual journalistic access to the internal management of Mossack Fonseca and its relationship with customers allowed to verify that supplier and customer often conspire to mislead regulatory authorities in their countries of origin on the ownership of companies, arrange a posteriori business registration previously recorded, among other practices designed to camouflage the circulation of money that is hidden or legitimate.

resonant names

The data obtained from MF, for the Venezuelan case offers striking examples of what happened over the last 15 years with the fate of the huge flows of oil revenues that the state handled within the framework of a policy of massive imports and maintaining differential rates.
Traces of former public officials whose regular income, limited by definition, made no objection to order the opening MF and case management companies in tax havens were found.

corporate structures to the extent that the Panamanian company some Venezuelan armed for customers who wanted or dissipate its presence in companies incorporated with directors of MF itself or generate external debt through transactions-often empty shells are also evident, stock- companies could then submit to the agency administrator in Venezuela's exchange control regime.

They are part of the financial, legal and fiscal maneuvers that were cooked in MF, sometimes at the suggestion of the supplier, sometimes at the request of the client or, if not, at the request of an intermediary such as banks or law offices.

Information leakage sheds light on a corner of finance submerged to journalistic investigations normally can not reach.

In the texts that are part of special crop names such as former Chief of Bodyguards of Hugo Chavez, Adrian Velasquez and former Chief of Bolivar 2000 Social Assistance Programme, Victor Cruz Weffer, with companies under its control in tax havens. Various authorities state oil company PDVSA also did the same.

-some businessmen linked to the revolutionary government of Venezuela, but then appeared under the guise of asylum in other nations also used to Mossack Fonseca to build submarines sections of its financial operations. Their names will come to light from today.
There are also cases of traders who opened corporate facades in tax havens like Hong Kong, Panama, Virgin Islands or Belize to take advantage of the opportunities that opened the importing government greed.

overall findings

Heads of state, social and sports celebrities, leaders of organized mafias and swindlers: a global scale, massive flight of documents has allowed to reveal the face never known to the public of various figures. In fact, he allowed characters discover hitherto unknown, but that the public should know.

The files expose offshore companies controlled by the prime ministers of Iceland and Pakistan, the king of Saudi Arabia and the children of the president of Azerbaijan. Also they included at least 33 people and companies put on the blacklist of the government of the United States based on evidence that they have done business with Mexican drug lords, terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and renegade nations such as North Korea.

One of these companies provided fuel for aircraft the Syrian government used to bomb and kill thousands of its own citizens, accused US authorities
It was evident how associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin moved secretly to 2,000 million dollars through banks and secret companies.

The list of world leaders who used to Mossack Fonseca to establish offshore entities includes the current president of Argentina, Mauricio Macri, who was director and vice president of a company in the Bahamas handled by Mossack Fonseca when he was a businessman and mayor of the Argentina capital. A spokesman for Macri said the president was never personally own shares in the firm, which was part of the family business.

The files also highlight the contradictions of some champions of the fight against corruption.

They were detected offshore companies linked to the family of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who has vowed to fight "armies of corruption" and eight other members of the politburo of the ruling Communist Party of China.

Also of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who has positioned himself as a reformer in a country shaken by corruption scandals country. The files contain new details of offshore businesses late father's first David Cameron, a leader who seeks a reform of tax havens British minister.

Traces of Mossack Fonseca are in the diamond trade in Africa, the international art market and other businesses that benefit from the secretiveness. The firm has served enough royals Middle East to fill a palace. It has helped two kings, Mohammed VI of Morocco and Salman of Saudi Arabia, to go to sea on luxury yachts.

Leaked documents reveal that the law firm of Juan Pedro Damiani, a member of the ethics committee of FIFA, had business relationships with three men have been charged in the FIFA scandal: former FIFA vice president Eugenio Figueredo and Hugo and Mariano Jinkis the father and son duo accused of paying bribes to win the rights to broadcast football events in Latin America. Records show that the law firm Damiani in Uruguay represented an offshore company linked to Jinkis and seven companies linked to Figueredo.
The best football player in the world, Lionel Messi, also appears in the documents. A company in Panama established for him by Mossack Fonseca in 2012, Mega Star Enterprises Inc. adds a new name to the list of companies shell (shell companies) known are linked to Messi. Their businesses are offshore currently the target of a tax evasion case in Spain.

under scrutiny

Until recently, Mossack Fonseca operated mainly in the shadows. But it has come under increasing scrutiny as governments have obtained partial leaks of signature files, and authorities in Germany and Brazil began to dig into their practices.

In February 2015, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported that law enforcement agencies in Germany had launched a series of raids targeting one of the major banks, Commerzbank, in an investigation of tax evasion that authorities said could lead to criminal charges against Mossack Fonseca employees.

In Brazil, the company has become a target in an investigation of bribery and money laundering "Operation Car Wash" (Lava Jato, in Portuguese), which has led to criminal charges against prominent politicians and an investigation into the popular former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The scandal threatens to remove from office the current president Dilma Rousseff

In January, Brazilian prosecutors Mossack Fonseca called a "major money launderer" and announced that they would submit criminal charges against five employees of the Brazilian office of the firm for their roles in the scandal.

Mossack Fonseca denies breaking the law in Brazil. One of its owners, Ramón Fonseca Mora Panama, has insisted in recent weeks about his innocence. But at the same time he had to resign his post of minister counselor of the government of Panama and the leadership of the Panamanian Party, which led to Juan Carlos Varela to the presidency.

"We are totally innocent of what we are accused," he told the media last month. "I call this license to defend my honor, my signature and my country."

(*) The Venezuelan team is made up of Ahiana Figueroa, Alfredo Meza, César Batiz, Ewald Sharfenberg, Fabiola Zerpa, Joseph Poliszuk, Katherine Pennacchio, Laura Weffer, Lisseth Boon, Roberto Deniz and Ronna Rísquez.