offshore

Tuesday November 7, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday November 7, 2017

Paradise Papers Are Another Hit to Justin Trudeau’s ‘Middle Class’ Agenda

There is a storm blowing in from Paradise. Documents leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reaffirmed what most of us already at least suspected: that the wealthiest among us have an elaborate shadow network of financial infrastructure in offshore tax havens to skimp taxes in their home countries. In short, rich people are playing by different rules.

September 22, 2017

The Paradise Papers are noteworthy for two reasons. The first is the magnitude. The leaked documents come from offshore tax firm Appleby, corporate service providers Estera and Asiaciti Trust, and business registries of 19 tax jurisdictions. They concern about $10 trillion (USD) overall, which is quite a lot of money considering that total gross world production for 2014 was about $78 trillion. We are talking about the global high rollers table here.

The second is that they meet CanCon requirements. Over 3,000 Canadians were named in the leaks, and some of them have connections to the commanding heights of the House of Commons. Even our beloved head of state Elizabeth II was named in the papers. Her Majesty’s estate has millions of pounds tied up in a rent-to-buy retailer accused of preying on the poor, which is a shock because the hyperexploitation of unlanded labourers is not something you associate with a feudal monarch.

April 6, 2016

The real meat of the report is how many of our former prime ministers are enmeshed in the financial heart of darkness. Leaked memos reveal Paul Martin’s former company Canada Steamship Lines is one of Appleby’s biggest clients, and Jean Chretien is listed as the owner of 100,000 stock options in an East African oil company ever having a bank account outside of Canada, and says he doesn’t know about the stock options.) And lest anyone suggest this was a Liberal family affair, it turns out that Brian Mulroney sat on the board of the company that facilitated the largest arms deal in British history to Saudi Arabia.

Juicier still than the has-beens on the list is the revelation that Liberal fundraising bigwig Stephen Bronfman has not only amassed nearly $60 million in a shadowy offshore tax haven, and that the law firm representing Bronfman had been instrumental in lobbying the Canadian government against cracking down on overseas tax evasion. Coming on the heels of two months of a taxation trainwreck—and a grueling few weeks exposing just how comfortable Justin Trudeau is with plutocracy—this is not a good look for the prime minister. Again, we reiterate: the optics certainly make it look like the extremely rich people around the federal cabinet table don’t actually have the best interests of the “middle class” at heart. (Source: Vice) 

 

Wednesday April 6, 2016

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Wednesday April 6, 2016 Panama Papers: Document leak exposes global corruption, secrets of the rich The financial secrets of heads of state, athletes, billionaires and drug lords have been exposed in the latest Ñ and biggest ever Ñ leak of records from an offshore tax haven. The leak includes 11.5 million confidential documents shedding light on the assets and murky fiscal dealings of everyone from the prime ministers of Iceland and Pakistan to soccer player Leo Messi, movie star Jackie Chan and associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The records, dating as far back as 1977, come from a little-known but highly influential Panama-based law firm called Mossack Fonseca, which has 500 staff working in 40-plus countries. The firm is one of the world's top creators of shell companies Ñ corporate structures that can be used to hide ownership of assets. German newspaper SŸddeutsche Zeitung obtained the files from a source and shared them with global media partners, including CBC News and the Toronto Star, through the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. CBC News will be exploring more of what's in the documents, including Canadian connections, in a series of stories this week. "These findings show how deeply ingrained harmful practices and criminality are in the offshore world," said Gabriel Zucman, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley and author of The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens. Zucman, who was briefed on the media partners' investigation, said the release of the leaked documents should prompt governments to seek "concrete sanctions" against jurisdictions and institutions that peddle offshore secrecy. While offshore accounts are not in themselves illegal, the leaked records show they are often used to shield illicit dealings. In a written response to questions from the media consortium, Mossack Fonseca said it "do

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday April 6, 2016

Panama Papers: Document leak exposes global corruption, secrets of the rich

The financial secrets of heads of state, athletes, billionaires and drug lords have been exposed in the latest — and biggest ever — leak of records from an offshore tax haven.

The leak includes 11.5 million confidential documents shedding light on the assets and murky fiscal dealings of everyone from the prime ministers of Iceland and Pakistan to soccer player Leo Messi, movie star Jackie Chan and associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The records, dating as far back as 1977, come from a little-known but highly influential Panama-based law firm called Mossack Fonseca, which has 500 staff working in 40-plus countries. The firm is one of the world’s top creators of shell companies — corporate structures that can be used to hide ownership of assets.

German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung obtained the files from a source and shared them with global media partners, including CBC News and the Toronto Star, through the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

CBC News will be exploring more of what’s in the documents, including Canadian connections, in a series of stories this week.

“These findings show how deeply ingrained harmful practices and criminality are in the offshore world,” said Gabriel Zucman, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley and author of The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens.

Zucman, who was briefed on the media partners’ investigation, said the release of the leaked documents should prompt governments to seek “concrete sanctions” against jurisdictions and institutions that peddle offshore secrecy.

While offshore accounts are not in themselves illegal, the leaked records show they are often used to shield illicit dealings.

In a written response to questions from the media consortium, Mossack Fonseca said it “does not foster or promote illegal acts.”

“Your allegations that we provide shareholders with structures supposedly designed to hide the identity of the real owners are completely unsupported and false,” the firm said. (Source: CBC News)

 

Tuesday April 5, 2016

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Tuesday April 5, 2016 Kill it, spin it Ð Putin will do anything to stifle the Panama Papers story The Panama Papers are a wake-up call for anyone who may have doubted how deeply cronyism and corruption are rooted into RussiaÕs leadership. But for those who have followed the inner workings of PutinÕs presidency for the past 16 years or so, they are as much confirmation as revelation. What will be truly fascinating is watching how this new mass of information is dealt with by the Putin regime over time, and how this might affect an already tense relationship between the Kremlin and the west. The first time a large amount of information was leaked about RussiaÕs power system was in 2010, when a trove of US diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks described a Òvirtual mafia stateÓ and a system in which the Russian president allegedly used proxies to hide Òillicit wealthÓ. These documents were damaging enough, detailing a kleptocratic authoritarian system where Russian officials, oligarchs and organised crime came together to amass large fortunes. At the time, the Kremlin dismissed this as Ònothing interesting or worthy of commentÓ. One key difference today is that the Panama Papers have emerged at a time when relations between Russia and the west are at an all-time low. When the WikiLeaks documents were published, the US and Russia were still officially in a ÒresetÓ phase, with pledges of cooperation on issues ranging from Afghanistan to nuclear disarmament. But since then, itÕs all been downhill. The Russian government spoke earlier this year of a Ònew cold warÓ. Russian strategic bomber planes have flown over parts of Europe. Nato and the US are deploying new forces in the east of the continent. RussiaÕs annexation of Crimea and the war in Ukraine have led to western sanctions. Along with low oil prices, this has put RussiaÕs economy under severe strain Ð with many analysts wondering whether that might

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday April 5, 2016

Kill it, spin it – Putin will do anything to stifle the Panama Papers story

The Panama Papers are a wake-up call for anyone who may have doubted how deeply cronyism and corruption are rooted into Russia’s leadership. But for those who have followed the inner workings of Putin’s presidency for the past 16 years or so, they are as much confirmation as revelation.

What will be truly fascinating is watching how this new mass of information is dealt with by the Putin regime over time, and how this might affect an already tense relationship between the Kremlin and the west.

The first time a large amount of information was leaked about Russia’s power system was in 2010, when a trove of US diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks described a “virtual mafia state” and a system in which the Russian president allegedly used proxies to hide “illicit wealth”. These documents were damaging enough, detailing a kleptocratic authoritarian system where Russian officials, oligarchs and organised crime came together to amass large fortunes. At the time, the Kremlin dismissed this as “nothing interesting or worthy of comment”.

One key difference today is that the Panama Papers have emerged at a time when relations between Russia and the west are at an all-time low. When the WikiLeaks documents were published, the US and Russia were still officially in a “reset” phase, with pledges of cooperation on issues ranging from Afghanistan to nuclear disarmament. But since then, it’s all been downhill. The Russian government spoke earlier this year of a “new cold war”. Russian strategic bomber planes have flown over parts of Europe. Nato and the US are deploying new forces in the east of the continent. Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the war in Ukraine have led to western sanctions.

Along with low oil prices, this has put Russia’s economy under severe strain – with many analysts wondering whether that might lead to more aggressive ultra-nationalism in Moscow. Arguably, one key turning point, in this deterioration of relations with the west, came when the Russian regime accused Washington of stoking street demonstrations against the regime in 2011-12. (Continued: The Guardian)

 

Posted to Le Vif, L’express, Brussels, Belgium

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Thursday, April 11, 2013By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Thursday, April 11, 2013

RBC criticized on social media over foreign-worker outsourcing

Canadians took after Royal Bank of Canada on social media today after revelations of an outsourcing deal that will see some of its staff lose their jobs to foreign workers.

But in the end, the issue that sparked the interest of the federal government appears to focus on just one worker.

This all began on the weekend when CBC reported that RBC is subcontracting some of its investor services back-office work to iGate Corp., which will cost 45 RBC employees in Toronto their jobs. The iGate group, in turn, had to apply for temporary foreign worker permits, which the government said unacceptable if it turned out the rules were not followed.

RBC distanced itself from the events, saying it outsourced the function, and it’s up to the supplier to stick to the rules.

As The Globe and Mail’s Grant Robertson now reports, of the 21 workers iGate is using to handle the outsourcing, just one is in Canada on a temporary work visa. A further 13 are in Canada to work on a short-term basis only, and the rest have been hired locally.

Initially, there was no word as to the breakdown, or how long the workers would remain in the country.

In a message to RBC staff, chief executive officer Gordon Nixon stressed that RBC hasn’t hired any temporary foreign workers to displace Canadians.

“In keeping with standard business practices, when transitioning activities, our vendor has temporarily assigned a number of their employees on site at RBC to affect this transition with a small number remaining on a go-forward basis,” Mr. Nixon said. (Source: Globe & Mail)