Rich motherf**kers avoiding tax

[UGagain]

Truly my heart bleeds for him. Can't a billionaire sort out his finances with out the pesky media sticking their noses into every thing? What a world we live in today.

And the road to war against Russia will be built with the complicity of useful idiots like you.

The propaganda doesn't even need to make any sense anymore.

There's plenty of morons that will believe everything that's dished up to them when there's foreigners involved.

The British media should be concentrating on British people who are named in these files first and foremost - then go after the high profile foreigners. But it won't happen as the Brits named are probably mates with the newspaper owners and have had a word!

This whole thing is a spook operation. The organisations involved in the hack are US government fronts. They're not going to name themselves or their friends.

Have a good close look at what they (the compliant media) have and what they're doing with it. It's laughable.

Putin isn't even on the list. And as far as I can gather, Bashar al Assad isn't either.

[UGagain]

Putin wasn't even in the documents, you utter sponge.

Jesus Christ. How do people like you get through life?

[Eugene Wrayburn]

Must be pretty shit laws then. Either that or rich, connected people act with impunity. We see, in many countries, beneficiaries being hounded as a drain on society and perpetrators of financial fraud (they are stealing YOUR taxes!) while the real damage is being done by the so called elite. For decades. Something is rotten.

There's nothing wrong with the laws that have been broken. They are just extremely expensive and difficult to investigate. I'd change the law to make it simpler and more purposive.

Yet the laws that allow massive tax evasion are surely broken, too. It's not right that a big corporation can avoid paying tax where it does business. It's not right that it can pay shareholders through shell companies in tax havens - legally.

Those are the "loopholes" that need closing, which is completely a policy issue.

I don't see how it's completely possible to shut down tax havens, but the UK has the buying power to take a stand and introduce two simple laws:

1) Point of Consumption Tax
2) Abolition of holding companies

Very interesting. Really nothing to do with this leak. And you need to stop using evasion and avoidance interchangeably.

[Eugene Wrayburn]

And the road to war against Russia will be built with the complicity of useful idiots like you.

The propaganda doesn't even need to make any sense anymore.

There's plenty of morons that will believe everything that's dished up to them when there's foreigners involved.

The British media should be concentrating on British people who are named in these files first and foremost - then go after the high profile foreigners. But it won't happen as the Brits named are probably mates with the newspaper owners and have had a word!

This whole thing is a spook operation. The organisations involved in the hack are US government fronts. They're not going to name themselves or their friends.

Have a good close look at what they (the compliant media) have and what they're doing with it. It's laughable.

Putin isn't even on the list. And as far as I can gather, Bashar al Assad isn't either.

Nor is David Cameron. If it's a spook operation he really ought to have a word with C.

[Stones of granite]

The British media should be concentrating on British people who are named in these files first and foremost - then go after the high profile foreigners. But it won't happen as the Brits named are probably mates with the newspaper owners and have had a word!

This whole thing is a spook operation. The organisations involved in the hack are US government fronts. They're not going to name themselves or their friends.

Have a good close look at what they (the compliant media) have and what they're doing with it. It's laughable.

Putin isn't even on the list. And as far as I can gather, Bashar al Assad isn't either.

Nor is David Cameron. If it's a spook operation he really ought to have a word with C.

It would also seem a bit unusual for a US front "spook" to expose the President of Ukraine and the King of Saudi Arabia. UG seems to channeling the Kremlin again.

[morepork]

Benefit fraud. That's what we really need to crack down on. Maybe start another war too.

[Billyfish]

This has come to us (well, the Guardian and the Beeb) via the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists no less! A thoroughly reliable independent organ funded by nobody particularly important I'm sure. The Guardian and the Beeb surely wouldn't edit the list further? Even if it needed editing by now.

[Dacre]

Prime Minister of Iceland has resigned over this

He will be the first of a few casualties

[UGagain]

This has come to us (well, the Guardian and the Beeb) via the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists no less! A thoroughly reliable independent organ funded by nobody particularly important I'm sure. The Guardian and the Beeb surely wouldn't edit the list further? Even if it needed editing by now.

Exactly.

[UGagain]

The British media should be concentrating on British people who are named in these files first and foremost - then go after the high profile foreigners. But it won't happen as the Brits named are probably mates with the newspaper owners and have had a word!

This whole thing is a spook operation. The organisations involved in the hack are US government fronts. They're not going to name themselves or their friends.

Have a good close look at what they (the compliant media) have and what they're doing with it. It's laughable.

Putin isn't even on the list. And as far as I can gather, Bashar al Assad isn't either.

Nor is David Cameron. If it's a spook operation he really ought to have a word with C.

It's Cameron's dead father on the list. So as a limited hang out, a good result.

It's done the job on you for one.

[Eugene Wrayburn]

This whole thing is a spook operation. The organisations involved in the hack are US government fronts. They're not going to name themselves or their friends.

Have a good close look at what they (the compliant media) have and what they're doing with it. It's laughable.

Putin isn't even on the list. And as far as I can gather, Bashar al Assad isn't either.

Nor is David Cameron. If it's a spook operation he really ought to have a word with C.

It's Cameron's dead father on the list. So as a limited hang out, a good result.

It's done the job on you for one.

So in order to implicate Putin the spooks make up a laundering allegation in relation to a mate of his - rather than Putin himself - but in order to make it look convincing they place information about DC's DAD? I mean I tend to think our Security Services tend towards the inept rather than the all powerful which you seem to believe but that would be exceedingly inept.

[Banquo]

Isn't this evasion, rather than avoidance?

Isn't it both- a mix of still legal (avoidance), under legal dispute, formerly legal, and evasion and money laundering?

[twitchy]

Nor is David Cameron. If it's a spook operation he really ought to have a word with C.

It's Cameron's dead father on the list. So as a limited hang out, a good result.

It's done the job on you for one.

So in order to implicate Putin the spooks make up a laundering allegation in relation to a mate of his - rather than Putin himself - but in order to make it look convincing they place information about DC's DAD? I mean I tend to think our Security Services tend towards the inept rather than the all powerful which you seem to believe but that would be exceedingly inept.

This is "UG" we are talking about, it took me a while too remember him from the last version of RR. I'm expecting some polonium in my inbox.

Also not wanting to be left out of a financial scandal:

[Stom]

I would just like to say, as much as UG's concept of this doesn't sit with me, the Guardian's coverage has been an embarrassment.

1) It lead with Putin. It took a day for me to actually click an article, as before then every single one was about Putin and his $2bn. Which is insanity. Sure, I imagine he does engage in offshore tax deals. But then so do many others. Even just saying: Qatar, Saudi, UK, Iceland and Russia govts caught up is better...

2) That "explain it to a 5 year old" thing... It's fine except one thing:

Not everyone was doing something bad, though. For example, you just wanted privacy from your mom.

Why is hiding your money from the relevant authorities not a bad thing? Unless your mum has a history of stealing your money... In the majority of countries, this is no reason.

[UGagain]

It's Cameron's dead father on the list. So as a limited hang out, a good result.

It's done the job on you for one.

So in order to implicate Putin the spooks make up a laundering allegation in relation to a mate of his - rather than Putin himself - but in order to make it look convincing they place information about DC's DAD? I mean I tend to think our Security Services tend towards the inept rather than the all powerful which you seem to believe but that would be exceedingly inept.

This is "UG" we are talking about, it took me a while too remember him from the last version of RR. I'm expecting some polonium in my inbox.

Also not wanting to be left out of a financial scandal:

What makes you believe that Vladimir Putin is a billionaire?

A whole lot of Chinese whispers in the compliant western media seem to have convinced you that it is so.

A story by the serially ridiculous Luke Harding seems to have you convinced that Putin is somehow implicated in this data.

He isn't.

So, that makes you a gullible fool at best in any reading of the story so far.

I even gave you a link explaining it. But no. You'd rather believe rumours.

[UGagain]

Nor is David Cameron. If it's a spook operation he really ought to have a word with C.

It's Cameron's dead father on the list. So as a limited hang out, a good result.

It's done the job on you for one.

So in order to implicate Putin the spooks make up a laundering allegation in relation to a mate of his - rather than Putin himself - but in order to make it look convincing they place information about DC's DAD? I mean I tend to think our Security Services tend towards the inept rather than the all powerful which you seem to believe but that would be exceedingly inept.

You have no concept of what I believe or why.

And I don't care. You're not worth my time.

[Stooo]

72 former and current heads of state.

Why has this list so far only got two names on it?!?!

[UGagain]

Benefit fraud. That's what we really need to crack down on. Maybe start another war too.

Looks like they have already. The Azeris vs the Armenians in a rerun.

Seems like they're trying to revive the twice failed BTC pipeline now that failure to destroy Syria in sinking in.

[Zhivago]

I would just like to say, as much as UG's concept of this doesn't sit with me, the Guardian's coverage has been an embarrassment.

1) It lead with Putin. It took a day for me to actually click an article, as before then every single one was about Putin and his $2bn. Which is insanity. Sure, I imagine he does engage in offshore tax deals. But then so do many others. Even just saying: Qatar, Saudi, UK, Iceland and Russia govts caught up is better...

2) That "explain it to a 5 year old" thing... It's fine except one thing:

Not everyone was doing something bad, though. For example, you just wanted privacy from your mom.

Why is hiding your money from the relevant authorities not a bad thing? Unless your mum has a history of stealing your money... In the majority of countries, this is no reason.

Some of the legit reasons were reasonable. One was to use offshore as a way to hide strategic investments so your competitors don't catch onto your strategy. That makes sense.

[bruce]

So let me get this right, the papers were leaked to a German newspaper who passed it on to the American based ICIJ and surprisingly there is lack of German and US names revealed!

[Stom]

So let me get this right, the papers were leaked to a German newspaper who passed it on to the American based ICIJ and surprisingly there is lack of German and US names revealed!

The lack of American names is because Americans can quickly and easily launder their money in their own country...No need for tax havens when you live in the "land of the free"...

(Delaware is 3rd on the list of tax havens, 10 places higher than Panama).

[UGagain]

https://www.icij.org/about

Spooks.

[gthedog]

Cameron's toast
I give him a week

[welshsaint]

Teflon will triumph.......sadly.

[caldeyrfc]

Cameron will be remembered as the person who dragged us out of Europe not because the country is anti European it's just no fvcker can believe a word he says