Perhaps. But this leak is rather in-your-face. It might be harder to ignore or excuse. Putin will likely have to go topless again to distract the masses. Maybe this time he'll do a full-Godiva on a white horse for good measure.
It will just go to show how harmless these "leaks" are to those they are aimed at. Not even the Icelandic PM resigned and you want dictators like Putin or the Saudi king to care about it.
I'm not sure this leak is all the significant. The swiss leak think came with a lot of banking data, which is far more useful than this. This only proved what everyone knew, certain jurisdictions attract a lot of people wanting quick incorporation with good secrecy. This doesn't prove wrongdoing by the people listed and even if does, they are likely to be fined for not having disclosed shares of this or that company. There is very little incriminating financial data on this, its the banks that have that data and their data was not leaked
Yes, overtaxation and overregulation are the reasons why people choose to incorporate offshore. It's just disgusting that the establishment which harshly imposes these overtaxation and overregulation on us chooses offshore for themselves.
From the perspective of a prosecutor, knowing that someone opened a company in Panama is still miles away from being able to prove anything. Panama will take a lot of heat though and I suspect their banking secrecy will be weakned or they will suffer sanctions. They are already semi-sanctioned by being on the FATF grey list. Now they will suffer even more pressure. When their banking secrecy goes the way of Switzerland, that's whe the real data will appear
There's almost no offshore banking done in Panama. People only incorporate there and bank elsewhere. All that could leak from Panama were these incorporation docs.
A few thoughts: - This will not affect Putin, directly, in the slightest. He has an 83% approval rating, the Russians know he's corrupt and has billions in personal wealth....and they do not care. It's the same for Erdogan in Turkey: recordings of him with his son discussing how to hide millions in a day.... Lots of complaints for a few days, hardly a dent to his support. His supporters say: "he's a great man, he deserves everything!" Same with Putin. - The Sueddeutsche Zeitung broke this story, not the Irish Times. Yes, the SZ is a very serious and respected paper. That said, see above. - Iceland will in fact make their PM pay for this. This is a small country, and they care about this sht. - This will hurt Putin indirectly: by helping Western powers better target the people who should have their assets frozen (like this: https://foreignpolicy.com/2014/03/2...-russian-businessmen-and-bank-close-to-putin/) This is not insignificant. But for Putin and his grip on power, it's hardly a scratch. - This has nothing to do with "overtaxation" and/or "overregulation". Believing taxes or regulations are unreasonable does not excuse breaking the law. - This there is likely more to come from this trove of information.
I am not sure why all there is so much focus on Putin in this. Is he corrupt? No doubt. What world leader isn't, with varying degrees of sophistication? From here: -- Banks, companies and close associates of Putin, who is not himself named in the documents, "secretly shuffled as much as $2 billion through banks and shadow companies", according to the ICIJ. These allegations were not aired by Russian state TV. So, his close associates were named but not Putin. We have had leaders here in the US with some pretty shady "close associates". It would be entertaining to see something stick, but it looks like this is more irritating for the implicated than anything. This whole story is something everyone with a brain already knew...the rich and powerful hold themselves above the rest of us and will do whatever to protect their own wealth. Shocker. Wake me when they find real illegal activity that can be used to bend the bastards over.
Belgium, France, UK, Australia and New Zealand are starting investigations for their citizens that are mentioned. We will see what will happen.