Panama Papers expose global avarice, thievery

A year ago, in commenting about the massive cache of data taken from HSBC, the world’s second-largest bank, we offered this headline: “Wealthy Americans who hide assets in Swiss banks are dirt.”

Today, as the details of the worldwide conspiracy by presidents, prime ministers, sheiks, billionaires and other magnates to hide assets in offshore accounts become known, a stronger word than “dirt” is warranted. We would suggest “evil.”

Why? Because billions of dollars are being taken out of the economies of countries that are poverty-stricken, have crumbling infrastructures and widening gaps between rich and poor.

Individuals who are willing to sacrifice the well-being of their nations for personal gain are evil.

The citizens of Iceland obviously believe so because they took to the streets and demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson.

Gunnlaugsson stepped down Tuesday in the wake of reports that he had used a shell company to shelter huge sums of money at a time when Iceland’s economy was in crisis. It is to be hoped that he isn’t the only leader who is forced to account for his or her misdeeds.

Last year’s HSBC revelations were about some 30,000 accounts with $120 billion in them.

The massive quantity of data mined by computer experts working in the bank’s office in Geneva several years ago showed that almost 3,000 clients are connected to the United States.

The U.S. government – the Internal Revenue Service, in particular – has had these records since 2010, and while there have been convictions of Americans who sent their money overseas to avoid paying taxes, the crackdown has been muted at best.

But with the press in possession of the secrets these Americans have worked so hard to protect, the federal government has had no choice but to do whatever is necessary to get the taxes, penalties and interest due and to go after the account holders criminally.

Panamanian law firm

By contrast, the myriad documents obtained by a German newspaper, which provided them to the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, show that the Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca, set up shell companies and other secret financial operations for its clients. The world’s rich and famous – more accurately, corrupt and infamous – not only want to keep their identities under wraps, but are determined to hide the vast amount of wealth they illegally drain from their countries.

It is, therefore, encouraging that Mossack Fonseca’s activities are now under scrutiny as a result of the leak of 11.5 million records. The international coalition of more than 100 media outlets has been poring over the records for months, and this week’s revelations are just the tip of the iceberg.

The hackers who stole the data, including emails, have indicated that there’s much more information forthcoming.

The Panamanian law firm was founded by Jurgen Mossack and Roman Fonseca and has 500 employees and affiliates worldwide.

The law partners insist they have done nothing wrong and contend that their clients undergo intense background checks. Fonseca acknowledged to the Associated Press that the documents are genuine and were obtained through an illegal hack.

But here’s the reality of what has occurred: The news of the hidden assets is spreading like wildfire around the world, with the result that many of the presidents, prime ministers, sheikhs, billionaires and other magnates are either attempting to discredit the leaks or to prevent the news from being disseminated.

For instance, in Russia, the government has moved quickly to bury the information that a close friend of President Vladimir Putin’s has established several offshore accounts. There’s speculation – based on the corrupt nature of the communist regime – that Putin is the beneficiary of the transfer of wealth out of Russia.

As for the United States, the administration of President Barack Obama should do whatever is necessary to determine if there are any American corporations or American citizens who are implicated in such despicable behavior.