From left: by Tony Avelar/Bloomberg, by Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg, by Gary Gershoff, by Tasos Katopodis. All from Getty Images.
The Jeffrey Epstein
scandal “already seems bigger than Weinstein,” one source involved in
litigation against Epstein told me, referring to the downfall of the
disgraced Hollywood mogul. And the scariest thing to the elite worlds
through which Epstein glided over decades is that it may be closer to
the beginning than the end. According to attorney David Boies, some 2,000 pages of documents regarding his client Virginia Roberts Giuffre,
a former Mar-a-Lago locker-room attendant and Epstein accuser, are set
to be released in the next “10 days to two weeks.” The secrets contained
in the documents have been the subject of fevered speculation ever
since a federal appeals court panel noted that the pages could describe
episodes of alleged abuse by Epstein and appearances by “numerous
prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign
presidents, a well-known prime minister, and other world leaders.”
The sealed documents are part of the evidence submitted in a 2015 lawsuit brought by Giuffre against Epstein’s alleged madam, Ghislaine Maxwell,
for defamation after she called Giuffre a liar. According to three
sources who have been briefed on the documents’ contents, the documents
contain excerpts of Giuffre’s sworn depositions, in which she names
powerful men in the worlds of politics and science whom she claims she
witnessed hanging around during her years as Epstein’s self-described
“sex slave.” “Some of the documents will identify people she had sex
with. Others will identify people she saw at various Epstein places,”
Boies said.
Former Insurance Man Sentenced for Money Laundering and Wire Fraud
BY MELANIE BUCK –
Steve Standridge, a 58-year old insurance
professional from Mt. Ida, was sentenced on Friday to 5 years in prison
on the charges of money laundering and wire fraud. Standridge must also
complete three years of supervised release and pay approximately $7
million in victim restitution.
Standridge owned and operated
several insurance agencies around the state of Arkansas, one of which
was located in Mena during the period of investigation. Standridge’s
licence was suspended in 2010 and he was formally indicted in August
2012. Most charges from the 23-count indictment were dropped when
Standridge pled guilty to one count of wire fraud and a 12-count
indictment was cut to 1 count of money laundering.
“Our economy in
Arkansas depends upon honest and fair dealing rather than deceit and
fraud,” stated U.S. Attorney Connor Eldridge. Eldridge contended that
Standridge was president of Steve Standridge Insurance, Inc., and
obtained loans with a Hot Springs bank, under false information. He then
told the president of a Hot Springs corporation that he would use the
loan money to buy two insurance companies. He obtained $2.7 million
dollars from that corporation to allegedly purchase the two proposed
insurance companies, promising to repay the loan with monies from the
bank loans. It was discovered that the $2.7 million in loan money was
used for purposes other than what Standridge disclosed them to be.
Indictments
were issued by both the Western District of Arkansas and the Eastern
District of Arkansas. The original charges on the indictment from the
Western District were: eight counts of wire fraud, one count of mail
fraud, two counts of money laundering, six counts of bank fraud, and six
counts of making a false statement to a financial institution. The
Eastern District indictment contained charges for: one count of
conspiring to commit bank fraud, four counts of aiding and abetting bank
fraud, one count of bank fraud, five counts of money laundering, and
one count of making a false statement to a financial institution.
Christopher
R. Thyer, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas said,
“Steve Standridge used his standing in the community to deceive and
defraud, both individuals and hometown banks, out of millions of
dollars. Standridge’s indictment establishes that the United States will
seek justice for those harmed by such actions and today’s sentence
sends a clear message that crimes such as these will not be tolerated
and will be pursued vigorously.”
Behind the email chains, invoices and documents that make up the
Panama Papers are often unseen victims of wrongdoing enabled by the
shadowy offshore industry.
By The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
The Panama Papers: Victims of offshore
Behind the email chains, invoices and documents that make up the
Panama Papers are often unseen victims of wrongdoing enabled by the
shadowy offshore industry.
By The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
First-time gains in Panama, France and Iceland
have pushed above $1.16 billion the global tally of fines and back taxes
resulting from the Panama Papers investigation’s exposure of the
offshore finance industry.
On the third anniversary of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists-led investigation,
which included the Miami Herald and McClatchy’s Washington Bureau, the
fallout from it is gathering pace through hundreds of separate
investigations into undisclosed wealth across scores of nations.
Since June 2018, the United Kingdom alone has
added $119 million, to bring its total to more than $252 million;
Australia has collected another $43 million to eclipse $92 million; and
Belgium has added an extra $6.5 million to its government coffers to
surpass $18 million. French tax authorities have confirmed nearly $136
million has now been recovered — and that figure is expected to rise.
They have carried out more than 500 inspections since April 2016.
Canada’s Revenue Agency, which also raided two
properties last week in connection to the investigation, has revealed it
had recouped nearly $6.8 million in federal taxes and fines from 66
audits. The agency said it planned to audit about 234 more taxpayers
linked to the probe. Fewer than 10 criminal investigations are ongoing.
Duration 3:54
Obama: Panama Papers show need to tighten tax laws
During
an address about the U.S. economy and tax inversions, President Obama
said the leak of 11.5 million documents from a Panama-based law firm
that shed light on wealthy people shelter their wealth from tax
authorities is a reminder that "tax a
By McClatchy
In Iceland, the Directorate of Tax
Investigations has finished 24 investigations relating to the Panama
Papers and estimates it has recouped $25.5 million. Icelanders took to
the streets after the 2016 investigation was released, and the former
prime minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson resigned just days after the
first stories were published.
And in Panama, authorities have clawed back more
than $14 million in the past three years. Investigations are continuing
in numerous countries, including Austria (where regulators are
examining whether two major banks followed procedures to prevent money
laundering), Germany, France and Norway.
ICIJ, together with the German newspaper
Süddeutsche Zeitung and more than 100 other media partners, spent more
than a year sifting through 11.5 million leaked files to expose offshore
holdings.
The files, which were leaked to Süddeutsche
Zeitung, came from a little-known but powerful law firm based in Panama,
Mossack Fonseca, that had branches in Hong Kong, Miami, Zurich and more than 35 other places around the globe.
The first American
charged in relation to the Panama Papers, Richard Gaffey, 74, a
Massachusetts accountant, is due to be tried in October for conspiracy
to commit tax evasion, money laundering and wire fraud. He has pleaded
not guilty.
Offshore corporations - The secret shell game
Offshore
corporations have one main purpose - to create anonymity. Recently
leaked documents reveal that some of these shell companies, cloaked in
secrecy, provide cover for dictators, politicians and tax evaders.
By McClatchy
Gaffey’s alleged co-conspirator, Panamanian lawyer Ramses Owens,
and a second Panamanian lawyer have been charged also. And Harald
Joachim Von Der Goltz is due to face trial in the U.S. case, too.
In late 2018, criminal charges were laid against
Bulgarians Nikolay and Evgeniya Banevi over the Panama Papers. Detained
in Nice, France, then extradited to jail in Bulgaria, they face
money-laundering and tax charges.
There are also at least seven people in jail in
Ecuador, one minister, three managers and some contractors, in relation
to the Petroecuador bribery scheme, reported by El Universo.
And just last month, a former South Korean army
general and a former executive of a major defense manufacturer were
indicted on bribery charges stemming from a multimillion-dollar case
based on reporting by ICIJ’s local partner, Newstapa.
The Real Tally
The $1 billion-plus Panama Papers’ tally almost
certainly understates total revenue raised as a result of the Panama
Papers given that many countries do not disclose information on tax
settlements.
In Poland, the task force set up after the
Panama Papers has operated in secret. “It did not provide media with any
kind of results, even off the record,” ICIJ’s Polish partner, Vadim
Makarenko, told ICIJ.
In Argentina, ICIJ’s partner said citizens were
now paying taxes on $104 million disclosed under a tax amnesty, while in
Colombia, recouped tax reportedly soared after wealthy citizens began
disclosing their true wealth.
And in Finland, authorities said they expect to
recover between $1 million and $2 million in taxes thanks to the Panama
Papers and Paradise Papers, ICIJ’s 2017 investigation into the offshore
world, combined. Finnish Tax Authorities told ICIJ’s partner Yle that
these cases take a long time to investigate and often involved the work
of multiple governments from across the world.
The Americans in the Panama Papers
The
world’s largest document leak went public on April 3, quickly dubbed the
“Panama Papers.” These documents detailed the offshore bank accounts of
many of the world’s richest people. Steve “Buzz” Thomma and McClatchy
D.C. reporter Kevin Hall exp
By Natalie Fertig
According to Newstapa reporter Boyoung Lim, the
situation in South Korea typifies the reticence of many governments to
disclose monies already recovered due to the Panama Papers, citing the
sensitivity of tax affairs.
Lim said: “Although Korea’s National Tax Service
announced that it has recouped considerable amounts of tax after
investigating companies and individuals depicted in Newstapa’s Panama
Papers stories, they declined to disclose the exact amount, stating that
it is confidential taxpayer personal information.”
Taxing mindsets
While recouping the proceeds of hidden assets
helps to fund vital government services, there is a growing sentiment
that the enduring legacy of the Panama Papers will be its effect on
behavior and public attitudes.
Niger ICIJ member and founder and editor in chief
of the L’Evenement newspaper Moussa Aksar views the Panama Papers as a
game-changer.
Aksar said: “Today people in West Africa pay
lots of attention when they do something and when they make a
transaction. They say to themselves, ‘There could be someone, somewhere
working with ICIJ or another organization who will investigate this.’
“They don’t cheat like they used to. They know that sooner or later they will be found out.”
Although many of the methods of evading tax
detailed in the Panama Papers were legal, their use has since been
widely condemned in the court of public opinion.
University of Leeds Professor of Tax Law Rita de
la Feria says the Panama Papers changed public sentiment toward taxation
itself — and a failure to pay a fair share of tax is no longer
considered a victimless crime.
De la Feria said: “Before the Panama Papers
there was a public tolerance, a kind of ‘good for you’ attitude toward
anyone who could avoid paying their fair share of tax.
“The Panama Papers has helped to shift this perception to one of ‘you’re robbing us of public services.’
Jeffrey Epstein, the onetime money manager and a registered sex offender, was arrested on sex trafficking charges
on Saturday. As news of the arrest ricocheted across the media
landscape, many outlets referred to Epstein—mistakenly—as a
billionaire.
“Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein Due In Court To Face
Sex Charges,” read a CNN chyron. “Jeffrey Epstein, Billionaire Long
Accused of Molesting Minors, Is Charged,” said the New York Times. Forbes has
never included Epstein, 66, in its rankings of the World’s
Billionaires, since there is scant proof he holds a ten-figure fortune.
As we wrote in 2010,
“The source of his wealth—a money management firm in the U.S. Virgin
Islands—generates no public records, nor has his client list ever been
released.”
