Laurence Dollimore
DAVID Cameron’s father, Lionel Messi and the former Spanish king’s sister are among those named in an unprecedented leak of confidential documents that show how the rich and powerful hide their wealth.
An unknown source leaked 11.5 million documents yesterday from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, which, for a yearly fee, helps clients incorporate their wealth into offshore accounts.
According to the so-called Panama Papers, the former Spanish King’s sister, Pilar de Borbon, became president of a Panama-registered company, Delantara Financiera SA in 1974.
On the same date, her husband took on the role of the company’s secretary-treasurer and director – but the company was only dissolved in June 2014, the same month that King Juan Carlos abdicated from the throne.
Others named include footballer Lionel Messi – who is already facing tax evasion charges in Spain – as it was revealed he owns a shell company with his father (Mega Star Enterprises), which was previously unknown to Spanish investigators.
Spanish film maker Pedro Almodovar is reported to have opened a business with his brother called the Glen Valley Corporation in the British Virgin Islands in 1991, coinciding with the box office success of his early director years.
His brother Agustin Almodovar said: “Both my brother and I have no comments to make in this respect. In any case, before the possible insinuations that might come about from the information you have, we wish to state tha both Pedro and I are up-to-date with all our tax obligations.”
Micaela Solis-Beaumont – the wife of Spain’s European Commission’s Climate Action & Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete – was revealed to have been empowered to approve transactions of Rinconada Investments Group SA, which was a Panama company registered in 2005, while her husband held public office.
A spokesman for Mr Canete said: “Arias Canete’s declarations were in full complaince with the code of conduct for members of the European Parliament in the area of economic interests.”
While 14% of documents implicate Spaniards, more than half of the companies registered with the Panama law firm are in British-administered tax havens, as well as in the UK itself.
The 2.6 terabytes of documents revealed that the British Prime Minister’s late father, Ian Cameron, used the firm’s services to shield his investment fund, Blairmore Holdings Inc.
A 2006 prospectus for Mr Cameron’s company said of the fund: “it should be managed and conducted so that it does not become resident in the United Kingdom for UK taxation purposes.”
With the service provided being technically legal, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists said being named in the leak does not suggest illegal activity.
Don’t you just love the name of Cameron’s dad’s fund? Blairmore Holdings. Now THAT you couldn’t make up.
That headline hit me with the same impact, you could not dream it could you?
There is nothing new in this story. Tax was initially a war chest, that was its purpose, to fund the war, but as war is instigated by the state for the only benefit of huge profits, the taxes have stayed with us. The rich don’t get taxed much, and the super rich not at all, tax is for everyone else. You don’t get an account from the government on where your money goes. Council tax is for public services. Income Tax should be outlawed completely, so should interest rates for borrowing on your principal home, as banks are only places to keep money safe. Instead, the banks used the gold in the vaults that money is only meant to be a receipt for, and decided to charge people interest to use the money, that did not have the same representation in gold, thus, the state we are all in now, and getting worse.
In America it is not in the constitution to tax a man’s labour, so if you have the money and time you can fight it there and you will win in the end, as it was never ratified.
Rubbish, the US Constitution says:
‘The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence[note 1] and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;’
In the USA people have the right to change policy of how money is spent – IF and only if – people are not to apathetic or cynical to vote.
Chas: Your quote is the 16th Amendment that was never legally ratified. For 126 years of American History, nobody was taxed directly on their labour. In 1913, the 16th amendment was brought in, but there is loads of evidence that indicates it was fraudulent.
Bill Benson’s findings, published in “The Law That Never Was,” make a convincing case that the 16th amendment was not legally ratified and that Secretary of State Philander Knox was not merely in error, but committed fraud when he declared it ratified in February 1913. You can look into this in more detail Chas, but what I said is not rubbish.
Have fun discussing the merits of Benson and his fellow travelers in prison where they ended up after conviction for tax evasion and fraud. Their nonsense was based on the same rhetorical dribble spilling from other slack-jawed posse comitatus types and gun freaks lacking cortical connections to think rationally. Good luck with the casuistry.
Bill Benson is a Patriot, a former law enforcement officer, previously employed by the Illinois Department of Revenue as a Criminal Investigator, and fired for exposing corruption. Hardly a slack jawed comitatus type that can’t think rationally. Good luck Chas, have fun being another sheep led into the pen of the New World Order.
Tax now funds (or should do) modern welfare states, not just wars. Where do these greedy pigs think the money comes from, for police (to protect them) fire departments, street lights, sewers, education, health care. The million and one things that comprise modern civilizations? they all have to be paid for. This scum happily make their fortunes in and from those civilizations, yet refuse to pay their wack. (not even council tax)
They are simply thieves in suits, leeching on all of us.
I understand that the British-Spanish Olive Press is keen on reporting about Blairmore and the Spanish Royal Family. The topics of reporting in German newspapers are different. They report in detail about Panama accounts which are presumably run on behalf of Putin by his playmates, especially by a Cello player, who is a close friend to Putin since 40 years. Also involved are seven major German banks and some former Siemens managers who had already been penalized five years ago for illegal company funds being used to finance bribes. Now the Panama Papers show that this Managers Gang had not disclosed their entire fund, but had invested a big amount into a offshore company from Panama. Rumors now arise that the 7 Million Euro ‘credit’, that the German soccer association had ‘refund’ to FIFA (where they never arrived) could have gone to Panama to pay bribes for votes for winning the World Soccer Championship to Germany. Will Beckenbauer still keep cool?
I guess that Panama Leaks will replace Syria, North Korea, Donald Trump and the refugy crisis from the top headlines of the coming months. Nice times for the Olive Press.
Yeah. The cello player takes “being on the fiddle” to a whole new level.
So stand up and make a revolution, that’s what the colonists did. They put their lives on the line, some died but they won through.
It’s the bit about ‘standing on the front line and risking your life’ that exposes the cowardly mouth merchants, especially the ones from the island, it scares them ~¬#>less.
After the shock of being caught with their trousers down, the cerdos will just find another trough.
Marathon bit of journalism though, about 370 journos, grafting for a couple of years, have produced something that seemingly would take one person twenty seven years to read through.
We have to be grateful to “key-word” software for extracting the juicy stories before it all becomes tomorrows chip-papers.
So, no response from the dysfunctional one – no surprise there. Panama Papers – lots of noise from the gutless ones and after a little while it will be – business as usual.
In Iceland at least 20% of the population turned up to surround the parliament, result – corrupt PM resigns. In the UK the serfs continued stuffing their faces with junk food, went down the pub, made a few noises and continued being consumerised slobs – no change – what a surprise, not.
Robert,
‘Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.’
Martin Luther King
“Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious”
? Oscar Wilde
Prefer, “patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel”. Samuel Johnson, via Boswell. Similar sentiment though.
Yeah, that covers it well.
I would imagine David Cameron is the beneficiary of a trust.
Whats wrong with that?
His Father was a responsible Parent and arranged his wealth affairs accordingly.
I have.
The fact that some famous people are corrupt is not a surprise.The corrupt people too are very hypocrites, equally is not a surprise.
The issue here is that in the tax heavens not only is hidden the money of corrupt people and tax evaders. The big issue is that in those places is hidden the vast sums of money of criminal activities as the drug trade , weapons trade,slave trade, extorsion organizations,etc. And that this money return to the honest economy and corrupts She.
It would be very good for all honest people to understand that the tax heavens only exist for his ruin, and to act in consequence.
Interesting Anselmo. Just what action would you propose?
Stop to recognizing the legal acts signed in these countries.
This is an idea of a French judge named Jean Maillard.