Panama Papers Fallout Continues

The political fallout from the release of the Panama Papers continues to grow. The papers revealed how a Panamanian firm, Mossack Fonseca, had set up a global network of shell companies for heads of state, politicians and others to store their money offshore to avoid taxes and oversight.

After a yearlong investigation, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and 100 reporting partners around the world started publishing stories that tied 140 politicians, 29 billionaires and at least 33 blacklisted people to 214,000 offshore entities.  The impact of the leak could reverberate for months and lead to more resignations.

Iceland’s Prime Minister, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, who has been in office since 2013, has resigned after the Panama Papers revealed details of an offshore company, Wintris, that his wife owns. It apparently held and holds claims of Iceland banks that collapsed during the financial crisis. The resignation came after thousands of Icelanders crowded outside the parliament buildings in Reykjavik calling for him to step down.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has published his tax records after he admitted he owned shares in a Bahamas-based trust up until 2010. Details about his late father’s offshore investments were leaked as part of the Panama Papers.  Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has said “What the Panama Papers has shown, more than anything, is that there’s one rule for the rich and one rule for the rest. If you’ve got a lot of money, you put it in a tax haven. You get a big income as a result of it. You pay no tax on it. If you’re a care worker, a street cleaner or a nurse, you don’t have those options. You don’t have those opportunities. You pay your tax.”

Others named in the documents leak include Russian president Vladimir Putin’s friend – Sergei Roldugin, who is believed to be Putin’s proxy– has secret offshore companies registered in his name wort millions of dollars. The Panama Papers reveal $2 billion flowing from Russian state banks to offshore companies and a firm in the British Virgin Islands called Sandalwood Continental Ltd.

The Republic of Azerbaijan’s ruling first family, the Aliyevs, have a huge offshore business empire. It includes banking, telecoms, goldmines and London mansions. Among the Panama Papers is a Mossack Fonseca firm called Exaltation Ltd. It belongs to President Aliyev’s socialite daughters, Leyla and Arzu. It was set up in 2015 to hold UK property.

Mossack Fonseca acted for an Iranian state oil company, Petropars, which was blacklisted by the US. The firm was registered in the British Virgin Islands. The Panamanian law firm also serviced another Iranian outfit called Petrocom. Leaked emails suggested that its ultimate owner was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s former president.

A son of Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, owns four luxury flats in Park Lane in London. The properties are held via offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands set up by Mossack Fonseca. Sharif’s children raised a £7m loan from Deutsche Bank against this property empire.  The Panama Papers also link many of China’s red aristocrats, alleged cronies of Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe, Argentina’s president Mauricio Macri, among many others.

German Parliament Approves Non-Combat Support In Fight Against ISIS

The German Parliament has voted to provide military support to the U.S.-led fight against the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The British Parliament recently voted to join the bombing campaign in Syria as well. Germany says it will not actively engage in combat but will provide warplanes, a tank aircraft and a warship.

Tornado reconnaissance jets, a naval frigate and 1,200 soldiers will be sent to the region for non-combat related support. Germany’s decision comes a day after British warplanes carried out their first air strikes on IS targets in Syria after the country’s parliament authorized the military operation. This will be Germany’s biggest current military operation abroad. Until now, Germany’s biggest foreign mission has been in Afghanistan, but that has gradually wound down to a force of just less than 1,000.

After the Paris attacks last month the UN Security Council adopted a French resolution calling on UN member states to “take all necessary measures” to “prevent and suppress terrorist acts” committed by IS, al-Qaeda and affiliated “terrorist” groups. France also invoked an EU Treaty clause on mutual defence – Article 42.7 – to get help from its EU partners in the fight against IS.

The United Nations security council had declared in a unanimous vote that all able states should join the fight against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq and redouble efforts to prevent further attacks by the militant group.

Isis used the chaos of Syria’s nearly five-year civil war to seize territory in Syria and Iraq, where a US-led coalition has been bombing the militants for more than a year, while Russia began airstrikes in Syria in September. The group has recently claimed responsibility for downing a Russian passenger plane in Egypt, killing all 224 people on board, and attacks in Lebanon, Turkey and Tunisia.

The council resolution also urges states to intensify efforts to stem the flow of foreigners looking to fight with Isis in Iraq and Syria and to prevent and suppress financing of terrorism. The British prime-minister, David Cameron, called the vote on the French-drafted text an important moment. “The world has united against Isil (Islamic State). The international community has come together and has resolved to defeat this evil, which threatens people of every country and every religion,” he said.