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Banking in Switzerland dates to the early 18th century through Switzerland's merchant trade and has, over the centuries, grown into a complex, regulated, and international industry. Banking is seen as emblematic of Switzerland. The country has a long history of banking secrecy and client confidentiality reaching back to the early 1700s. Starting as a way to protect wealthy European banking interests, Swiss banking secrecy was codified in 1934 with the passage of a landmark federal law, the Federal Act on Banks and Savings Banks. These laws, which were used to protect assets of persons being persecuted by Nazi authorities, have also been used by people and institutions seeking to illegally evade taxes, hide assets, or generally commit financial crime.
An offshore bank is a bank that is operated and regulated under international banking license, which usually prohibits the bank from establishing any business activities in the jurisdiction of establishment. Due to less regulation and transparency, accounts with offshore banks were often used to hide undeclared income. Since the 1980s, jurisdictions that provide financial services to nonresidents on a big scale can be referred to as offshore financial centres. OFCs often also levy little or no corporation tax and/or personal income and high direct taxes such as duty, making the cost of living high.
A shell corporation is a company or corporation with no significant assets or operations often formed to obtain financing before beginning business. It may hold passive investments or be the registered owner of assets, such as intellectual property, or ships. Shell companies may be registered to the address of a company that provides a service setting up shell companies, and which may act as the agent for receipt of legal correspondence. The company may serve as a vehicle for business transactions without itself having any significant assets or operations.
Offshore investment is the keeping of money in a jurisdiction other than one's country of residence. Offshore jurisdictions are used to pay less tax in many countries by large and small-scale investors. Poorly regulated offshore domiciles have served historically as havens for tax evasion, money laundering, or to conceal or protect illegally acquired money from law enforcement in the investor's country. However, the modern, well-regulated offshore centres allow legitimate investors to take advantage of higher rates of return or lower rates of tax on that return offered by operating via such domiciles. The advantage to offshore investment is that such operations are both legal and less costly than those offered in the investor's country—or "onshore".
Corruption is an increasing issue across Canada. On Transparency International's 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index, Canada scored 74 on a scale from 0 to 100. When ranked by score, Canada ranked 14th among the 180 countries in the Index, where the country ranked first is perceived to have the most honest public sector. For comparison with worldwide scores, the best score was 90, the average score was 43, and the worst score was 12. For comparison with regional scores, Canada's and Uruguay's score of 74 was the highest score among the countries of the Americas. Regionally, the average score was 43 and the lowest score was 14.
Banking secrecy, alternatively known as financial privacy, banking discretion, or bank safety, is a conditional agreement between a bank and its clients that all foregoing activities remain secure, confidential, and private. Most often associated with banking in Switzerland, banking secrecy is prevalent in Luxembourg, Monaco, Hong Kong, Singapore, Ireland, and Lebanon, among other off-shore banking institutions.
Under the federal law of the United States of America, tax evasion or tax fraud, is the purposeful illegal attempt of a taxpayer to evade assessment or payment of a tax imposed by Federal law. Conviction of tax evasion may result in fines and imprisonment. Compared to other countries, Americans are more likely to pay their taxes on time and law-abidingly.
Mossack Fonseca & Co. was a Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider. At one time it was the world's fourth-largest provider of offshore financial services. From its establish in 1977 until the publication of the Panama Papers in April 2016, the company remained mostly obscured from public attention, even though it was a major firm in the global offshore industry and acted for approximately 300,000 companies. Prior to its dissolution, the company employed roughly 600 staff members spread across 42 countries.
David E. Marchant is a British-born US-based journalist. He is the editor and owner of OffshoreAlert, a news service and conference organizer that specializes in exposing financial crimes before they occur.
The Panama Papers are 11.5 million leaked documents that were published beginning on April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. The documents, some dating back to the 1970s, were created by, and taken from, former Panamanian offshore law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, and compiled with similar leaks into a searchable database.
Ramón Fonseca Mora is a Panamanian novelist, lawyer and co-founder of Mossack Fonseca, a former law firm based in Panama with more than 40 offices worldwide. He was minister-counselor of Juan Carlos Varela, and president of the Panameñista Party until he was dismissed in March 2016, due to the Brazilian Operation Car Wash. In 2016, Mossack Fonseca was raided by police on suspicion of money-laundering, bribery and corruption. Fonseca and his partner Jürgen Mossack were arrested and jailed on 10 February 2017. They were initially refused bail because the court saw a flight risk, but were released on 21 April 2017 after a judge ruled they had cooperated with the investigation and ordered them each to pay $500,000 in bail. Numerous lawsuits including serious allegations of collusion with despotic regimes, mafia, and global criminals are ongoing.
This article lists some of the reactions and responses from countries and other official bodies regarding the leak of legal documents related to offshore tax havens from the law firm Mossack Fonseca, called the Panama Papers.
In 2010, the United States implemented the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act; the law required financial firms around the world to report accounts held by US citizens to the Internal Revenue Service. The US on the other hand refused the Common Reporting Standard set up by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, alongside Vanuatu and Bahrain.
The Republic of Panama is one of the oldest and best-known tax havens in the Caribbean, as well as one of the most established in the region. Panama has had a reputation for tax avoidance since the early 20th century, and Panama has been cited repeatedly in recent years as a jurisdiction which does not cooperate with international tax transparency initiatives.
The Paradise Papers are a set of over 13.4 million confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investments that were leaked to the German reporters Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer, from the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. The newspaper shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and a network of more than 380 journalists. Some of the details were made public on 5 November 2017 and stories are still being released.
The Panama Papers are 11.5 million leaked documents that detail financial and attorney-client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. The documents, some dating back to the 1970s, were created by and taken from, Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, and were leaked in 2015 by an anonymous source.
The Panama Papers are 11.5 million leaked documents that detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. The documents, some dating back to the 1970s, were created by, and taken from, Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, and were leaked in 2015 by an anonymous source.
The Panama Papers are 11.5 million leaked documents that detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. The documents, some dating back to the 1970s, were created by, and taken from, Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, and were leaked in 2015 by an anonymous source.
The Panama Papers are 11.5 million leaked documents that detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. The files were uncovered and exposed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and other news organizations. The documents, some dating back to the 1970s, were created by, and taken from, Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, and were leaked in 2015 by an anonymous source.
The Pandora Papers are 11.9 million leaked documents with 2.9 terabytes of data that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published beginning on 3 October 2021. The leak exposed the secret offshore accounts of 35 world leaders, including current and former presidents, prime ministers, and heads of state as well as more than 100 billionaires, celebrities, and business leaders. The news organizations of the ICIJ described the document leak as their most expansive exposé of financial secrecy yet, containing documents, images, emails and spreadsheets from 14 financial service companies, in nations including Panama, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates. The size of the leak surpassed their previous release of the Panama Papers in 2016, which had 11.5 million confidential documents and 2.6 terabytes of data. The ICIJ said it is not identifying its source for the documents.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Marc Harris: Tax Haven Whiz Or Rogue Banker?" Businessweek Archives at Bloomberg Business. Originally published 31 May 1998. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
- 1 2 3 "Expeller financier denied bond in money laundering case" Associated Press, Boca Raton News , 14 June 2003, p. 23. Google news. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
- 1 2 Harris v. Marchant, Final Judgement, United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida Miami Division. 10 August 1999. Quatloos! Retrieved 8 April 2015. Archived here.
- ↑ marc-harris.com Internet Archive, 8 February 2003. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
- ↑ www.escapeartist.com Internet Archive, 8 June 2003. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
- 1 2 "Revolutionary Guru of Greed" Evidence Files. CNBC, La Prensa, 9 February 2009. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
- ↑ EXHIBIT: Marc Harris, Anatomy of an Offshore Service Provider Gone Bad. Quatloos! 23 April 2006. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
- ↑ Marc Harris Charged With Money Laundering In United States Glen Shapiro, Tax-News, 13 June 2003. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
- ↑ PRESS RELEASE. U.S. Department of Justice, Marcos Daniel Jiménez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, 24 November 2003. Internet Archive. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
- ↑ "Marc Harris Faces 17 Year Jail Sentence" Glen Shapiro, Tax-News, 2 June 2004. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
- ↑ Marc Harris released from prison, La Prensa 26 September 2016
- ↑ https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/american-kills-two-mining-protestors-in-chame-1
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