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Secrecy World: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite

Jake Bernstein (Goodreads Author)

3.83 · Rating details · 797 ratings · 99 reviews

A two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist takes us inside the world revealed by the Panama Papers, a landscape of illicit money, political corruption, and fraud on a global scale.

A hidden circulatory system flows beneath the surface of global finance, carrying trillions of dollars from drug trafficking, tax evasion, bribery, and other illegal enterprises. This network ...more

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Hardcover, 352 pages

Published November 21st 2017 by Henry Holt and Co. (first published 2017)

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Oct 19, 2017 David rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-econbiz

At this writing, a lot of people are seemingly terrified of people dressed as clowns, yet are completely comfortable with people dressed as lawyers or accountants. I put it to you that this is unreasonable because, as far as I know, no clown has ever looted a pension fund for widows and orphans of coal miners (Kindle location 909), nor has any member of the red-nose-and-floppy-shoes crowd ever caused the suicide of a small businessman by committing insurance fraud (location 3769). These tragedie ...more

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May 08, 2018 Brian rated it liked it

(3.5) Mostly a recap of the most prominent clients of Mossack Fonseca

When the book got closest to narrative was where it was best: the contact with John Doe, internal tension within the ICIJ, how to coordinate hundreds of journalists from around the world, make the data available and searchable for all of them, and still keep the story under wraps. It's amazing they did as well as they did. (And fortunate that Wikileaks didn't get ahold of the data sooner, though John Doe apparently reached out ...more

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Nov 23, 2017 Eileen rated it it was amazing

This is a must read book. It reads like a suspense novel. If you want to learn how not to pay your taxes, this is a book for you. It seems that the rich from all over the world are doing this. Whether it's thru shell companies or art work. As one person put it, he was more worried about his wife finding out then the tax man. This book is a great read.
...more

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Mar 11, 2018 Cheryl rated it liked it

I am aware that money laundering goes on. When I think of this I instantly do think of Panama as the first place followed by the Caribbean next. Yet, I haven't thought to much about "business laundering". There is a huge "secret" network of corporations that manage the purchasing, selling, paperwork, logistics, etc. If you want to chance the IRS not knowing your true financial worth then you might go seeking one of these corporations.

Mr. Bernstein takes readers into the dark underbelly of this ...more

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Nov 20, 2019 Kevin Doyle rated it it was amazing

Shelves: highly-recommended-non-fiction

An extraordinary book. I am under few enough illusions about how capitalism has pillaged the planet and brought it to edge of ruin, BUT that said this book opens up the reader to organised financial corruption at a level and scale that is truly staggering. The book is very well structured and comprehensive, as well as being easy to read. I put it aside a few times just to have a break from the excesses of greed depicted in its pages. But it puts much in perspective, not least the huge and growin ...more

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Nov 23, 2017 Joe Tauzer rated it it was amazing

https://www.icij.org
ICIJ is the organization we have to thank for compiling most of the data from the hacks. They have a great website which I recommend you look in to and try your alma mater in the search bar. I found my former college along with many of the colorful characters in this book, in the ranks entities who own offshore accounts. ...more

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Dec 06, 2017 Liz rated it it was amazing

This would be an interesting book if it were fiction but it is a powerful book because it is fact. This is a meticulously researched and well-written story of the complexities of the secret financial economy that exists for the rich, powerful and corrupt. It was an eye opener for me. ... a sobering view of how the world really works.

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Mar 21, 2019 Daniel rated it it was amazing

This is the triumphant conclusion to Obermayer’s The Panama Paper’s published in 2016. Then, Obermayer brought the files to ICIJ, or the International Consortium of Investigarice Journalists. The lawyers came up with stories which they mainstream media companies refused to publish at first. Journalists going through the leaked data often with little support from their editors, sometimes supporting themselves by doing odd jobs. Other journalists suffer suppression and one Maltese journalist Carua This is the triumphant conclusion to Obermayer’s The Panama Paper’s published in 2016. Then, Obermayer brought the files to ICIJ, or the International Consortium of Investigarice Journalists. The lawyers came up with stories which they mainstream media companies refused to publish at first. Journalists going through the leaked data often with little support from their editors, sometimes supporting themselves by doing odd jobs. Other journalists suffer suppression and one Maltese journalist Caruaba Galizia even died in a car bomb...

In this book, Bernstein detailed the results of the investigation. Mossack Fonseca was the pioneer of the Secrecy World, helping individuals and companies open shell companies. They provide the lawyers and even their staff as nominal directors, some being in charge over 1000 companies! All these are to allow criminal money laundering, bribery and tax avoidance. Eventually, the leak proved to be its downfall, as the dedicated international team of investigative lawyers ploughed through more than 1 terabyte of data to piece together the stories.

The book detailed the Secrecy World’s network of countries such as Panama, British Virgin Islands, States of Delaware and Nevada, Switzerland and Luxembourg had bank secrecy laws to protect the privacy of bank customers. HSBC was singled out as the most important bank with dealings all over the world to launder money. It was fined 1.9 billion dollars. Other banks were soon also under scrutiny and fined billions, and tax haven reforms had started. The prime minister of Iceland lost his job. German citizens volunteered to pay back owed taxes to their government. ICIJ received numerous prizes including a Pulitzer for all the hard work that the journalists put in.

Tax laws are stricter now, but according to Bernstein, money has just been transferred to other counties not in the radar, such as Singapore and States such as Delaware and Nevada. However the climate has certainly changed, as evidence by the requirement of banks in Singapore for us to declare that we are not an ‘American person’ for the purpose of tax reporting.

A solid 5 stars! All the hard work by the dedicated journalists is very important to society indeed. Thank you. ...more

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Nov 18, 2020 Anurag Ram Chandran rated it really liked it · review of another edition

We all know about the uber rich and powerful exploiting global systems to get richer and avoid their tax responsibilities, but wow was it eye opening to see the true extent to which these crooks go to keep their wealth hidden. I've always wanted to read and understand the Panama Papers expose, and when I finally did, it did not disappoint at all. Investigative journalists should be protected at all costs - this is a must read! ...more

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Mar 05, 2020 Matt Forbeck rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Sharp Reporting

A great elucidation of the secret world of offshore accounts and money laundering. Helps to explain the kleptocracy we find ourselves living in today.

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Sep 28, 2019 W. Whalin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Fascinating Storytelling

I selected this audiobook randomly and knew nothing about the author or the world of secret money. How do the wealthy shield their money and income from taxes with off shore accounts? How does the mafia and drug lords hide their resources? How did this secret world get started in the first place? These questions and much more are answered in SECRECY WORLD by Pulitzer prize winning journalist Jake Bernstein.

Enter the world of secret money in this book and Bernstein has do ...more

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Feb 06, 2018 Ginger Griffin rated it really liked it

Welcome to the Mos Eisley Cantina of money. Drug lords, arms traffickers, mobsters, kleptocrats, money launderers, generic billionaires, and creeps who steal from funds set up for orphans -- all enjoy anonymity (and evade taxes) in the world of off-shore shell companies. Some light was thrown on this underworld when the Panama Papers were released. But the dodges continue (and involve not just billions, but trillions, of dollars). Plenty of politicians, both left and right, take part in the big- ...more

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Nov 21, 2017 Kathy rated it it was amazing

This is important work as it exposes something we all need to know about and provides the evidence that may lead to substantial change. That is my hope. Better read than listened to.

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Jan 15, 2020 Riley Haas rated it liked it

I think tax avoidance/evasion is the second most important issue of our time. So I wanted to be able to recommend this book highly. Alas, I can't unequivocally recommend it, though I would say it's worth reading if you are unaware, as I am, of a better book on the subject. (I'm sure it's out there, I just don't know about it. But if you do, please let me know.)
I want to get the bad stuff out of the way.
First, there's the title: you gotta think somebody involved in the publication of this book co I think tax avoidance/evasion is the second most important issue of our time. So I wanted to be able to recommend this book highly. Alas, I can't unequivocally recommend it, though I would say it's worth reading if you are unaware, as I am, of a better book on the subject. (I'm sure it's out there, I just don't know about it. But if you do, please let me know.)
I want to get the bad stuff out of the way.
First, there's the title: you gotta think somebody involved in the publication of this book could have come up with something better than "secrecy world". Whether as the title or in the text of the book, the phrase doesn't really capture for me what continues to go on. It's money laundering and tax "avoidance", not just keeping secrets. But this is just nitpicking.
The real problem is what the book covers: the first half of it (or so) mostly covers Mossack Fonseca, an incorporation law firm in Panama which is the source of the "Panama Papers". It's not really about the world of offshore banking at large. But even while mostly tackling just this one company and its subsidiaries, there is both too much and not enough information. There are numerous instances of tax avoidance and some instances of laundering and fraud. But there are just endless examples, none of which are really given the detail they deserve. (The two stories from this book that became major parts of The Laundromat barely get any time in this book.) Bernstein would be better off covering fewer of the stories in more detail, I think.
Also, the descriptions of the schemes could really benefit from visuals. Because Bernstein has been surrounded by this stuff for years, he assumes a similar knowledge and interest on the writer. But money laundering is inherently confusing (that's the point) and having diagrams or other visual aids to show at least examples of schemes would be helpful. (Though Bernstein does his best to explain them.)
Then the book shifts gears into an explanation of how the journalists broke the story. It's much like the documentary The Panama Papers which is more about the journalists than the story. (Bernstein might well have appeared in that movie, since many of the people in that film are in this book.) I think he needed to pick an angle: either this is a mystery about journalists uncovering evidence of tax avoidance and money laundering, or it's a survey of the world of offshore banking. I don't think I the two parts work well together, though I think parts of both of them work well, especially the chapter on the actual publication, which is riveting.
Okay, so, on to the good:
There is a lot of detail here, certainly far more than in the movies I've seen. It is the most comprehensive survey of the offshore banking world I've come across and, in that sense, it's a must read. If you want know why governments always run deficits, at least part of the explanation comes from the rich and corporations not only not paying their fair share, but paying far less than that (sometimes basically nothing). If a person at the poverty line doesn't pay their taxes, the government is out a little bit of money. The impact is far bigger when it's a business or one of the richest people in the country.
Also, at times the writing is really compelling, especially around the reveal of the documents. It took me a while to get used to Bernstein's style, and he's not my favourite writer by any means, but he does a good job building tension at the climax even though I knew what was coming.
But I have now watched two films - a documentary and a black docucomedy - and read a book about the release of the Panama Papers and I still feel like I have not encountered the definitive account, which is frustrating. Maybe there's just too much information and the better approach to this story would be to tell the stories of a few companies or people and then show how it happens all the time (and still happens). ...more

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Jan 25, 2020 Jeff Lacy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

When one reads a book like SECRECY WORLD (aka LAUNDROMAT), one hopes for an engaging and enlightening, edifying read. One will not be disappointed with this account of the corporate formation business in tax havens, especially by a firm known as MOSSFOM in Panama. This firm created corporate structures to insure secrecy for individuals to evade taxes, launder money, hide wealth from spouses in the event of divorce, hide wealth nefariously obtained from their governments, hedge funds, businesses, ...more

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Jan 06, 2020 Laura Tolomei rated it it was amazing

Concise, fast-paced, the Secrecy World reads like a Grisham bestseller, but sadly none of it is fiction.

I'm not sure what makes me angrier: discovering the length the rich will go to hide their wealth or knowing that there's no stopping them despite all the investigations. Either way, this book airs all the dirty laundry that the extremely wealthy have tried to conceal in the most crooked schemes possible over the past 35 years.

Tax evasion, tax avoidance, tax denial, tax obliteration: you name i ...more

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Oct 20, 2019 Realini rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The Laundromat, based on the book by Jake Bernstein
Nine out of 10

This comedy drama – listed only as drama for some obscure reason, contrary to the tone, the shades adopted by Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas right from the opening scenes, surely with the director, the brilliant Steven Soderbegh determined to expose the financial scandal, but also reveal the preposterous, grotesque dimensions of the money market arrangements, which are still in place in so many states and territories (such as Del The Laundromat, based on the book by Jake Bernstein
Nine out of 10

This comedy drama – listed only as drama for some obscure reason, contrary to the tone, the shades adopted by Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas right from the opening scenes, surely with the director, the brilliant Steven Soderbegh determined to expose the financial scandal, but also reveal the preposterous, grotesque dimensions of the money market arrangements, which are still in place in so many states and territories (such as Delaware, where we are told that the director has registered five companies and the writer one) – would be touching a raw nerve in so many countries, where corruption is rampant and rulers, dictators and Trump like clowns park their money outside threatening jurisdictions.

In our land, the former gangster ruler has been jailed a few months ago, but only after he had plundered, abused the system, finances, judicial norms and may have sent money to Nevis, a fiscal paradise at the center of the plot of The Laundromat, where so many companies and shady thugs have established shell aka empty concoctions where registered, without any activity, employees or sense, other than to protect the ‘privacy’ of the owners, that used these unscrupulous territories and tiny states – albeit Nevada, Delaware, Jersey, Luxembourg are not in the Caribbean and the Irish lax tax norms have encouraged Apple, among others, to use the country in order to pay minimal dues, if anything of what should be given to tax authorities in more demanding venues – to Launder money…hence the title of this film.
To begin with, Gary Oldman aka Jürgen Mossack and Antonio Banderas aka Ramon Fonseca, explain with alacrity – and perhaps with too much enthusiasm for the rocambolesque, extravagant side of those dubious, ultimately vicious in fact personages – the significance of money, how we used to trade bananas for cows and they have some props in the form of primitive humans to exemplify the idea, and what the disadvantages were, in that bananas would ripe and then get spoiled and the cows…well, they could run away.

Therefore the need for something more solid, unperishable, to be traded with better effect, more diligently, and we arrive in this day and age, to the scandal known as The Panama Papers, following which the prime minister of Iceland, reputedly a Nordic, clean country – as a side note, the famous Danish have a bank, Danske, involved in a huge operation that looks pretty much like the plot of this film –has resigned, together with other world and business leaders and which we follow with great interest, especially from the moment when the glorious Meryl Streep enters the frame, as Ellen Martin, the woman who becomes a widow when the vacation she is on takes a turn for the horrid and the insurance company that should have provided adequate reparations proves to be involved in a massive fraud.

As the retired woman follows the money, she comes across Malchus Irvin Boncamper aka Jeffrey Wright, in the unlikely setting of Nevis, where she is looking for the address of this re-insurance company, which is actually hiding one of the many frauds masquerading as legitimate businesses, for which this bigamous man serves as cover, between his games of solitaire, and she happens to ask exactly the right person, only Malchus declines to admit he is the one to answer questions and pretends to be unacquainted with Boncamper, only to be arrested in Miami, in front of his second wife, who wants to kick him as soon as she finds out he has another spouse, in Nevis.
The segment involving Charles, Astrid, Simone and Miranda feels like a small disappointment in what is otherwise a wonderful entertainment, because it is much more soap opera – granted, this was a real scandal, but it plays like one of the South American telenovelas that were so popular in our parts and elsewhere – notwithstanding the fact that it does expose the abhorrence of those transactions, how even within a family, one member could cheat the others out of promised riches, in this particular case, companies worth in excess of $ 20 million, which are emptied and then valued at only 34 or 100 dollars.

The China chapter makes for some gruesome viewing, no jocularity here, as it should be for we are talking about a vicious tyranny, and the personage Bo Xilai is as real as can be, seen as a potential competitor for the present dictator, in charge for life (!), and thus eliminated for what was surely serious, flaunting, ghastly corruption, but persecuted more as a political symbol- do not rise against the emperor, because the result will be devastating for the family and all those near, we see how they take organs – heart, kidneys, cornea – and not from a corpse, but from…a living human being!
Free Hong Kong would be the message, but also pay attention there, for if these bastards catch you, there is no limit to what they would do to you.

When Ellen Martin first approaches a media outlet with the information she has gathered, the story of over twenty fatalities on a vacation boat, on a lake, not the high seas, and the fraud that underlines the insurance and re-insurance of the companies involved, they are not overexcited, on the contrary, it seems to them as such an exotic, complicated narrative, with little or no impact locally – the journalist even says that this looks like a foreign based shindig…she did not use the last word though) and when they reach the location…Panama, the already diminishing interest appears to vanish.

Nonetheless, the big scandal eventually hits the news and it makes the headlines worldwide, provoking aforementioned resignations and disgrace, and the couple of extremely wealthy comics, Mossack and Fonseca – both in possession of some resplendent, best houses in the world type – panic and see that they have to close down many of the multitude of offices they had all over the world, following the hacking of their system and the publication of the incredible list of clients, some of them still enjoying ill gained riches to this day…
...more

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Oct 03, 2020 McGrouchpants. McGrouchpants! rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Helpful. Apparently the Masons are just a chatty club, the Eating Clubs of Princeton or what-not (from Slacker: "Let's put Squeaky Fromme on the one-dollar bill ... "). Like Davos, Skull & Bones, Trilateralism/Bilderbergers, you wouldn't be there to begin with, 'kay? Leave your message at the door. Put it in the drop box. We'll get right round to it! Thanks. :) ;) #yeah ...more

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Dec 25, 2020 Alexander Douglas rated it liked it · review of another edition

In this thriller, the global villains (tax-cheats/corrupt people or companies) are set against the story heroes (journalists/tax authorities). I found the tactics and methods to be the most interesting aspects of the story. While there is something thrilling reading how money is laundered and taxes are evaded, it also brings a visceral reaction when one understands the global implications of this behavior - where institutions are undermined, journalists are intimidated, and injustice reigns.

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Mar 29, 2020 Benny rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: finance-and-economics

Part one of this book recounts the rise of the offshore finance industry. From Panama to BVI to Luxembourg to Switzerland, offshore companies are setup to conceal the ultimate beneficial owners, who are surreptitiously controlling these companies through a secret power of attorney with various law firms, who also act as directors to these companies. With identities obfuscated, these structures can be abused by people who would like their transactions to remain secretive for nefarious reasons.

The ...more

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Apr 03, 2018 Ben! rated it it was amazing

Great book, weird read. It was fascinating yet utterly non engrossing. Took it with me to the hospital for Mackenzie's birth. ...more

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Dec 04, 2017 Melissa Bosque rated it it was amazing

Secrecy World reads like a fast-paced thriller with a deeply reported and intricately woven narrative. For anyone curious about this global gilded age we've arrived in and how we got here, the Secrecy World is your road map and Bernstein lays it all out. From the board rooms of Panama to the secret shell companies in the British Virgin Islands and beyond, the reader gets a crash course in how everyone from the Queen of England to multinational corporations avoid paying taxes and hide their cash. ...more

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Apr 10, 2020 Bernardo L rated it it was amazing

This book gives very good insight into the Panama papers situation.
It has so much information about so many different cases it might be difficult to retain it all, but I read it and really want to do it more times
For everyone that has the slightest interest in this subject this book is an absolute must read. If you just want to understand how tax evasian/avoidance happens in this world and how money travels the globe unrevealed, this is the book to read.
Hope the reiew helps,
BL

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Jan 07, 2018 David Akeroyd rated it it was ok

Shelves: crime

This is an important and interesting topic but the book doesn't do a great job getting that across most of the time. I don't think it is particularly well-written or that it does a very good job at getting beyond the huge barrage of numbers and account names to really tell you the stories. ...more

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Mar 28, 2018 Alexander Bell rated it liked it

Secrecy World is a book based on the revelations of The Panama Papers. It was only reasonable to expect someone to write a book that collated many of the stories that were featured in the newspapers at the time. What you might think you’d get in this book is a cohesive picture of what the Panama Papers had to tell us, but what you end up with is something less than that.

Journalists like an angle and Jake Bernstein has decided that his angle is going to be human interest. What this means is that Secrecy World is a book based on the revelations of The Panama Papers. It was only reasonable to expect someone to write a book that collated many of the stories that were featured in the newspapers at the time. What you might think you’d get in this book is a cohesive picture of what the Panama Papers had to tell us, but what you end up with is something less than that.

Journalists like an angle and Jake Bernstein has decided that his angle is going to be human interest. What this means is that he tells the story of Mossack Fonseca, the Panamanian law firm which had its files hacked. Frankly, I wasn’t much interested in this. Mossfon, as Bernstein abbreviates the firm’s name, is just one of many firms that incorporate shell companies in tax havens. I don’t need to know the detailed history of the company, nor of the hopes and fears of its principals and staff. What I want to know about is the mechanisms by which shell companies nestle inside each other like Russian dolls. Certainly, the book does detail quite a lot of this, but some diagrammes, maps or charts might have been useful here and you don’t get any.

Once you have read many pages dealing with Mossfon – which is the central theme of the book, rather than money-laundering and tax-evasion per se – the book then decides to tell a second non-essential human-interest story. This is the story of the ICIJ, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, of which Bernstein is a member, and how it broke the Panama Papers story. Once again, this to my mind is superfluous. I’m not that interested, any more than I’d want to read a detailed story about how a team of marketeers in an international corporation launched a new range of ready-meals. This is just people at work. The journalists have now become their own story.

The book is also written in a very standard sort of journalistic style, ie, there isn’t really any style. It’s a bit John Grisham. Much is made of Bernstein’s double Pulitzer Prize-winning credentials. I didn’t see much here that would merit these plaudits. This is all a bit of a pity, as Bernstein was very interesting and entertaining talking about his book on Fresh Air (available on podcast), but sadly, the actual book is considerably less interesting. If you want to know about murky goings-on, then Luke Harding’s Collusion or Misha Glenny’s McMafia, both of which I have read recently, are better written, more informative and better reads.

Ultimately, Secrecy World isn’t a bad book, but it’s not one that you have to read unless you mysteriously don’t already know anything at all about the Panama Papers.
...more

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Jul 13, 2019 Simon rated it liked it

I badly wanted to love this book. I wanted to toot my digital trumpet and type EAT THE RICH, fortified with paragraphs of evidence of the nefarious dealings of the super wealthy...

...and to be fair, this book does deliver enough reasons to lay out the silverware. While there is no SPECTRE-like conspiracy, we read of a large number of grifters who coalesced to form a somewhat rickety, yet often successful, world of secrecy. Politicians in havens such as the British Virgin Islands, Niue, Delaware I badly wanted to love this book. I wanted to toot my digital trumpet and type EAT THE RICH, fortified with paragraphs of evidence of the nefarious dealings of the super wealthy...

...and to be fair, this book does deliver enough reasons to lay out the silverware. While there is no SPECTRE-like conspiracy, we read of a large number of grifters who coalesced to form a somewhat rickety, yet often successful, world of secrecy. Politicians in havens such as the British Virgin Islands, Niue, Delaware and Switzerland deliberately wrote laws with limited formation and disclosure obligations for companies. Other laws permitted bearer shares and hid the ownership of bank accounts. Lawyers identified such havens used them to the advantage of their clients. Bankers asked few questions as to the provenance of funds and valued obfuscation over transparency. Other grifters, including auctioneers of fine arts, dip in and out of narrative as they exploit advantages in information.

Unexpectedly, the inner workings felt less complicated than I expected. While you could argue their intention, the laws in the relevant havens are reasonably brazen in their effect. The legal firms churned out companies with pre-signed forms without any real intellectual input. Financiers laundered money with mirrored buy and sell trades that made little sense in isolation. Stories of incompetence abound, including an over sleeping employee tanking a bank's stocks, a lawyer who collected fees but failed to go through with renewing company registrations, and firms repeatedly frantically backdating documents to present a legitimate face to transactions.

Unfortunately, it is the multitude of stories that is the problem. A large number of threads line each chapter. There are aimply too many names, too many deals, too many ways the money was hidden for me to keep track. There are stories from those chasing the money (for both business and legal enforcement reasons). A large portion of the book is devoted to the collection of journalists trying to understand the information and collaborating on publishing it. Worst of all, there was no one single leak, and keeping track of who provided what ended up defeating me.

This book could have actually done with more pages, and a firmer grip on the narrative. At the risk of obscuring the global nature of the Panama Papers, it would have probably been worthwhile to focus on a smaller number of parties and develop the personalities involved. The author was actually good at humanising a number of characters but there were just too many.

This is a good book. But I wanted it to be great. 3 stars for spurning my love ...more

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Jun 23, 2018 Mike rated it really liked it

Shelves: history, business

_The Panama Papers_ focuses on the treasure trove of documents from Mossack Fonseca, a major player in the secrecy world. One where money can buy you obfuscation in order to hide your profits from tax collectors (and in many cases former spouses). The data dump opens up that world, giving it form. It also demonstrates the data journalist as a person that can unlock that which people in power seek to hide.

From the data, the author has tied together what has been found and how a multitude of journ _The Panama Papers_ focuses on the treasure trove of documents from Mossack Fonseca, a major player in the secrecy world. One where money can buy you obfuscation in order to hide your profits from tax collectors (and in many cases former spouses). The data dump opens up that world, giving it form. It also demonstrates the data journalist as a person that can unlock that which people in power seek to hide.

From the data, the author has tied together what has been found and how a multitude of journalists from around the world actually brought it to light. He demonstrates where Mossack Fonseca came from, how it operated, which countries it did the most work in and the types of people that sought their services. While mainly legal on the surface, the shell companies they created and managed were also used to hide a lot of money.

I had heard previously of the Geneva freeport, but didn't realize its scope. Or that huge art collections are housed within, never seen by the people who buy them. Just stored so they can be sold to someone else for a higher price.

For a company that made huge profits in their business, one where secrecy was paramount, they really suck at data protection. This isn't a few gigs of email. It is terrabytes of email, signed documents, sales and transfers. Essentially everything in electronic form for at least a decade. The provider of the data is never identified, but claims to not be aligned with any country. Just someone who decided that the rich had gotten away with hiding their money so as to not be taxed.

The last few chapters are telling. As the stories were written and published, a great many people came away embarrassed in the least and ruined at the worst. Just ask the former leader of Iceland. There are a great many ties to Russia and the current US president. In the data there are entities controlled by Putin and his inner circle (such as a cellist), so embarrassing that Putin used his state media to get ahead of the stories. Lots of propoganda and blaming the CIA, when it was really a disgruntled person and a bunch of journalists. The database is public and continues to be mined. Mossack Fonseca may have been destroyed by the leak, but their great many competitors are still out there with priceless data just waiting to be found.
...more

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Jan 13, 2019 lieberries rated it liked it

The Panama Papers revealed the worst fears of our descent into plutocracy, as not only do the gains from interest outpace that of labor, but the top 0.01% have an atrocious estimated tax evasion rate of 30%. “Smart money” hemorrhages from nation's’ potential tax bases to offshore tax havens with strict banking secrecy laws. Panama, BVI, Bahamas, Luxembourg, Switzerland… are tax loopholes masquerading as nations, turning a blind eye to the merchants of destruction: drug traffickers, arms dealers, ...more

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Jan 12, 2018 Bobby Thym rated it it was amazing

Maybe I've read Heart of Darkness too many times because I have always thought that we Americans don't really know what other Americans are doing in other countries. Then, we, in our innocence, are totally surprised when we encounter blowback from some "obscure" foreign entity. We get snippets from the press, but most of us are like Sisyphus simply rolling the rock of our daily lives up the hill.

So, the question emerges, "As an informed citizen, do you REALLY want to pull the curtain back to se ...more

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Nov 29, 2017 Priscilla rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is a detailed, in-depth investigative look at the former secretive world of off-shore banking, shell companies, and tax havens. This world appeals to and works for people and companies with enormous wealth who don't want to pay taxes, to those who don't want others to know about their money, and to those involved in all sorts of illegal activities. For the first two groups, there is nothing illegal about their motives and the process. However, because of the privacy and secrecy that used to ...more

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About Jake Bernstein

Jake Bernstein

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Pulitzer Prize-winner Jake Bernstein was a senior reporter on the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists team that broke the Panama Papers story. He has written for the Washington Post, Bloomberg, The Guardian, ProPublica, and Vice, among others, and has appeared on the BBC, NBC, CNN, PBS and This American Life. He is the coauthor of Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the Americ ...more

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“Around 6.8 million files came from Appleby, a Bermuda-based offshore legal service provider. Appleby and its data were different from Mossack Fonseca and the Panana Papers. Whereas the upstart Panamanians were entrepreneurial risk-takers, their files filled with garrulously compromising emails, Appleby was the establishment. The firm had been founded in 1898 by Major Reginald Woodfield Appleby, who later became a commander of the Order of the British Empire.” — 0 likes

“However, Putin's tilt toward Trump appeared to have been motivated by something deeper than a desire for revenge against Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration. Putin and Trump shared a similar zero-sum worldview and a penchant for operating in the shadows. Each man viewed the idea of a free press with contempt. They both believed that financial interests should be passed down to their children to create family dynasties ... Trump and Putin are both conversant with the secrecy world, practiced hands at using anonymous companies to wall off their activities and keep their business affairs secret. During the campaign, Trump reported that he had 378 individual Delaware companies, but the full extent of his business dealings remains hidden.” — 0 likes

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