And the deluge of details showing NZ is a tax haven has begun – where’s your messiah John Key now National voters?

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
105
12

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Oh. Dear.

Remember, John Key and the National Party scream they have not turned NZ into a Tax Haven.

Remember that when you read this…

  • A Mexican construction tycoon dubbed the ‘Duke of Influence’ joined a rush of foreign money into tax-free New Zealand trusts.
  • Juan Armando Hinojosa Cantu, who built his fortune from billions of dollars in Mexican government contracts, was investigated for lavish housing deals with Mexican political figures.
  • On July 1 last year, Cantu’s Miami lawyer said his client had “circa $US100 million” to put into three New Zealand trusts.
  • Maltese investors who had been turned away from nine banks in the Caribbean, Miami and Panama eventually found a home for their money in New Zealand trusts.
  • Demand for New Zealand trusts went into overdrive late last year with Mossack Fonseca staff in Panama urging New Zealand staff to “chase the money”.

…Where’s your messiah John Key now National Party voters? How can you now pretend to have any moral or ethical high ground when voting National? How can you pretend Key hasn’t built a Tax Haven? When do you accept he rules for the rich, not for you?

Surely an inflated property portfolio isn’t worth this shame is it?

And there is so much more to come. The special attention that John Doe has given John Key suggests this hack is personal...

Prime Minister John Key of New Zealand has been curiously quiet about his country’s role in enabling the financial fraud Mecca that is the Cook Islands.

Who would want vengeance on the Prime Minister of NZ with the skills to hack?

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

Vengeance is a dish served best about half way through the next election cycle.

John Key’s reputation is being damaged, and he’s damaging our credibility globally. This is now a real problem for National. NZers have a Flight of the Concords cultural cringe, in that they don’t have the self confidence to make a decision on their own so just follow the herd, but the second the external world notices us and says something, we all immediately nod our heads.

If the rest of the planet is now calling us a Tax Haven, the ovine nature of NZers collective political apathy violently counter-corrects and stampedes the other way.

Mass surveillance lies, dirty politics tricks and now the builder of tax havens – at some point Key’s continued support becomes a reflection on those who vote for him. If you are not angry by all of this, you are part of the problem.

We must have a full Royal Commission of Inquiry now!

 

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105 COMMENTS

  1. John Key will be gambling on this going straight over the heads of Average Joe Kiwi, and sadly, he could well bluff this all the way to the river, and have everyone folding as he goes.
    There is just so much stuff, this, the TPP, housing out of control, the OIO, and that’s just from this week’s news.
    It fair makes your head spin.

  2. Time to impeach Key!!!!!!

    “I am pleased that Mr McCready has shown that he’s equal-opportunity and not politically biased,” says Mr Mallard.

    Read more: http://www.newshub.co.nz/politics/who-is-graham-mccready-2013101717#ixzz47uqQ3vTD

    Martyn, can you arrange to have some lawyer or legal advocate like Graham McCready place a writ in court to sue Key for embezzlement please or grand larceny for using his position as Prime minister please.

    Goff Whitlam style please?

    Come on Governor General do your job??????

  3. Moses John Key will lead the 1%’s loot into the promised land of faraway New Zealand where it shall be safe forever from the greedy masses toiling to exist and their evil tax collecting governments! Moses John will not question you how you came by your loot for money and stacks of dosh have the odour of sanctity.HALLELUJAH!

    The Panama Papers: Oozing Slime

    The Panama Papers, a one-year investigation by over 100 reporters worldwide (The International Consortium of Investigative Journalism) of offshore money hiding/laundering/taxation avoidance, is a cause célèbre of underhandedness seldom, if ever, revealed to the world’s public. It is comparable to lifting a rotting log in the woods and finding an active nest of millipedes, red worms, and cockroaches scampering about to escape the bright sunlight. They can’t stand the sunlight because darkness is their life.

    The Panama Papers, containing info on thousands of shell companies set up to avoid taxes and hide assets for over four decades from 1977 to 2015, are all about millionaires and billionaires and the politically connected “sticking it to” average citizens of the world by hiding money from fellow countrymen’s taxation policies and/or theft of state funds and laundering money. It is outrageously heinous and deserving of criminal incrimination and/or tarring and feathering whilst run out of town on a rail. It also begs the question of how many more rich pillagers are out there.

    “As much as $21 trillion in global wealth is hidden behind largely-untraceable shell companies such as those exposed in the Panama Papers, according to watchdog group Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition,” (NBC News, April 6, 2016.). Twenty-one trillion is considerably larger than the entire U.S. economy. And, if it were taxed, which it is not, it would relieve many nation-states of big deficit spending for social welfare programs.

    Indeed, the Panama Papers is a clarion call for revolt against a neoliberal world economic order that favors (1) privatization of public assets, (2) deregulation of governmental influence, (3) free trade in secret, and (4) austerity measures for public welfare. This nonsense started in earnest in the 1980s with President Reagan and PM Thatcher, called Supply-side economics, which preached tax cuts for the wealthy that purportedly incentivizes job creation, thus trickling wealth down to the masses. Problem is, after more than 30 years, all of the wealth gushed upwards whilst wages trickled down. The exact reverse of how it was sold to the American public.

    Frankly, the Average Joe has been getting shafted, hosed, bamboozled for decades. Now, the results are exposed in full living color. Billions if not trillions of stolen money and hidden assets removed from the public domain to enrich a few already rich people. This is as low as lowliness gets; it’s below scum.

    So, how does neoliberalism, or today’s socio-conomic order, dovetail into the Panama Papers scandal?

    Neoliberalism is the legal equivalent of the Panama Papers.

    It robs the public legally by changing regulations, trade policy, and taxation to enrich the wealthy class at the expense of the middle/lower. For example, America’s “15% carried-interest” taxation rate available to people like Mitt Romney but not available to his gardener. This is joylessly known as “reverse Robin Hood economics,” or taking from the poor to enrich the rich

    http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/04/08/the-panama-papers-oozing-slime/

  5. Martyn, the amount of friends, business buddies etc that he has betrayed, thrown under a bus must run into hundreds, its surprising this hasn’t happened earlier in his career. He deserves his fall from grace, thoroughly awful man that he is.

    • mates with the U$K’s Dodgy Dave who has also personally benefited from a panama tax set up by his dodgy dad! 🙁 Pretty evident the poor get locked up for financial dodging the rich just get richer as their dodging is too big to challenge!

  8. Some comments from The Standard on the same subject:

    Tricledrown
    7 May 2016

    While Malcolm Turnbull adds 1,000 extra investigators to Australia’s IRD to investigate corporate corruption because of the panama papers.
    Dodgy john sacks 1,500 IRD staff no plans to investigate corporate tax dodging criminals.

    Macro 5
    6 May 2016
    But wait! There’s More!

    And overseeing all this underhand hiding of mostly ill-gotten gains – none other than Shonkey our erstwhile bankster (making sure it all remains secret and under cover – until!!! ooooops) and his highly ethical mate Ken.

    Keith 11
    6 May 2016
    After the past 7 and a half years this is not surprising. Our country was once ethical and straight up. Thanks to the sleeze that is the National Party and their accommodation of the wealthy that Key and others are a part of, we not only look like dodgy corrupt scum, we are!

    This is the trouble electing rich bastards to government, they didn’t get rich being ethical or moral or honest! They are a disease.

    AmaKiwi
    7 May 2016
    @ Pat

    I can easily name a dozen businessmen who have done very shady things and received knighthoods.

    Now you name ONE white collar crime fighter who has received an honor of any kind. Name just one.

    Successive governments have made sure we don’t have competent, qualified, well-paid, properly resourced prosecutors to catch white collar criminals.

    No investigators = no criminals.

    travellerev
    7 May 2016

    “Tax avoidance” is only the tip of the iceberg. I didn’t really realize how much bigger the problem is.

    Really what wealth managers do extends much more generally to law avoidance.(Giving the finger to foreign jurisdictions to get financial gain) And that creates problems of legitimacy for whole governments who allow this to happen. It’s bad enough that people think they are getting shafted because the rich aren’t paying their fair share of taxes: it’s quite another thing when you say there is one law for the rich and one for everyone else . . . That is the sort of thing that can potentially topple governments as in Iceland and lead to crises in politics.” John Christensen, Associate Professor of Copenhagen Business School

    Listen to the entire interview

  9. Corruption personified. It’s a pity we don’t have impeachment, like the US did with Richard Nixon.

      • Hi Winnie … I’m pretty sure it’s an offence to mislead Parliament, which FJK has done many times, in fact too many times to remember!

        Speaker Carter in all his biased glory, is keeping the FJK show alive in Parliament. So if FJK goes down, then so must he, because he’s definitely part of the grubby corrupt game!

        Committing crimes against the state (the people), (treason being one), which FJK and NatzKEY have done on numerous occasions, is breaking the law!

        The question is, why is NatzKEY still there, when another government would have been dismissed and replaced long before now?

  10. Nothing to hide, nothing to fear.

    One rule for the rich, one rule for the poor.

    Social engineering at its finest.

  11. Doubt there will be a Commission of Enquiry under this Government, if there is it will be a sham/whitewash like the Winebox Enquiry.

    Unfortunately corruption is rife in NZ and most of the Judiciary in NZ are morally corrupt also.

    Nothings changed in NZ since the signing of the TOW in 1840-Fact.

  12. Nothing to hide, nothing to fear.

    One rule for the rich, one rule for the poor.

    Social engineering at its finest.

  13. Considering how voters supported Key in the wake of Dirty Politics, we could see a bump in the polls for Key from this.

    It’s time to call it a day on capitalism. We know the system is broken and unfixable. Blaming immigrants and ethnic minorities is perpetuating the suffering. Bring back Marx. Burn it all to the ground.

    • If the next political poll shows National gaining, that will prove beyond any doubt what most of us know already – that the polls are the plaything of the political right and totally rigged.

    • That’s because Iceland doesn’t have a National Party-sycophancy media system like we have.
      Icelanders weren’t prepared to tolerate a trougher PM, their media picked up on that, as they should, and ran with it.
      Whilst in New Zealanders John Key only has to deny everything and the media just shrug and say “oh well, that’s that then” and move on to the next story.
      National could set up concentration camps for their political opponents and the MSM would say it was justified.

      • The GCSB is to keep track of dissent and prevent popular revolution being organised.

        Nothing to do with terrorism.

        Panama papers expose criminality and John Key rabbits on about cyber security and doshes out taxpayer dollar to create a smoke screen.

        We must be thankful to hackers /whistle blowers, not attack them.

  16. Dodgy John has not only made NZ a tax haven he has set up tax havens in the pacific as well. Remember John key made Ireland a tax haven during his Merrill Lynch days, that’s what this currency trader does, it’s part of his job, that he never left when he entered NZ politics or when he became PM. If this was a PM from another party that had of done this, that PM would have been chucked out, no question about that, so why is John key still here lying his rotten, criminally minded head off? Issue a vote of no confidence, John key needs to go and he needs to go now. John key should resign.

  17. Lightening keeps on striking all around this man does it not? Thing is its getting harder and harder to trot out the old “Nothing here to see”, “its all a big coincidence”, “its the Labour Party’s fault”, “this is just normal business practices”, etc etc, etc.

    Even more ironic is their reliance on polls and focus groups to govern means Key is one big TB infected possum in the headlights, he has no come back lines because Farrar can’t work fast enough.

    Add to that the analysis of the NZ aspect to the Panama Papers in the Australian Financial Review yesterday was really embarrassing and rest of us non National voters getting dragged down to the gutter with Key is not impressing me one bit.

    So how rotten is this business opportunity called the National Party?

  18. New Zealanders are apathetic by comparison to Icelandic folk.
    They are captured by neoliberalism.

    • @ Paul … plus a pathetic, weak NatzKEY dominated, influenced msm doesn’t help NZ either!

      Some msm journalist should be doing their job, acting as the proxy of the people, scrutinizing FJK (as well as his lawyer Ken Whitney) right now, after these recent revelations singled out “honest” John, PM of NZ as being involved in possible suspect activities.

      Interesting point is, at this stage so far FJK is the only government leader being identified and mentioned in all this murky muck!

    • Not quite, the first distraction was a depth charge release about 36 hours ago of some beneficiary-bashing fraud statistics.

      It didn’t make the usual splash for some reason. The Nats well oiled propoganda machine is starting to creak.

      • I missed that one Richard. Oh well, I guess it can be kept up msm’s sleeve to be released after the Budget and when FJK is under attack from the Panama Papers.

        No doubt the spinners will be in overdrive preparing some rubbish to throw at us, when the pressure goes on NatzKEY, to help dear leader get through this issue!

  20. ‘We must have a full Royal Commission of Inquiry now!’

    The system is rotten to the core (has been for decades), and there is too much at stake for the truth to be officially exposed, so any inquiry would amount to a cover-up.

    ‘Described as a whistleblower, the source of the Panama Papers singles out New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key saying; “Prime Minister John Key of New Zealand has been curiously quiet about his country’s role in enabling the financial fraud Mecca that is the Cook Islands.” ….

    The Panama Papers provide a compelling answer to these questions: massive, pervasive corruption. And it’s not a coincidence that the answer comes from a law firm. More than just a cog in the machine of “wealth management,” Mossack Fonseca used its influence to write and bend laws worldwide to favour the interests of criminals over a period of decades…….

    That being said, I have watched as one after another, whistleblowers and activists in the United States and Europe have had their lives destroyed by the circumstances they find themselves in after shining a light on obvious wrongdoing…….

    Hopelessly backward and inefficient courts have failed. Judges have too often acquiesced to the arguments of the rich, whose lawyers—and not just Mossack Fonseca—are well trained in honouring the letter of the law, while simultaneously doing everything in their power to desecrate its spirit…….

    The collective impact of these failures has been a complete erosion of ethical standards, ultimately leading to a novel system we still call Capitalism, but which is tantamount to economic slavery. In this system—our system—the slaves are unaware both of their status and of their masters, who exist in a world apart where the intangible shackles are carefully hidden amongst reams of unreachable legalese……

    Historians can easily recount how issues involving taxation and imbalances of power have led to revolutions in ages past. Then, military might was necessary to subjugate peoples, whereas now, curtailing information access is just as effective or more so, since the act is often invisible….

    http://www.interest.co.nz/news/81460/panama-papers-whistleblower-issues-statement-hits-out-nz-prime-minister-john-key-says

  22. When does this house of cards fall? The “john Doe” statement says it all …

    “Source known only as John Doe says income inequality “one of the defining issues of our time” and calls on governments to address it.”

    https://panamapapers.icij.org/20160506-john-doe-statement.html

    One line picked not quite randomly ..”The collective impact of these failures has been a complete erosion of ethical standards, ultimately leading to a novel system we still call Capitalism, but which is tantamount to economic slavery.”

    So much more in 1800 words … essential reading.

  23. The laws that were introduced to allow foreign trusts to be set up in NZ were introduced over thirty years ago under a Labour government, were not repealed by Labour when it was last in power and are tax neutral to the NZ taxpayers.
    Bomber you should focus on issues that rip the NZ taxpayer off, like fathers who don’t pay child support thereby disadvantaging the mother of the child and ensuring that the rest of society has to pick up the tab.

    • And this. From IRD.

      “In summary, the Act introduces two new categories of PIE: “foreign investment zero-rate PIEs” and “foreign investment variable-rate PIEs”.

      Zero rate is zero tax Stephen.

      Bill passed 1st April 2012. Instigated by John Key.

      This happened by Key, under his government. Not Labour.

      Stop lying. We’re not stupid.

      • Thanks for posting this information , Lara.

        It’s times like these that National supporters will be spinning a web of lies to cover their leader’s arse, and to confuse matters.

        To Stephen – you should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself!!

    • Can someone confirm that the foreign trust under Labour faced a Tax Rate of 28% and that John Key’s government in 2010 changed the law to make them taxed at 0% – making them a Tax haven. This has been widely reported.

    • Stephen – there is nothing from stopping you from taking up these issues if they are so important.

      Bomber – you carry on as you are – great job.

      • Yep. Teflon is flying off in rather large chunks. How long before someone else in the Natzional Party decides enoughs enough? Cos the brand in damaged, ain’t no doubt about that.

  25. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse with National just taking the piss out of New Zealand and its voters….

    http://livenews.co.nz/2016/05/06/police-minister-to-attend-london-anti-corruption-summit/

    Police Minister, Judith Collins will represent the Prime Minister at the London Anti-Corruption Summit being hosted by UK Prime Minister David Cameron on 12 May 2016.

    The Summit will promote the importance of exposing corruption, punishing those responsible and supporting those who have suffered, and driving out the culture of corruption, where it exists.

    “The Summit is an opportunity to promote New Zealand’s reputation as one of the least corrupt countries in the world and demonstrate our commitment as a responsible member of the international community,” says Ms Collins.

    …..the bullshit pile and stench of corruption just keeps growing by the minute.

    • Judith wouldn’t consider any of her Oravida doings as being corrupt. These people just don’t have normal ethics – they think that helping each other out using the assets of the state is just the natural way of things. Realistically, since pakeha began carving off hunks of Aotearoa into private ownership, it has been.

  26. I strongly recommend readers here and journalists that consider themselves such ones taking their job seriously will keep an eye on this source in the coming weeks and moths:
    https://panamapapers.icij.org/20160506-john-doe-statement.html

    “Of course, those are hardly the only issues that need fixing. Prime Minister John Key of New Zealand has been curiously quiet about his country’s role in enabling the financial fraud Mecca that is the Cook Islands.”

    In an article in the German ‘Suddeutsche Zeitung’, where the full manifesto has also been published, mention is also made of Niue. Now, which hotel group or their holding company did not long ago suddenly donate 10,000 dollars to the National Party?

    http://panamapapers.sueddeutsche.de/articles/572c897a5632a39742ed34ef/

    “More than just a cog in the machine of “wealth management,” Mossack Fonseca used its influence to write and bend laws worldwide to favour the interests of criminals over a period of decades. In the case of the island of Niue, the firm essentially ran a tax haven from start to finish.”

    I may also dare asking, what should be think of “Transparency International” and their at times questionable rating of nations when it comes to transparency and corruption, when a member of ‘Transparency International Chile’ has even been implicated in the Panama Papers?

    https://twitter.com/Ch_Transparente/status/717104083526688773

    How dodgy are pershaps some of the members of Transparency International New Zealand, I dare ask, to always having given the foreign trust paradise of New Zealand, where we also have so much anecdotal evidence of the old boys and old girls networks looking after each other, such a “clean slate” treatment, when New Zealand may not even deserve such a great reputation?

    John Key is the only international leader of a government and administration named in John Doe’s manifesto, that is a bit “strange” is it not?

    The author and whistleblower and leaker will not make such comments frivolously, I am sure, as he will know the contents of the papers he passed on.

    Mr Key, your silence, your bizarre comments re cyber security, citing the Panama Papers hacking as an example of the threats business here faces, that does betray something, I feel.

    How honest are you, Mr Key, are you having something to come clean with, before the next bits come out? Perhaps reconsider your past comments.

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/303111/panama-papers-a-cyber-security-warning-pm

  27. What you lack in this beat-up is anything of substance.

    As such, it will pass by, just like the Maori connection with the TPPA.

  28. To the MSM, the so-called “media”, once known as the “fourth estate”, quoted from John Doe’s manifesto in SZ and now other media:
    “The media has failed. Many news networks are cartoonish parodies of their former selves, individual billionaires appear to have taken up newspaper ownership as a hobby, limiting coverage of serious matters concerning the wealthy, and serious investigative journalists lack funding. The impact is real: in addition to Süddeutsche Zeitung and ICIJ, and despite explicit claims to the contrary, several major media outlets did have editors review documents from the Panama Papers. They chose not to cover them. The sad truth is that among the most prominent and capable media organizations in the world there was not a single one interested in reporting on the story. Even Wikileaks didn’t answer its tip line repeatedly.”

    Wake up and do your JOB, thanks!

    I LIKE JOHN DOE, I REALLY LIKE THIS PERSON!!!

    When is the next selection for the Nobel rounds of awards due?

  30. Has Winston Peters got any old Wine Boxes up on top of his wardrobe he can dust off and re-use?

    But if he does open up another Wine-Box of Whoop-Ass, I’m sure the tame media will find cute doggies, or cute pandas, or cute hippotamii, or snails to amuse the MSM audience. Nothing to see in Winnie’s Wine Box – move on…

    Time someone here invited the ICIJ https://www.icij.org/ for an international conference. Martyn might want to interview them?

  31. John Key has done what he was trained in America to do,he was put here to hand nz over to the cabals for their own purposes.
    Key has ruined NZ its not the same lovely country is was before he came. sure it wasnt perfect,but we could buy houses ,we could keep our privacy.We had assets producing dividends,now assets are owned by foreigners,privitisation of core services are the norm.
    just about every level of society has changed with Key at the helm, and unless you are one of the 1% its changed for the worse.
    Key lies , forgets ,uses mean spiteful people such as whaleoil to do his dirty work, blames everyone else for his sneaky behavior,asaults young waitress then says she said what she did because she was a “leftie”.
    Now he is a secret trust dealer,dare i say money launderer.
    Key is the worst prime minister we have ever had ,time he left our shores ,i would like to say, before its to late but i think that time has passed .

    • Helen Clark’s departing remark about John key was “Can you trust him”. She knew a lot more than the public know, being a part of the club,

  33. Todays NZ herald has the article in the business section .John Keys says Cook Islands has nothing to do with him, hes not responsible for NZ as a tax haven and he has someone looking into it . Another white wash by the Herald it seems, the whistleblower is mistaken .

    • “hes not responsible for NZ as a tax haven”

      Really??

      Didn’t Dodgy John want NZ to become the “Jersey Islands” of the South Pacific or somesuch, a few years back?

      Lying little toad.

      • He’s not responsible for the Cook Island’s taxation, he said, but that was NOT the question, I thought. It was the suggestion he had dealings with allowing the Cook Islands to serve as a tax haven for many, apparently also like Niue and Samoa.

        • Mike, with John Key, who knows what he really means. And who knows what he’s not telling us!

  34. The Photo of Key above:

    Could be the promotional photo of Monsseca Fonseca. He’s emotionless, calculating and inscrutable. That face will only liven up when the big dosh deals go across.

  35. John Shonkey is trying to tell the largely too trusting, and dumbed down common New Zealanders, this is all mischief by a probably “European” hacker and Panama Papers informer, who is “confusing” New Zealand with the Cook Islands. He claims he has as much responsibility for taxation there on the Cooks as he has for Russia.

    I saw Key and watched and listened to him on TV One answering questions to just another naive and inexperienced young journalist, who is probably working in a new graduate kind of trial job, but has no time and resources to check things.

    In the age of the internet, of Google, Wikipedia and so forth, Key wants to pull the wool over our eyes, to make us believe his total BS.

    Any person checking Wiki for Cook Islands will read this with interest, it is not a past story about pre 1988 winebox scandal incidents, it is still valid:
    “Since approximately 1989, the Cook Islands have become a location specialising in so-called asset protection trusts, by which investors shelter assets from the reach of creditors and legal authorities.[33][34] According to The New York Times, the Cooks have “laws devised to protect foreigners’ assets from legal claims in their home countries” which were apparently crafted specifically to thwart the long arm of American justice; creditors must travel to the Cook Islands and argue their cases under Cooks law, often at prohibitive expense.[33] Unlike other foreign jurisdictions such as the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and Switzerland, the Cooks “generally disregard foreign court orders” and do not require that bank accounts, real estate, or other assets protected from scrutiny (it is illegal to disclose names or any information about Cooks trusts) be physically located within the archipelago.[33] Taxes on trusts and trust employees account for some 8% of the Cook Islands economy, behind tourism but ahead of fishing.[33]”

    Check it out for yourselves, also you underpaid and under-resourced journos, even Google tells you more than your PM:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cook_Islands

    Do your damned home work, do some research, and so forth and report the damned truth, thanks. Why does a media company based in Munich, Germany, have to tell us what goes on with our NZ corrupt government and PM?

    You seem to not be able to do your jobs here, dear journos made in Aoteaoroa NZ.

    It is only the dumb and ignorant who believe Key and his spin, he looked very uncomfortable on TV. He knows more, as former merchant banker, as chief of departments, as trader and advisor for investment. He is right up to his eyeballs involved in all this.

    But as the legalistic connections, the strange legal separation between Cook Islands and New Zealand allow much in the way of concealing what goes on between trusts and investment, he can try and say what he does.

    You need to be an insider to get the picture, but the insiders in NZ will keep hum as they themselves are involved and risk losing their jobs and business.

  36. There will again be those IDIOTS and bought mercenaries, that will in their multitude comment: “Oh, John Key, he is good, he brings the big guys with money here, that is all good for us, it creates business and jobs, and keeps us going. ”

    I fear this is what sadly most Kiwis will think again, they are easily bought off, and conned and we will have the same happen as it was with the dirty politics saga.

    Indeed, I wonder, whether the person behind this may have connections to the one who also brought us “dirty politics”, it is so interesting, some resemblance is there.

    It may even be a Kiwi behind this, do we know?

    • I believe the leaker is giving none to subtle hints as to who is behind the latest hack.

      • Interesting, Higherstandardless that you’re more fixated on who the leaker is, rather than the crimes s/he has revealed to the world. Why is that?

  37. So this is what you get, when you hand over your government and “leadership” to a former, questionable currency trader and merchant banker. A banker is often a bankster, and once a bankster, always a bankster, I reckon, Key is one qualifying for that description.

  39. Roll on 6am, Tuesday 10 May (NZ time), when the Panama Papers data will be released.

    FJK has said when it happens, the IRD will be paying close attention and bring down the full force of the law, should it be necessary!

    With that news ringing in his ears, “honest” John will be doing a bit of “paper” shuffling I think, with the assistance of his “highly ethical” lawyer and trust investment advisor, Ken Whitney!

    • Along with many Kiwis, I subscribe to ICIJ, so should receive the Panama papers data info in my inbox exactly as it is released at approximately 6am on 10 May.

      However it will be interesting though how msm handle the release. Bet it will be doctored and tampered with before publication or reporting, with the exception of RNZ that is. FJK and his chief of propaganda minister Steven Joyce will undoubtedly have their msm serfs sanitize the data dump, particularly if a possible threat to them and their equally sleazy, corrupt, wealthy cronies exists!

    • I imagine John Key will be peddaling like mad to hide his money and ties to tax havens ,before the truth comes out and he has to answer to the people. Key the shape shifter who lies about his lies and MSM and the drones in National party who cover up for him.

  40. “Where’s your messiah John Key now National voters?”
    Laughing all the way to the bank.

  41. Just read ” Dirty Politics ” again and it should be mandatory reading for trolls like Andrew. Those who still back and support our lying ; unethical PM need to wake up and read this book and stop their nonsense.

    Average Joe blow kiwis can not be that thick and naive and plan ignorant.

    This next week, the biased and bought journos and trolls will be lying low a bit as the truths continue to sink Jonky Donky further into the pit of despair.
    If not impeachment, what is our next option ? Criminals and limp media – be gone.

  42. Jonky’s just the hapless rat who got cought out by the wondrous Inter Web.
    He tried, amongst other things, to run defence for the older , nastier, more crooked Kiwi traitors who laid waste to our country, and to whom Jonky owes, big time.
    They never saw the Net comining however and just like rats, they never see the poisons and the traps.

    A Royal Commission of Inquiry is what’s needed for sure and oh, what rats might that flush out?

  44. After being booted out of a stake of our economy, maybe millennials with IT skills have found a way to fight back.

    Hack in, and reveal all the thieves, cheats, two faced hypocrites and liars that are depriving them of a future.

    From Panama papers to Sony to dirty politics….

    And boy, are the ,1% afraid of Hackers revealing the truth.

    • And Godspeed if it was one of the millennial generation.

      I seem to recall the globally quoted figure was 20 TRILLION dollars hidden away in these trusts…

      And to put it into perspective : 20 Trillion is more than the total wealth of the USA.

      ………………………………………………………………………………………..

      Can you imagine for one minute the amount of annual deaths globally that would mean if translated into the withholding through lack of govt funding for medical/ health supply’s?…

      Can you imagine the colossal amount of deaths annually around the globe that would translate into by funding the armaments trade and the funding of wars on both sides?

      Can you imagine the deaths annually as a direct result of austerity and poverty and the withholding of development funds from such as the IMF / World Bank translating directly into the starvation of millions of children and adults in developing nations?

      Can you imagine for just one moment the amount withheld from govts into alternative energy research and development? – research that could free whole population’s from exorbitant national debt and poverty?

      ………………………………………………………………………………………..

      And the ironic thing?

      Govts around the world unite to stamp out such truth bringers.

      Why?

      Well… in part the Panama Papers due to be released shortly will shed ample light into the whys….

      What certain among the global elite are now terrified about is if the Panama Papers release the WHO’s.

      And to which their fears are now well founded. Because that is PRECISELY what is going to happen.

  45. [Comment deleted. While your anger is understandable, Cassie, please moderate your language and choose terms that are less offensive. – ScarletMod]

  46. If there was an election tomorrow National led by John Key would romp home due to the stupidity of NZ voters. Key is untouchable, brilliant ,clever, probably advised by international experts and can play the voters of NZ like a violin. Lets face it we are a nation of lazy dum dums, go the All Blacks.

    • Maybe we are a nation of NZ centric’s…

      However… these Panama Papers are a global phenomenon… and they will NOT go away. Anyone tarred by its skulduggery will be affected. And because of this , – so also will be a rising perception among the public of Keys complicity.

      Politics is all about perception.

      And even with the best evasive answers, even with a bought and paid for MSM , even with Farrar and Crosby Texter going flat out to stamp out fires … external pressure will be brought to bear on this nations govt from international sources which will provide constant and unrelenting leverage on our local tax haven enablers.

      We are talking years of this ….

      This is not going to get any less ugly anytime soon.

      Not unless the rest of the global community suddenly and miraculously decides to fall off the edge of the planet.

    • Another thing…besides the fact that there is a silence before the storm, a being in the eye of the hurricane in a metaphorical sense…

      Currently we see in the Herald all manner of inanity and dumbing down… of either local or overseas ( primarily USA ) content.

      It seems the Tamihere case and the ongoing TV3 saga are among them being trotted out… important yes… but governmental duplicity and corruption?

      Just but one in the ‘politics’ section… and that only of being Keys haggling with Andrew Little over whether to retain foreign trusts in NZ or not.

      And so on the very eve of a situation ( May 10th disclosures ) whereby the full documentation of the Panama Papers are about to be released…a release of such magnitude and relevance to the health of the global community and economy … we get story’s about what Rodney Hide thinks is a disastrous situation if these corrupt – and govt enabled – zero tax paying foreign trusts spit the dummy and fuck off and leave NZ.

      Therefore , I and hundreds of thousands of fellow New Zealanders ( who never voted National and for Key as PM ) with regards to corruption and duplicity in this country on this day April 8th , 2016 … rest our case.

  47. ‘Why? And Why Now?’ Panama Papers ‘John Doe’ Steps Out of Shadows

    Anonymous whistleblower says “Panama Papers are, if nothing else, a glaring symptom of our society’s progressively diseased and decaying moral fabric.”

    A searing critique of widespread wealth and income inequality, the 1,800-word missive decries “America’s broken campaign finance system” and denounces capitalism as “economic slavery.”

    It also takes the global media to task:

    Many news networks are cartoonish parodies of their former selves, individual billionaires appear to have taken up newspaper ownership as a hobby, limiting coverage of serious matters concerning the wealthy, and serious investigative journalists lack funding. The impact is real: in addition to Süddeutsche Zeitung and ICIJ, and despite explicit claims to the contrary, several major media outlets did have editors review documents from the Panama Papers. They chose not to cover them. The sad truth is that among the most prominent and capable media organizations in the world there was not a single one interested in reporting on the story. Even Wikileaks didn’t answer its tip line repeatedly.

    And, citing the heroism of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and others, John Doe declares: “Legitimate whistleblowers who expose unquestionable wrongdoing, whether insiders or outsiders, deserve immunity from government retribution, full stop.”

    Read John Doe’s statement, “The Revolution Will Be Digitized,” in full below:

    Income inequality is one of the defining issues of our time. It affects all of us, the world over. The debate over its sudden acceleration has raged for years, with politicians, academics and activists alike helpless to stop its steady growth despite countless speeches, statistical analyses, a few meagre protests, and the occasional documentary. Still, questions remain: why? And why now?

    The Panama Papers provide a compelling answer to these questions: massive, pervasive corruption. And it’s not a coincidence that the answer comes from a law firm. More than just a cog in the machine of “wealth management,” Mossack Fonseca used its influence to write and bend laws worldwide to favour the interests of criminals over a period of decades. In the case of the island of Niue, the firm essentially ran a tax haven from start to finish. Ramón Fonseca and Jürgen Mossack would have us believe that their firm’s shell companies, sometimes called “special purpose vehicles,” are just like cars. But used car salesmen don’t write laws. And the only “special purpose” of the vehicles they produced was too often fraud, on a grand scale.

    Shell companies are often associated with the crime of tax evasion, but the Panama Papers show beyond a shadow of a doubt that although shell companies are not illegal by definition, they are used to carry out a wide array of serious crimes that go beyond evading taxes. I decided to expose Mossack Fonseca because I thought its founders, employees and clients should have to answer for their roles in these crimes, only some of which have come to light thus far. It will take years, possibly decades, for the full extent of the firm’s sordid acts to become known.

    In the meantime, a new global debate has started, which is encouraging. Unlike the polite rhetoric of yesteryear that carefully omitted any suggestion of wrongdoing by the elite, this debate focuses directly on what matters.

    In that regard, I have a few thoughts.

    For the record, I do not work for any government or intelligence agency, directly or as a contractor, and I never have. My viewpoint is entirely my own, as was my decision to share the documents with Süddeutsche Zeitung and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), not for any specific political purpose, but simply because I understood enough about their contents to realize the scale of the injustices they described.

    The prevailing media narrative thus far has focused on the scandal of what is legal and allowed in this system. What is allowed is indeed scandalous and must be changed. But we must not lose sight of another important fact: the law firm, its founders, and employees actually did knowingly violate myriad laws worldwide, repeatedly. Publicly they plead ignorance, but the documents show detailed knowledge and deliberate wrongdoing. At the very least we already know that Mossack personally perjured himself before a federal court in Nevada, and we also know that his information technology staff attempted to cover up the underlying lies. They should all be prosecuted accordingly with no special treatment.

    In the end, thousands of prosecutions could stem from the Panama Papers, if only law enforcement could access and evaluate the actual documents. ICIJ and its partner publications have rightly stated that they will not provide them to law enforcement agencies. I, however, would be willing to cooperate with law enforcement to the extent that I am able.

    That being said, I have watched as one after another, whistleblowers and activists in the United States and Europe have had their lives destroyed by the circumstances they find themselves in after shining a light on obvious wrongdoing. Edward Snowden is stranded in Moscow, exiled due to the Obama administration’s decision to prosecute him under the Espionage Act. For his revelations about the NSA, he deserves a hero’s welcome and a substantial prize, not banishment. Bradley Birkenfeld was awarded millions for his information concerning Swiss bank UBS—and was still given a prison sentence by the Justice Department. Antoine Deltour is presently on trial for providing journalists with information about how Luxembourg granted secret “sweetheart” tax deals to multi-national corporations, effectively stealing billions in tax revenues from its neighbour countries. And there are plenty more examples.

    Legitimate whistleblowers who expose unquestionable wrongdoing, whether insiders or outsiders, deserve immunity from government retribution, full stop. Until governments codify legal protections for whistleblowers into law, enforcement agencies will simply have to depend on their own resources or on-going global media coverage for documents.

    In the meantime, I call on the European Commission, the British Parliament, the United States Congress, and all nations to take swift action not only to protect whistleblowers, but to put an end to the global abuse of corporate registers. In the European Union, every member state’s corporate register should be freely accessible, with detailed data plainly available on ultimate beneficial owners. The United Kingdom can be proud of its domestic initiatives thus far, but it still has a vital role to play by ending financial secrecy on its various island territories, which are unquestionably the cornerstone of institutional corruption worldwide. And the United States can clearly no longer trust its fifty states to make sound decisions about their own corporate data. It is long past time for Congress to step in and force transparency by setting standards for disclosure and public access.

    And while it’s one thing to extol the virtues of government transparency at summits and in sound bites, it’s quite another to actually implement it. It is an open secret that in the United States, elected representatives spend the majority of their time fundraising. Tax evasion cannot possibly be fixed while elected officials are pleading for money from the very elites who have the strongest incentives to avoid taxes relative to any other segment of the population. These unsavoury political practices have come full circle and they are irreconcilable. Reform of America’s broken campaign finance system cannot wait.

    Of course, those are hardly the only issues that need fixing. Prime Minister John Key of New Zealand has been curiously quiet about his country’s role in enabling the financial fraud Mecca that is the Cook Islands. In Britain, the Tories have been shameless about concealing their own practices involving offshore companies, while Jennifer Shasky Calvery, the director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network at the United States Treasury, just announced her resignation to work instead for HSBC, one of the most notorious banks on the planet (not coincidentally headquartered in London). And so the familiar swish of America’s revolving door echoes amidst deafening global silence from thousands of yet-to-be-discovered ultimate beneficial owners who are likely praying that her replacement is equally spineless. In the face of political cowardice, it’s tempting to yield to defeatism, to argue that the status quo remains fundamentally unchanged, while the Panama Papers are, if nothing else, a glaring symptom of our society’s progressively diseased and decaying moral fabric.

    But the issue is finally on the table, and that change takes time is no surprise. For fifty years, executive, legislative, and judicial branches around the globe have utterly failed to address the metastasizing tax havens spotting Earth’s surface. Even today, Panama says it wants to be known for more than papers, but its government has conveniently examined only one of the horses on its offshore merry-go-round.

    Banks, financial regulators and tax authorities have failed. Decisions have been made that have spared the wealthy while focusing instead on reining in middle- and low-income citizens.

    Hopelessly backward and inefficient courts have failed. Judges have too often acquiesced to the arguments of the rich, whose lawyers—and not just Mossack Fonseca—are well trained in honouring the letter of the law, while simultaneously doing everything in their power to desecrate its spirit. The media has failed. Many news networks are cartoonish parodies of their former selves, individual billionaires appear to have taken up newspaper ownership as a hobby, limiting coverage of serious matters concerning the wealthy, and serious investigative journalists lack funding. The impact is real: in addition to Süddeutsche Zeitung and ICIJ, and despite explicit claims to the contrary, several major media outlets did have editors review documents from the Panama Papers. They chose not to cover them. The sad truth is that among the most prominent and capable media organizations in the world there was not a single one interested in reporting on the story. Even Wikileaks didn’t answer its tip line repeatedly.

    But most of all, the legal profession has failed. Democratic governance depends upon responsible individuals throughout the entire system who understand and uphold the law, not who understand and exploit it. On average, lawyers have become so deeply corrupt that it is imperative for major changes in the profession to take place, far beyond the meek proposals already on the table. To start, the term “legal ethics,” upon which codes of conduct and licensure are nominally based, has become an oxymoron. Mossack Fonseca did not work in a vacuum—despite repeated fines and documented regulatory violations, it found allies and clients at major law firms in virtually every nation. If the industry’s shattered economics were not already evidence enough, there is now no denying that lawyers can no longer be permitted to regulate one another. It simply doesn’t work. Those able to pay the most can always find a lawyer to serve their ends, whether that lawyer is at Mossack Fonseca or another firm of which we remain unaware. What about the rest of society?

    The collective impact of these failures has been a complete erosion of ethical standards, ultimately leading to a novel system we still call Capitalism, but which is tantamount to economic slavery. In this system—our system—the slaves are unaware both of their status and of their masters, who exist in a world apart where the intangible shackles are carefully hidden amongst reams of unreachable legalese. The horrific magnitude of detriment to the world should shock us all awake. But when it takes a whistleblower to sound the alarm, it is cause for even greater concern. It signals that democracy’s checks and balances have all failed, that the breakdown is systemic, and that severe instability could be just around the corner. So now is the time for real action, and that starts with asking questions.

    Historians can easily recount how issues involving taxation and imbalances of power have led to revolutions in ages past. Then, military might was necessary to subjugate peoples, whereas now, curtailing information access is just as effective or more so, since the act is often invisible. Yet we live in a time of inexpensive, limitless digital storage and fast internet connections that transcend national boundaries. It doesn’t take much to connect the dots: from start to finish, inception to global media distribution, the next revolution will be digitized.

    Or perhaps it has already begun.

    http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/05/06/why-and-why-now-panama-papers-john-doe-steps-out-shadows

  48. The media are busy running a series of distraction headlines, from our failing education system, unemployable kiwi’s, to domestic violence, even dragging out Veitch to do piece, it been a real bombardment.
    Wait for teenage prostitution to be the next big issue, and STDS.

    We shouldnt expect too much until Key’s hand is forced by Obama and the EU, what did anyone think that the French PMs surprise visit was about.

    Notice the complete lack of news on the Chinese FTA upgrade, thats a big failure.

  49. And yet here we see… on testament given to the Daily Mail….

    THIS :

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/…/I-shocked-astounded-Panama-tax-scam-lawyer-son

    It has been constantly mentioned of John Keys regular attendance at Bilderberg meetings. A Bilderberg meeting was being attended hours before the Christchurch earthquake, …. in Christchurch.

    Peculiar co incidence? Possibly.

    HAARP?… we cannot say.

    However just what is the relevance of the Bilderberg group and by whom was it foundered by?

    None other than a Polish politician in exile Jozef Retinger and Prince Bernhard of Holland – who , – was a member of the Nazi party and mounted unit of the Reiter SS, …also joining the National Socialist Motor Corps… that switched sides once it was obvious the Nazi’s were going to lose.

    And while the murderous methods employed by the Nazi’s may not have appealed to Prince Bernhard of Holland… the idea of old imperialistic ideas most probably did. Particularly those of the old Dutch empire as he was a ‘ Netherlander’… whereas the Nazi’s… were from ‘Deutsche ‘…ie : Germany.

    So how is that modern day imperialism is achieved ?… not by force of arms , but through legislation and the accumulation of the very thing that pays for a surrogate global army.

    CASH.

    And how to accumulate that cash?… use the easily manipulated human tendency towards greed. Then recall it all in global financial crashes and implement austerity measures once country’s are massively in-debt to the World Bank and IMF.

    I’ll leave you to draw the dots and do some research…

    And if you’ve got the balls to do so… have a wee look into the history of the Rothschild’s in global economics and geo politics…

    And if you media people think real , real hard… and don’t strain your tiny little brains and listen to detractors…

    You will notice how Ken Whitney was also involved :

    ‘ Companies Office records show that Mr Whitney was a director of the New Zealand office of the Swiss company Rothschild Trust until August last year. Cone Marshall are the Rothschild Trust’s law firm in New Zealand and several of its lawyers are also directors at the Rothschild Trust.

    The Prime Minister was not available to comment this evening.’

    http://www.odt.co.nz › News › Political

    Silly, silly little people….

    ‘Tricks are for kids’……

  50. And today John Key commented on Andrew Little’s thoughts that Labour may well abolish these foreign trusts here in New Zealand, saying that it would not be “wise” to abolish them.

    This is typical Key again, he tells New Zealanders not to harm the masters with wealth, who avoid paying taxes in their original jurisdictions, and to rather “embrace” them and welcome them with open arms.

    He does the same when it comes to foreign “investors” and also offshore home buyers, saying New Zealand needs foreign investment.

    We are supposed to bend over backwards, kiss these tax dodgers’ feet and allow them to hide their wealth in New Zealand trusts, so they can enjoy their lives in riches, while people they may employ or deal with in their countries of origin are exploited and treated like crap.

    Oh, so we are supposed to thank them perhaps, to offer us “employment”, should they invest a bit here also, for being able to work for the minimum wage and serve them as waiters.

    It is Key’s spin and lies that may again worry many, so they dare not vote for the opposition and give him a fourth term, as they may fear losing their jobs, should investors be scared away.

    Let us hope there is some explosive stuff in the information from the Panama Papers being released in the coming days.

  51. The truth will out.
    Agreed CB – full royal commission inquiry needed.
    National needs to stop trashing our beautiful country.
    The MSM needs to stop helping them do it.
    Begone you greedy low life’s.

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