THE PANAMA PAPERS are a big deal. No sensible person would attempt to argue otherwise. Thanks to the leaking of upwards of 11.5 million electronic documents the world is now in possession of incontrovertible proof of the global elite’s perfidious allergy to paying tax. What had been the stuff of thrillers by John Le Carré and John Grisham, has become the substance of nightly news bulletins.
But how big a deal are the Panama Papers in New Zealand? Much has been made of the 60,000 references to this country in the leaked documents. That sounds like a lot. But in a dump of 11.5 million documents, 60,000 references is actually a very small number indeed. Assuming there is only one reference to New Zealand per document (which hardly seems likely) our country’s name is to be found in just 0.005 percent of the documents leaked.
I would hazard a fair amount on there being a considerably larger number of references to the Cayman Islands, the Virgin Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Cook Islands in the Panama Papers than there are to the islands of New Zealand.
It is also important to note that the warnings that have been issued to the New Zealand Government by an assortment of both public and private bodies have tended heavily towards the contingent. If the powers-that-be do not act quickly, there is a risk that New Zealand’s reputation as one of the world’s least corrupt and most transparent countries might be damaged. Which suggests we’ve still got quite a way to go before we get to count ourselves among the Caymans, the Virgins and the Turks and Caicosses
Which is not to say that the 12,000 overseas trusts currently availing themselves of this country’s less-than-robust disclosure regime are all squeaky clean. On the contrary, there’s a better than even chance that a newsworthy number of shady characters have been using these instruments to hide a whole lot of even shadier goings-on.
As the International Consortium of Investigate Journalists and their colleagues in the global news media pore over the Panama Papers, we are bound to discover a disappointing number of New Zealand individuals, businesses and organisations in the frame.
Will our own Prime Minister be among them? Is John Key about to suffer the same fate as the erstwhile Prime Minister of Iceland, Sigmunder Gunnlaugsson, or the present, increasingly beleaguered, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron?
Well, John Key is a very wealthy man, and if the Panama Papers have shown us anything it is the extraordinary lengths to which very rich people will go to protect their financial affairs from the scrutiny and criticism of those who are not very rich. For years, rumours have circulated that Key is worth considerably more than the $NZ55 million he publicly acknowledges. If the rumours are true, then the rest of his fortune may well have been salted away where the sun shines and the trade-winds blow. But by whom? Mossack Fonseca isn’t the only law firm that specialises in keeping prying eyes away from very rich people’s financial information. And you can bet that the others are working day-and-night to beef-up their security.
Personally-speaking, I’d be surprised if our Prime Minister goes the way of Gunnlaugsson or Cameron. Key has spent his whole life working towards the position he now holds, and all along the way he has been extraordinarily careful to avoid doing anything that might come back to bite him when he was Prime Minister. While the other London currency traders were winging their way across the Atlantic for a weekend of drug-fuelled debauchery in Las Vegas, John Key was heading home for a quiet weekend with Bronagh and the kids. Would he put everything he’s worked for so carefully at risk by squirrelling away millions in some Caribbean tax haven? I can’t see it, myself.
Then again, who among the very rich could have foreseen the acute danger into which this age of digitalised information storage, retrieval and communication was leading them? John Key? Many New Zealanders have wondered at their Prime Minister’s interest (some would say obsession) with cyber-security, and noted his extreme hostility towards individuals and groups accused of abusing and/or violating the supposedly secure zones of cyber-space. Exactly what is driving Key’s inflated disquiet about the security of secret information has never been very clear.
As the tens-of-thousands of secrets contained in the Panama Papers are revealed to the world, there will be more than a few Kiwis who will insist on ending the above paragraph with the words – until now.
And……snap.
Hoisted by his own digital footprint petard….
At last Wikileaks, or their cyber banking equivalents Bankileaks or Neolibleaks have started to turn their focus onto bankers and their tax evasion-avoidance-fraud.
Some call it evasion, some call it avoidance, some call it fraud. Let’s not polish the turd, or sprinkle glitter on it, it’s National and International theft by omission, or theft, or by tax fraud smoke and mirrors, or the scheisters’s shell game.
If you sell stuff, or services or earn interest, then you have to pay tax somewhere. Otherwise you are a cheat, a fraud, a liar and are depriving National economies and citizens of services that can help the citizenry of that country.
107 out of the top 165 NZ wealthiest people pay no tax at all. How the fuck is that fair, or legal. We’ll soon find out when the 60,000 references to New Zealand Panamanian transactions come to light.
I wonder if the PM will be out of the country having a photo-op with world leaders, or having a well-earned break in Hawaii, or dining with the Queen, or visiting NZ troops overseas when the 60,000 Panama transactions hit the headlines?
Well he’s planning on visiting China sometime this month Winnie, to do some more wheeling and dealing, making way for something devious and very sneaky I’d say! So if the Panama papers 60,000 references to NZ’s involvement is released, FJK could well be out of the country!
Lets hope so Mary but it appears that these slimy greedy wealthy elite might have covered their bottoms and not broken many laws. Has anyone watched Jonky Donky in parliament this week with the grilling he is getting. He dismisses it all and laughs at it all and he thinks the joke is on us. Money hidden and under the radar by the ultra wealthy and Max Keiser on RT.com is a great source for the truth about all of this.
Our disgusting P.M. is connected with the Bilderberg group and is out to destroy NZ and our economy so that his corporate crim buds and bankster crooks will swoop in and buy up most assets for a whisper and a cheap price. We are being sold down the river and most are unaware of any of this. Asleep sheeples buying into the latest poll and believing the govt. owned media and thinking that Jonky Donky and Helen Clark are really great leaders and not corporate puppets. Wake up voters.
TPPA will destroy access to generic meds. and give powers to these corporations that is insidious.
It appears the laws may have made it legal to hide their money but in so doing, the financial crisis has hurt people all over the world yet continues to benefit these crooks and criminal banks.
It is likely that approx. 22 Trillion ! ! ! has been hidden in these off shore accounts and most are now in the states. Fraud and more fraud with this Global Ponzy Scheme which is collapsing under more fraud and greed.
Winnie, John Key has the same mindset as Hillary Clinton,say and do anything to keep the heat off themselves. Clinton and Key treat the people as though they are stupid and have no rights if it disagrees with their view.
See Wake up New Zealand today , a list of her emails she never expected anyone but her own cronies to see. If Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump got hold of the list she would be toast.
Same goes for Key ,if we knew all his secrets and money dealings he would be toast as well.
It seems to me Chris has missed the point. Under his watch despite being warned 7 times he has allowed NZ to become a tax haven. A further point is this business is socially destructive and is a form of organised crime: a criminal activity. Tax havens can hide looted wealth from any part of the World. Key has aided and abetted this process showing his moral bankruptcy. He is on the side of the 1% not ordinary people. Whether he uses a tax haven himself is irrelevant.
@ JAY1. You may like this then.
http://boingboing.net/2016/04/11/its-the-criminal-economy-st.html
JAY1:You’re incorrect.
The current trust law in NZ was brought into effect by a Labour government and twice amended by subsequent Labour governments.
The current National government has not laid a finger on a law they inherited from the Clark era.
I think it would be a mistake for Labour to try and generate another media beat-up based on this. This ‘barking at every passing car’ approach is slowly destroying the party and its current leader in particular. The voting population in NZ is more mature and economically sophisticated than the party realises.
Are you for real with that bullshit claim, Andrew?
How many examples would you like to disprove that rubbish you spouted?
Andrew, yet again, your head in the sand. How much do they pay you ?
The Natz led govt. needs more to bark at their cars filled with criminals and greedy idiots who are selling out our country and destroying our economy. Bring on more who challenge this train wreck of a criminal corporate puppet led govt.
If the voting population in NZ were ” more mature and economically sophisticated ” they would not have allowed a govt. to run rough shod over our democracy and our sovereignty and destroy our economy and create tons of debt.
You Natz. lovers are the immature and not very economically sophisticated to continue to support this out of touch; elitist lot of greedy corporate lackys and lobbyists.
Andrew Little and the Labour party and the Green party etc. are doing a fine job of challenging these greedy money hiding crooks. Did I hear someone say – ” Witch hunt ” ?
The only way Key would survive would be a complicit MSM that hand him a wet bus ticket.
If we had investigative Reporters like you, Frank and Martyn on the MSM screens nation wide Key would be toast.
We need to get all opposition Parties to gather together and take half the public TV/RNZ back as their right since they share 50% of the voters public ownership and Nactional must not keep control of their half for using it to keep painting over the Key cracks as they are keeping him in power even since the Tax haven has linked key to the scheme of laundering money illegally.
Good points CLEANGREEN as usual.
Msm is going very softly on FJK’s connection to a company and lawyer involved in tax free foreign trusts. Hardly a word about it and what is there, is very touchy, touchy, feely, feely! Going very gently!!!
However if it had been Little, Peters, Shaw, Turei et al, the gates of hell would have been opened by now, with all the in-your-face details as major headlines!
FJK remains in power, courtesy of a compliant msm, dancing to his tune. Wonder what the payoff is?
Thank God for TDB and the other alternative news sites, as well as the posters such as your good self, who help keep the news alive, otherwise we would all be in the dark fumbling about, accepting the crooked status quo, the way FJK wants it to be!
Is Chris left or right…his so-called defence of Key is strange…but in line with his usual behaviour…Chris seems to have this massive desire to be all things to all people…
If Key really has nothing to hide then why not make his tax returns public?
Chris should stop making excuses for Key and simply ask Key to prove he is honest by making his past behaviours known…if he has nothing to fear then he has has nothing to hide…his words not mine…
Maybe years of lobying and the revolving door of politics to corporate positions have legalized what should be banned.
Carl Lewis spent his whole life working towards winning Gold medals.
Swore black and blue he never took drugs…… he did.
Lance Armstrong spent his whole life working towards winning Tour de France titles.
Swore black and blue he never took drugs……he did.
…………
What are you saying? That John Key is on drugs?
Yes. The drug is called m o n e y !!
Easy cheap dirty m o n e y !!
John Key spent his whole life working toward becoming Prime Minister of N.Z.
Swore black and blue he never once made a crooked dollar, never once insider traded, never once lied to make a dollar.
He …………….
Well, more than one person has said that power and wealth is the ultimate aphrodisiac… and aphrodisiac’s are a drug, of sorts. And of course, Key loves himself so much…
Power and… ponytails! Those things are crazy. You just pull on them and the woman’s head comes right back! YOU become the master.
Phenomenal cosmic power…
It will be even better than beating the Australians in whatever sport to find Keys hidden secrets as there is no way he can be clean with the behaviour he has shown.
we all know he’s rotten. and the sooner his rot is gone the better.
“Key spent his whole life working towards the position he holds now”.
Really? How do you know that? I have seen no evidence or career path behaviour to suggest that.
Helen Clark would have definitely fitted that assumption perfectly. Key, no!
I’m not surprised that many people might think that this Panama thing may be something new. It isn’t.
New Zealand is a dirty, dodgy little country over-run with fiscal lice feeding off the scurf of the farmer dog.
Where there is one wealthy ‘ winner’ there must be thousands of impoverished ‘ losers’.
I just can’t get my head around those few who can, when given the opportunity, take advantage of the innocent.
I’d say to the vigorously rogered innocent; get a pitch fork and a big, bright, burning torch and go and ask a few searching questions.
NZ ?
= 4.3 mil people on a land area the size of GB with 60 mil.
NZ?
Laughably filthy rich in vital resources.
NZ?
Broke as, bro.
Hmmmmmmm ????
You are right CB in that it is not new, but because we have a nation of sleepy hobbits and a fluff infotainment media establishment that has no stomach for investigative reporting, hardly anybody seems to have noticed.
We used to hear jokes about Cayman Islands or Panama bank accounts all the time (after the Swiss decided to clean up their act a bit) but not many people realized that they were no joke – they were real and responsible for most of the inequality and poverty on the planet.
I myself have on many occasions made reference to Cayman Islands bank accounts on this blog, but even I didn’t know I was so close to the truth.
Keep telling it as it is CB, I always like to see your posts,
have a good day!
No 1 in the OECD 1975 now No 27 in 2016?
Yes Jack…. and funny how after the advent of Reaganism, Thatcherism, and in our case – Rogernomics – with neo liberalism’s implementation in New Zealand … we had a sudden influx of the nouveau rich and the rapid impoverishment and decline of the national per capita wealth figures in the OECD…
If we cant put two and two together and see that we have all been shafted monumentally ,….
Then we are naive indeed.
E X A C T L Y ! ! !
I can as he’s the type of person who fully expects to get away with his lies. And when he gets called on them he gets very, very angry. He shows many of the symptoms of being a psychopath.
+100 Draco.
Yep, John Key openly lies about pretty much everything. One of the reason he gets away with it, is posts like this.
Winston Peters is the only one who seems to be able to plainly state John Key is dishonest and what is wrong with these types of trusts.
Vernon Small listed John Key’s known assets in a recent article but they seemed to nearly all involve a few homes he owns in Hawaii, New Zealand and elsewhere. For a person who has been very well paid for the past 35 years and a big player in the finance sector I would have expected a wider spread of assets over all investment classes. I would expect bonds, shares and cash deposits. But apart from financial interests in the Bank of America and Little Nell, a Colorado based investment company, there is next to nothing of any of this. Every investment specialist will tell you not to put all your eggs in one basket. This alone makes me wonder what other assets he might have somewhere – http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/78778585/NZ-PM-John-Key-refuses-to-release-tax-records-what-do-we-know-of-his-assets
You often get very rich people shop lifting for example. It is about getting away with something and taking something away from others without being detected.
i see a lot of references to many pacific islands but not vanuatu – this country refused to join wto as a requirement was to disclose off shore banking as it is a tax haven – a now member of vanuatu govt was arrested and spent time in us prison on trumped up charges – this person was 2ic of vanuatu financial services commission – the charges were trumped up to force vanuatu into compliance – not done – my point is only those countries that oblige usa appear to be exposed but there are still tax havens that thrive and not exposed – a nice place to live is vanuatu – nz has a high commission there – why? it is only 3 hours flight from auckland – i know many new zealanders who are wealthy and have off shore accounts in vanuatu !
People should not just ask questions about John Key and his investments, as it is common practice by the rich and famous, and especially those high up in government, to pass on their investments to their wives and partners.
We should dare ask about Bronagh Key and her investments, that she holds, which may be what is hiding stuff that Key can boldly claim he does not own or has no interest in.
It astonishes me how ignorant and useless our media here is, to not have asked that question yet. Even the opposition has failed to dig into that territory. Perhaps Max Key and the daughter of John Key need to also be scrutinised, re their investments and so forth.
That way we may find out what the Keys actually own and have interest in, because John Key is no dumbo in that sense, gets expert legal advice, he will have ensured NOTHING risky is listed, registered and invested under his name as Prime Minister.
So there you go again, dear hopeless opposition and media, why not dig deeper, that is where you may have to look, instead of the PM himself. Get smarter and do your bloody job, thanks, others do it in other countries, I understand.
Hi Mike in Auckland – I have been thinking the same. Particularly after this week’s disgraceful Parliamentary sessions, (yesterday was appalling) where FJK continues to deny he has any undeclared or dodgy overseas investments.
His wife’s investments need to be scrutinized as well, because it turned out the PM of Iceland’s wife had foreign trusts, which had not been declared! Hence her husband’s fall from grace!
Could well be the same here, to keep “honest” John’s name in the clear!
According to Max Keiser, around 22 Trillion is hidden worldwide in off shore accounts and now mostly in the U.S. He states that the criminal Global Ponzy ( Bank Fraud ) Scheme is collapsing due to so much
fraud. These extremely wealthy are protecting their monetary gains and ripping off the people of the world by avoiding taxes and it is going to blow up in their faces soon. They all deny any mis deeds and claim that they are doing nothing wrong as we have seen with John Key and David Cameron. These are the greediest of the greedy and now are lying about it all and think that they have themselves protected by their criminal elite attorneys and hidden secret accounts and trusts. Shame on their greed and the price that many pay for their hidden wealth that is mostly tax free.
https://socioecohistory.wordpress.com/2016/04/14/this-is-global-insider-trading-ring-cia-is-playing-the-game-max-keiser-on-panama-papers/
http://sitsshow.blogspot.co.nz/2016/04/The-Panama-Papers-Largest-Leak-in-History-Propaganda-Preparation-for-Mass-Arrests-or-Evidence-of-Silent-Cold-War.html
The article opens with the statement “Well, John Key is a very wealthy man, and if the Panama Papers have shown us anything it is the extraordinary lengths to which very rich people will go ….”
Lets change a couple of words, but keep the same logic, and see if we end up with an acceptable statement.
“Well, {insert name here] is a muslim, and if the recent terrorist attacks have shown us anything it is the extraordinary lengths to which muslims will go ….”
I am quite sure that all those supporting Chris Trotters sentiments would be be the first leaping down the throats of anyone who dared pen an article starting in that way.
Much as I am genuinely not into “dragging the kids into it”, it is interesting that Max Key has recently been packed off to America, hasn’t he? Out of the way of the fall out. Will Bronagh have an appointment in Hawaii next week? Are they all getting shuffled out the front/back door in anticipation of the cak hitting the f-word? One can only hope.
Ok, I’m getting really annoyed regarding the lack of questioning around John Key and offshore funds…
I’ve emailed Andrew Little, Metiria Turei, Winston Peters and RNZ numerous times since last week asking them to ask Key the very simple question below. I am incredibly disappointed that from what I can see this hasn’t been asked yet… I would ask the question of John Key publicly myself, but I don’t have access to him like the media do, or like the politicians do during question time.
My question:
“Can Mr Key confirm whether he, or any of his family members (including mum and any siblings) have, or stand to, directly or indirectly benefit from, or have access to loans from, any funds that are held in offshore structures such as, but not limited to, trusts. Additionally, can Mr Key confirm whether any of the Trusts that he and his family members have established in New Zealand have, or stand to, directly or indirectly benefit from, or have access to loans, from any funds that are held in offshore structures such as, but not limited to, trusts.”
I realise this is a very long winded question, but the wording is crucial. Key likes to try and avoid answering questions honestly by being very particular about how he answers them… I believe the above question is broad enough and direct enough to ensure he cannot mislead the public with his answering.
What am I talking about?
Key has been asked by the media numerous times about whether HE has money overseas… listen to his answers. Note that firstly that he is careful to note (repeatedly) that HE doesn’t have funds overseas… And in the Hosking case, he even notes that there is nothing to embarrass him in Panama (the fact that he noted that there is nothing to hide in Panama is a slip from him in my opinion; ie, he didn’t discount there being something to embarrass him in other territories).
Interview with Mike Hosking:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11620292
Hosking: “Have you got money overseas?”
Key: “Ah I don’t, no no”
Hosking: “Nothing in there that’s going to embarrass you?”
Key: “Nothing in Panama, no”
John Key during Q&A session with Media as reported on Checkpoint:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/201796944/pm-has-deposit-in-law-firm-specialising-in-foreign-trusts
“If I had a foreign trust, that would have to be declared and the rules in NZ would mean that I would be subject to tax on that cause you are taxed as a settlor and um I don’t have those things, I have the two trusts I’ve had and I’ve always had them for the time I’ve been Prime Minister, um they’re completely above board”
Ok so incase you need me to translate the above to you, (in my opinion) this reads that he isn’t the settlor of any offshore investment structures – fine, I’d be surprised if he had his name as a settlor on any offshore structures. However, I believe this to be semantics – I want to hear someone ask him to confirm whether his family members, or any trusts in NZ that his family has established have funds in offshore structures, and whether they have access to, whether by way of loans or income, from such overseas structures. If he answers “No” then that’s fine, I personally won’t believe it and think that this would come back to haunt him later, but the fact that no one has actually asked him this yet, especially after I’ve done my best to spell it out that the questions that have been asked so far aren’t worded correctly is so incredibly disappointing.
If anyone has contacts in the Media or in Parliament, can you please ask them to ask John Key my question (and ensure that the question is worded correctly to ensure that Key can’t use semantics to potentially mislead with an answer).
I will be starting to email (and no doubt annoy) so of Little, Turei and Peters’ subordinates in the hope that they will ask the question in parliament – wish me luck, ain’t had much so far.
Best regards,
Doug
Excellent Doug. Well done you. I wish you the best with getting your question out there and put to FJK.
Perhaps most of us here who contribute to TDB should be putting the same question to Opposition leaders. A mass questioning can not be ignored.
Maybe FJK is telling the truth and “HE” doesn’t have anything invested in foreign trusts, likely to embarrass him. He’s a slimy toad.
However, some very serious questioning needs to be directed either to him or his wife, re investments in her name or that of their adult offspring, of which the income earned from any trust, has not been declared!
There’s something there that needs some attention! Let’s hope Nicky Hager is able to reveal something damaging to FJK!
You are onto it!
Sadly our opposition, that is with the very few exceptions, some of whom have been sent to the back benches for various reasons, is not made up of that great talent and brainy types now.
With all respect for Metiria and also Andrew Little, at times I wonder, whether they are really up to more complicated stuff to deal with.
James Shaw is still on his learning curve, as co-leader, I think there is some potential in him to get more skills and experience.
Winston is at least at times ahead of many others, but he is not always in the freshest of mindsets, as age cannot be stopped.
So we can only hope that someone can soon get their tongues around your types of questions, and rehearse them before the mirror, and then dare the big step and ask such questions in Parliament’s Question Time. We can only hope, that practice may perfect the potential master, as gifts are too limited with the few there are in Labour, Greens and NZ First.
It would appear there has been systemic fraud going on for a long time worldwide, they never unscrambled the Swiss Tax Havens where it is alleged the Nazis laundered their money?
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