Political cartoon by St. Petersburg artist Viktor Bogorad about Putin's friend Sergei Roldugin, a little-known concert cellist who was revealed by the Panama papers to be worth $2 billion:
African citizens are among the hardest-hit victims of the kinds of financial manipulations being uncovered by the Panama papers leak.
"Every year, Africa loses between $30 and $60 billion to illicit financial flows (pdf, p. 34), according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). A “major enabler” of these flows, UNECA says, are offshore tax havens like Panama, the British Virgin Islands, Seychelles, and other jurisdictions that happen to feature prominently in the “Panama Papers” leak."
Speaking in Addis Ababa on April 6, African Union Commission Chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma called for the illegally off-shored money to "be sent back." She called for a global dialogue on bringing these resources back to the continent for "children's care, maternal care, and many social issues."
Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela addressed the Panama papers scandals in a televised speech late on April 6. Here are some quotes:
"The Panamanian government, via our Foreign Ministry, will create an independent commission of domestic and international experts recognized for their experience to evaluate our current practices and propose an adoption of measures that we will share with other world countries to strengthen the transparency of the financial and legal systems. We will work not only internally in our country, but also we will direct efforts to benefit the rest of the world."
"I want to make clear that Panama will continue to cooperate with other jurisdictions -- as we have done judicially -- to prosecute crimes which have been identified in our criminal code, such as the exchange of information, to fulfill international treaties that have been ratified by Panama. We reaffirm our commitment as a serious country that respects international law and cooperation with the international community in search of solutions to this global problem."
FYI, the Wikipedia page on the Panama papers leak and who is named. Handy quick reference, but, as always, use with caution.
If you thought the fantasy land of Bollywood, at least, would not be tainted by the Panama papers leaks, you were wrong. Bollywood stars Amitabh and his daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai Bachchan are among the 500 Indian citizens whose names appear:
"The Express stated that, back in 1993, Bachchan was appointed director in at least four offshore shipping companies which were registered in tax havens. Three of these were registered in the Bahamas with another in the British Virgin Islands.
"According to the newspaper, "The authorized capital of these companies ranged between a modest $5,000-50,000 but they traded in ships worth millions of dollars."
"The newspaper also added that it had earlier attempted to solicit a response from the actor and his company AB Corporation, but did not get a response."
Russian political scientist Maria Snegovaya spoke with RFE/RL's Russian Service about how the Panama leaks could affect Russia.
"It is clear that these documents are not directed straight at Russians because Russians are hardly likely to find out about them -- the Kremlin-controlled media are not going to show them -- and even if Russians did find out, they would say: 'We already know that, but at least he gave us back Crimea.'
"This information is for the West, for organizations that investigate corruption mechanisms, and for Western leaders who know have clear proof of the Kremlin's corruption. I have no doubt that the State Department and other U.S. structures had this information earlier, but the value of these documents is that they give precise legal levers of influence over the Kremlin."
In case you haven't seen it yet, RFE/RL has aggregated its English-language coverage of the Panama papers here.
Popular television detective Columbo has a question for British Prime Minister David Cameron:
Gonzalo Delaveau, the head of the Chilean branch of the international NGO Transparency International resigned on April 5 after his name appeared in the Panama papers linked to at least five offshore firms. It is not known if he did anything illegal, but the revelation was embarrassing.
Transparency International issued a statement that read in part:
"While Delaveau is not reportedly accused of illegal activity, and he may be able to explain his activities, for us that is not the point. Not all secret companies are illegal, but many are used to hide money flows and to support acts of corruption. As we said yesterday in a press release about the Panama Papers investigation: Transparency International wants public registers of all companies' beneficial owners to make it harder for the corrupt to hide their illicit wealth in secret companies and trusts that use nominees to register ownership.
"We are now looking into measures to ensure this does not happen again."
Money laundering: