LISTEN LIVE HERE!!!The European financial world was reportedly rocked by the largest ever leaking of confidential papers of Panama based law firm Mossack Fonseca. In January 2015, an anonymous whistle blower released the 11.5 million page, 2.6 terabyte cache to German media outlet Süddeutsche Zeitung that included detailed information about more than 214,000 offshore companies.
With such an extraordinarily large amount of data to go through the Munich based newspaper Munich based newspaper shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The ICIJ then worked with journalists around the world including the Guardian, the BBC and Le Monde.
With ownership details often concealed, off shore companies are shrouded in secrecy a fact compounded by their preferred location in “tax havens.” However, those that use them readily claim that they are “legal” (a familiar refrain voiced by everyone from enslavers to expenses claiming Members of Parliament) (2)
The papers reveal the financial dealings of the rich, global elite. The ensuing scandal has already caused the resignation of Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson and forced his UK counterpart David Cameron, into a series of ever more humiliating retreats as a result of his dead father’s finances being exposed. (1) Other clients listed included politicians from every continent, FIFA officials, Bollywood actors, Jackie Chan and footballer Lionel Messi.
However, given that the “legal” argument is established by the same kind of folk that declared the Maafa “legal” is may require checking any sense of morality at the door. Advocates of offshore companies and tax havens simply claim that it is good business enabling the maximisation of profits and are largely employed for the purpose of tax avoidance – which is “legal” (compared with tax evasion, which isn’t).
Tax avoidance schemes are frequently entrenched within a secretive, convoluted network of companies so it can be a challenge to determine where the avoidance ends and evasion starts. It may be too early to tell if the Panama papers will help to determine whether the £16bn a year the UK loses in tax fraud includes a sizable amount of evasion dressed up as avoidance. (3)
Nevertheless, even if deemed “legal,” when tax is not avoided it goes to the respective nation’s exchequer to fund public services. In today’s global economy nowhere is this more keenly felt than in Afrika that, according to the Guardian, is losing almost half of the global $100bn of annual illicit financial flows:
“Africa is losing more than $50bn (£33bn) every year in illicit financial outflows as governments and multinational companies engage in fraudulent schemes aimed at avoiding tax payments to some of the world’s poorest countries, impeding development projects and denying poor people access to crucial services.” (4)
In many people’s conceptions ‘Afrika’ and ‘corruption’ are more or less synonyms. What the Panama leaks have confirmed, and these are the papers from just one company, is the extent so-called corruption in Afrika is legitimised in Europe. As Claude Kabemba, Director of the Southern Africa Resource Watch asserts:
“How the British government deals – or currently fails to deal – with the illicit flow of funds to British tax havens, which come from the exploitation of mineral resources in Africa, is a big question. Many illicit financial flows from Africa involve systems set up by companies, which are listed on LSE, to ensure that as little money as possible stays in the host countries. Is the British financial system supporting corrupt companies – whether they are British or not is immaterial – to list on, and benefit from, its stock exchange?” (5)
The network then includes not just lawyers like Mossack Fonseca, but accountancy firms, governments, banks and financial institutions, lubricated by the super-rich. (6) So when UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne tweeted on October 29th 2014: “Tax evasion is not just illegal it’s immoral. People evading tax should be treated same as common thieves,” he clearly didn’t envisage the exposing of his Bullingdon buddy. (7)
That helped break the story is funded in part by the Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundation, Kellogg Foundation and the Rockefeller Family Fund and has links to the CIA. So it’s doubtful that it will avert its gaze from Russian and Syrian presidents Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad, who are not actually mentioned in the documents, anytime soon. It does, however, provide an opportunity, to redefine global corruption – if all the documentation is released. (8)
(1) Agbetu, Toyin (27/11/06) From regret to sorrow: Tony Blair’s insult to Africans. http://www.ligali.org/article.php?id=582.Robertson, Joshua (25/03/16).
(2) Cameron offshore fund row: PM accused of ‘hypocrisy’. (08/04/16) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35994283.
(3) Griffin, Oliver (17/12/15) HMRC loses £16bn to tax fraud each year .http://economia.icaew.com/news/december-2015/hmrc-loses-16bn-to-tax-fraud-each-year#sthash.UsDxQocm.dpuf.
(4) Anderson, Mark (02/02/15) Africa losing billions from fraud and tax avoidance. http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/feb/02/africa-tax-avoidance-money-laundering-illicit-financial-flows.
(5) Kabemba, Claude (02/03/14) Undermining Africa’s wealth. http://www.osisa.org/economic-justice/blog/undermining-africas-wealth.
(6) (05/04/16) Major banks deny claims they helped clients avoid tax. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35970340
(7) York, Chris (08/04/16) George Osborne Tweet On Tax Evasion Is Pretty Awkward For David Cameron Now. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/george-osborne-tax-evasion-david-cameron_uk_57074a3ae4b045b6729cf358?ref=yfp.
(8) Kimberley, Margaret (05/04/16) Freedom Rider: The Panama Papers Problem. http://www.blackagendareport.com/panama_papers_problem. Guzman, Timothy Alexander (07/04/16)The ‘Panama Papers’ and ‘Regime Change’: Who is Behind ‘The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ (ICIJ)? http://silentcrownews.com/wordpress/?p=4662
So we ask the question:
The Panama Papers – good business or ‘legal’ corruption??
1. Who defines what is “legal”?
2. Is tax avoidance and tax evasion a question of legality or morality?
3. What changes will come as a result of this leak?
4. How can Afrika safeguard itself and its resources from exploitation?
5. Will the releasing organisation having links to the CIA be a factor?
Our special guest is:
Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka: Resident guest who is Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and UNIA-ACL Ambassador for the UK and national co-Chair of the interim National Afrikan People’s Parliament. Bro. Ldr is a veteran activist of over 30 years standing, a featured columnist in The Whirlwind newspaper and author of Mosiah Daily Affirmations and Education: An Africentric Guide To Excellence.
Bro. Paul Ifayomi Grant: in addition to operating his own consultancy firm Paul Grant & Associates Ltd, Bro. Ifayomi is the author of six exciting and dynamic books ‘Niggers, Negroes, Black People and Afrikans’ and ‘Blue Skies for Afrikans’, ‘Saving Our Sons’, ‘Sankofa the Wise Man and His Amazing Friends’, ‘Why Willie Lynch Must Die’ and ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’. He is an active member of the Afrikan community and is involved in a number of community groups, most notably: Nubian Link www.nubianlink.org.uk a community education group, ABDF Ltd (formerly Afrikan Business Development Fund) www.abdf.co.uk a community economic development company which he conceived and co-founded, Vice-Chair and co-founder of the Nottingham Black Families in Education Parent Support Group which provides educational advocacy and support. He was a founder member of Brother II Brother an Afrikan men’s group that delivered rites of passage programmes (1998-2008). He is an executive member of the Foundation for the Sustainable Development of Africa (FOSDAF) www.fosdaf.org an international group promoting grassroots Afrikan economic empowerment.
Hear weekly discussions and lively debate on all issues affecting the Afrikan community, at home and abroad. We talk it straight and make it plain!
ASwA Hosted by Sis Kai Ouagadou-Mbandaka and Bro. Omowale Kwaw
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