Here in an article that appeared in Panama News, editor Eric Jackson posted a recent report that has startled the financial world.  And he posted a cute video above (Click on it to view)

Editor’s note: The revelations are just beginning. An international consortium of reporters, working with computer hackers and whistle blowers in the financial services industries, has compiled a huge database with the names of more than 100,000 people and companies with shell companies and heretofore secret bank accounts in a number of tax havens, including Panama. While Europeans hiding money in the British Virgin Islands may have been the first to be outed, many more revelations will come out over many months and these will affect Panama’s offshore financial services sector and those who do business with it. Very likely there will be political careers destroyed in a number of countries and for self-protection if nothing else it is likely that politicians in these countries will direct their wrath against Panama and other countries with corporate and banking secrecy.
Offshore Leaks, Swiss version, points finger at 200-300 Swiss lawyers
by Ellen Wallace — genevalunch.com

Swiss lawyers who have helped wealthy people avoid tax by encouraging them to use secret company offshore accounts are among the first to be named in the Offshore Leaks project that came to light last week.

Several media worldwide that are involved in the project will be naming names starting this week, with two Swiss media among the first Sunday, April 7 to provide details.

Naturalized Swiss photographer Gunter Sachs and Peter Hafter, a Zurich lawyer who handled how Sachs’s money would be shared among his heirs, are among the first people to be singled out by Le Matin Dimanche and SonntagsZeitung in their Sunday editions, which quickly ran out at many newsstands.

Sachs died in Gstaad in May 2011, and Hafter, 83, has gradually retired from his role as one of the “pillars,” says Le Matin Dimanche, of Switzerland’s largest law firm, Lenz & Staehelin. The group has 150 lawyers, according to the newspaper, and Hafter made a name for himself defending Elisabeth Kopp, former federal councilor who resigned under pressure in 1989, and Martin Ebner, activist shareholder and founder of BZ Bank who was acquitted in 2003 of charges of insider trading, in well-publicized legal cases.

The two newspapers’ research, based on 2.5 documents leaked by an anonymous source, included e-mail correspondence that they say makes it clear some 200 to 300 Swiss-based lawyers (out of 9,000 in Switzerland) have been actively involved in hiding clients’ money from tax authorities.

Summary of who’s who

The first lengthy article Sunday details accounts held by tax-free companies in the Cook Islands, for example, held by Sachs but not openly in his name, and matches these against his Swiss income tax statements, which the newspapers obtained copies of. Proceeds from last year’s auctions of some of his famous art collection, CHF62 million [$66,559,480 US] for 260 pieces, according to Le Matin Dimanche, reportedly do not appear in his tax records.

The Offshore Leaks project involves 86 journalists from 46 countries who have been combing through the massive number of documents. ICIJ, the International Center for Investigative Journalism, is publishing an ongoing series of articles, “Secrecy for Sale.” The series includes an initial who’s who of people using offshore accounts, some most likely fraudulently, others legally.

Switzerland’s Bilan is one of several publications around the globe that have questioned the integrity of the documents, since the source remains anonymous: Myret Zaki wrote in an April 5 editorial that the question must be asked, who is behind this and what is their private agenda — since heads will roll, to what extent are the journalists who are working on the exposures the dupes of this person?

Le Matin Dimanche’s print edition carried a separate short article about the response from the director of ICIJ, Gerard Ryle, who brushed off criticism about the source, saying that people should concentrate on the findings, rather than where they came from. The information was provided anonymously to the ICIJ free of charge.

Arguments made that it’s time for laws to change

The exposures are also starting to prompt questions about the need for changes to laws around the world that permit so many riches — according to Sunday’s Washington Post on Twitter, as much as one-third of the world’s wealth — to escape the taxman.

Reactions to the leaks have already begun to roll in from governments at all levels. Canton Bern, when questioned by Le Matin about Guntar Sachs, responded by saying it may need to re-open his files. A number of cantonal officials have told various Swiss media, when phoned for reactions to the leaks, that the federal government now needs to take firm steps. Four cantonal banks are among those mentioned in the documents, although as Bilan underscores, for now their activities are a matter of speculation only.

Swiss banks tightening screws on clients who don’t declare their assets

Banks nevertheless appear to be stepping up their own protective measures. Credit Suisse and Bank Julius Baer over the weekend said they will now insist that all German clients, for example, provide statements that their assets are listed with German tax authorities and if they cannot provide such certificates, their accounts will be closed.

The moves are similar to what banks in Switzerland have done in response to FATCA, the American law that requires banks worldwide to announce to the IRS (US tax authority) accounts held by any of its citizens. As a result of FATCA, Swiss banks are closing US citizen accounts unless the account holder signs documents showing the assets have been declared to the IRS.

The two banks’ announcemenrts come on the heels of disclosures last week that the former French budget minister, Jérome Cahuzac, held money in Swiss accounts. Bank Julius Baer, asked in 2012 to move the money to Singapore, insisted on a certificate showing the money was declared in France; the bank says it received the document, which appears to have been a fake.