Since the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) released what is referred to as the “Panama Papers”, there has been a flurry of activity taking place to see just who was involved, and to what extent.
Earlier this week, the ICIJ released a searchable database containing nearly 214,000 offshore entities created in 21 jurisdictions to make it easier for those who wish to continue to dig through the data.
It turns out that New York State’s financial regulator, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) did want to search the database. What investigators found from the published database and other leaked documents is that none other than Goldman Sachs and three other banks that are licensed by the state of New York had set up Panamanian shell companies. The other banks are BNP Paribas SA, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Standard Chartered Plc according to Bloomberg.
As it did with 13 other banks last month (including Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Commerzbank, ABN Amro Group, and Societe Generale), the NYDFS sent a letter to Goldman asking the bank to describe any internal or external investigations under way that relate to Mossack Fonseca or the shell companies it sponsored, including any probes launched by regulators in the U.S. or abroad.
None of the banks contacted by the NYDFS have been accused of wrongdoing.
While we are certainly not surprised by the involvement of powerful banks, least of all the vampire squid, who of course has its tentacles in every deep, dark corner of the world, we are still waiting for letters to be sent to banks asking for any information on client involvement with Rothschild, the domestic tax haven that nobody seems to be concerned with – yet.
via http://ift.tt/24Roors Tyler Durden