Panama Papers showed vulnerability of whole system: Panama president

Yahoo – AFP, May 3, 2016

Panama's President Juan Carlos Varela delivers keynote address at a luncheon
during the Washington Conference on the Americas at the State Department on
May 3, 2016 in Washington, DC (AFP Photo/Mandel Ngan)

Washington (AFP) - The scandal triggered by the Panama Papers leak of information on how and where the world's wealthy stash funds to avoid detection or taxes underscored many countries' vulnerabilities, President Juan Carlos Varela said Tuesday.

Speaking at the State Department in Washington, the Panamanian president said the documents "reveal a worldwide problem, that involves many countries with legal and financial institutions" vulnerable to actions "that are not in the public interest."

Mossack Fonseca's founder lawyer Ramon

 Fonseca is a friend of Panama's President 

Juan Carlos Varela (shown here) and, until 

March, served as a senior advisor in his 

cabinet (AFP Photo/Rodrigo Arangua)

To that end, countries need to improve transparency and information sharing, Varela argued.

"We urge the international community to maintain a respectful dialogue through diplomatic channels," he added.

Panama and the United States last week signed an agreement on sharing of back account information in a step Panama's finance minister hailed as proof of his country's cooperation in fighting tax evasion.

The bilateral agreement comes weeks after the Panama Papers, a series of reports around the world revealing how one Panamanian law firm set up offshore entities to help the world's wealthy stash their assets.

Following the revelations, Panama has come under intense international pressure to open its financial sector to greater transparency or risk being put back on a global "tax haven" blacklist.

While the government has long said it is committed to that goal and has made some reforms in that direction, it has so far not signed up to an international standard on automatic sharing of tax information set by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Panama's President Juan Carlos Varela, left, sits with Singapore's President 

Tony Tan, right, for a meeting at the Istana or presidential palace on Friday, 

April 22, 2016, in Singapore. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

Related Article:

Switzerland, Singapore join clampdown on bank secrecy (Update)

Matthew message (Channelled by Suzanne Ward, March 20, 2016)

Matthew Ward - April 20, 2016

Matthew Ward

With loving greetings from all souls at this station, this is Matthew. We begin by addressing the issue that most of your expressed concerns pertain to, global reset. What is its purpose, who is behind it, and how will it affect your bank accounts and investments? While we have not used the more recently-coined term, “global reset,” several years ago we started talking about what it is—the changeover from your current monetary system, which has no foundation whatsoever, to a system based on precious metals. The transition process will be handled as smoothly as possible to minimize disruption in financial services and anyone whose money has been honestly earned and invested need have no concerns.

Whoever sets the rules for the world’s banking and lending institutions and interest rates controls the economy. After individuals in Bavaria who felt superior to the masses designated themselves “the Illuminati” and subsequently expanded their influence in all directions, that secret society has applied their rules worldwide. They did so with ease, as long before they came on the scene, the stage had been set by a few rich and powerful families whose greed, ingenuity and ruthlessness gave them economic control.

Global reset is a significant step toward ending that centuries-long control. Although the term is not used, its purpose—to stabilize the global economy by putting all currencies on the gold standard—is one of several provisions in NESARA, the acronym for National Economic Security and Reformation Act that was written by some of Earth’s Golden Age master planners in collaboration with evolved residents of Earth. Even today relatively few people are aware of this United States legislation signed by President Bill Clinton in 2000 because those who knew about it were bound by a “gag order” that he and other Illuminati members of the government imposed.

After the Act became publicized to some extent via dissemination of information transmitted by off-planet sources to their receivers, the government set up a disinformation Web site—National Economic Stabilization [later changed to Security] and Recovery Act—and incorrect information about NESARA was circulated to mislead people who had heard about it. Never has it been an investment program, nor does it include the delivery of “prosperity packages,” depositing millions of dollars in bank accounts or cancelling legitimate debts.

The authentic NESARA was to be announced worldwide and go into effect September 12, 2001. To prevent that world-changing event, President George W. Bush and his Illuminati colleagues ordered the infamous betrayal of their country commonly known as “9/11.” That also let them move forward on their pre-planned invasion of Iraq under the “war on terror” banner.

It would be natural to wonder why a program that has monumental global ramifications began with legislation in the United States. First, NESARA’s provisions had to be framed within your laws; otherwise, it would be a matter of souls from other civilizations imposing their ideas upon the people of Earth, and universal laws prohibit that kind of interference even when it is in the people’s best interests.

Second, it was imperative that the profound changes the Act contains be implemented first in the United States because it was the most Illuminati-ridden and the most powerful nation in your world. Although the latter status now shares the spotlight, that government’s actions still heavily influence what happens in many other countries. And it was necessary to act on NESARA’s provision that changes the United States’ corporate status that had been surreptitiously set up by the Illuminati to a republic, as was intended by the colonists who waged the war for independence.

The Act’s primary economic thrust is something that could not be spelled out in any legislation: legally obtaining the vast wealth that has been illegally and immorally amassed by the Illuminati and using those funds to eliminate impoverishment, which, by and large, is of their creating. Let us cite an example that you may remember from previous messages. The hurricane that devastated Haiti was caused by the Illuminati’s weather control technology; after the storm subsided, former US presidents Bush and Clinton went there to divert into their own pockets the monies donated for aid and reconstruction. As for the people of Haiti, these six years later they still are living in unsanitary, substandard conditions just as before the hurricane hit, and many residences are makeshift hovels amidst the rubble of destroyed communities.

The unconscionable disparity between the haves and the have-nots in your world caused an imbalance in Earth’s energy field that must be remedied, and other NESARA provisions also are designed to do that. They cancel debts incurred through IMF loans; end usurious interest rates; topple the privately-owned Federal Reserve System, whose tentacles span the globe, and its collection agency, the IRS; and end the currency trading that has enabled the Illuminati to reap fortunes, and that is where global reset fits in.

Recently a reader wrote: “I remember last year, or the year before...he [Matthew] said we wouldn’t get the global money exchange till 2017.” That is a considerable misinterpretation of what we said:

That said, we happily tell you that the decade of delay in your society’s advancement will end in your year 2017, a most propitious timeframe indeed with a celestial window similar to the one during the December 2012 solstice that eased Earth into fourth density. [September 23, 2014]

After that message went out, numerous readers had questions about that statement, and we want to mention one: Do you mean that no important developments can happen until the end of 2017? Dear brothers and sisters, important developments have been happening ever since Earth embarked on her ascension course 80-some years ago! However, it is likely that the first development to be unmistakably obvious to your whole world will be global reset. This complex process requires the cooperation of a large number of national leaders, and, with ever-rising vibrations, their agreement to proceed could come this year. If not that soon, please don’t be disappointed—an honest, secure foundation for your global economy is on the near horizon.

The “Panama papers” will lead to another significant economic reform. The international law firm whose records were hacked and released to the media always has acted within the laws that regulate the establishing of shell companies; firms in the United States and other countries that also set up these kinds of companies for their clients are regulated as well. After providing this service, the firms no longer are involved. While it has long been known that many wealthy individuals are using shell companies to hide their money and avoid paying taxes on it, there was no evidence to prove their criminal activity. The Panamanian firm’s files with names of their clients’ companies gave a starting point for the ongoing investigation into the maze of illegal steps taken by the owners to cover their tracks, discoveries that will result in striking down the laws that permit the formation of “shells.”

“This year I've been receiving a lot of messages from different people about the tithe. I would like to know what Matthew has to say about it.” Giving 10% of one’s income to the church was a Vatican edict that enabled popes and others high in the church hierarchy to live in opulence and parish priests to live comfortably while poverty was the lot of many in the Catholic congregation. Other religions adopted the tithe to build grand churches to “praise God.” Church is nota building, it is each individual’s personal relationship with God; sharing from the heart is godliness, the tithe was devised by man with greed as its taproot. When the peoples realize that Christianity was organized by the heads of church and state to control the masses and enrich themselves and other religions also were corrupted by the infiltration of dark minds, all dogmas will fall by the wayside and the pureness of spirituality will endure.

“I just heard about this movement for a new world government. Matthew assured us this would neverhappen!!!!” In many messages we have assured you that the Illuminati never will attain their goal of world domination. Without knowing what this reader heard, all we can say to all of you is, please do not associate a centralized governing body with One World Government or New World Order, two designations for the Illuminati’s global domination plan that includes eliminating most of the population—the “useless eaters,” as attributed to Henry Kissinger. We reassure you, that plan is doomed because their global network came apart at the seams and the fragments are unraveling.

Freedom burns in the heart of humankind, yet rarely have Earth’s peoples lived freely. For long ages strongmen increased their landholdings and power by brutal conquest—troops were forced into battle; untold numbers were killed, captured, or sold into slavery; and all except the privileged few lived at bare subsistence level. After governing systems were labeled, the Illuminati made a mockery of democracy by putting ones within their ranks as candidates; rigging elections; and bribing, blackmailing, threatening or assassinating members of governments. They declared what country must be fought to keep us safe from that kind of government or that ideology, and they started civil and international wars.

Like their forbearers, they thrived on war. By producing and selling weapons, ammunitions and other war machinery to both sides, they profited handsomely. By setting new national borders or simply taking over a country and subjugating its populace, they kept expanding their empire. By infiltrating governments, military forces, intelligence agencies, judicial and economic systems, religions, education, media, commerce, multinational corporations, the medical field, film industry and entertainment venues, eventually they controlled everything that impacts life in your world. By relentlessly creating fear, grief, unjustness and poverty, conditions that produce the energy that fuels them, they have kept your world in their clutches.

That long sad chapter of your history is nearing its end. It is Gaia’s desire that all peoples of Earth live freely, peaceably, cooperatively across boundaries, across seas, and all share equally in the planet’s natural abundance. In keeping with her desire, the best aspects of your governing philosophies and visionary ideas will be blended into a global system led by individuals with moral and spiritual integrity and whose wise leadership will maintain peace and prosperity. Beloved family, the world you are helping to create in linear time and exists in the continuum—Earth’s Golden Age abloom in all its glory—is grandly flourishing within that benevolent governance.

“If Light on the planet actually is continually intensifying, why is there still so much random violence? Why aren’t peace talks successful in ending wars? It is lamentably so that progress in those respects is moving slowly. By and large, this is due to individuals’ resistance to change what they are accustomed to—a belief, policy, tradition, procedure, habit or anything else that is familiar. Let us give an example that you may not have considered as a deterrent to raising the consciousness level and spiritual awareness of your society.

Some candidates running for office in the United States are pledging adherence to the Constitution, a document compiled when owning slaves was white people’s right and only men were considered capable of voting intelligently. Well before the Bill of Rights granted citizenship to former slaves and permitted women to cast ballots, there was A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. The second amendment, written about 225 years ago, provided for the young country’s readiness in case the British tried to regain control and arms were muskets. Yet many citizens cite this amendment as their right to have weapons designed for today’s battlefields, and some believe they will need to use those weapons when “… they’re going to declare martial law so they can take our guns away.” Energy generated by those thoughts and feelings not only adds momentum to the proliferation of weapons, it is manifesting a standoff because it’s conflicting with energy directed toward ending violence and achieving a world at peace.

By no means is that the only resistance factor, but its deterrence to an awakened society needs to be recognized. What is greatly heartening is, as vibratory levels keep rising, increasingly people will become enlightened and eagerly welcome progressive changes.

“Would you please be so kind as to ask Matthew about the flat earth and the firmament as mentioned in the ancient scriptures and also, in the bible.” We say that individuals who long ago recorded their celestial observations did so without the knowledge that a solar system with one flat planet amidst the spheres defies universal laws of physics. The belief that Earth is flat gives no credence to your scientific knowledge, and it is the same with the belief that a few thousand years ago God created Earth in six days.

We also have been asked about the “New Earth,” described as a pristine planet where light beings will be transported while the dark ones stay on the “first” Earth to continue battling and devastating the environment. Eons ago in linear time the soul Gaia chose to incarnate as a planet, which somewhere along the line came to be called Earth, and she has no intention of abandoning her body or occupying two. Your technology, which has been suppressed and misused by the Illuminati, and the advanced technology that your universal family will bring when they can safely join you, will restore Earth to her original Eden self. It is her destiny to once again be a healthy, beauteous, peaceful homeland for all of her residents.

Lighted beings throughout this universe honor your steadfast service that is bringing ever nearer that wondrous era, and we are with you in loving spirit all along your journey.

LOVE and PEACE

Suzanne Ward

Website: The Matthew Books

Email: suzy@matthewbooks.com

Related Articles:

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President Obama Just Took a Major Step in Response to the Panama Papers

Panama Papers reveal Hong Kong's murky financial underbelly

Yahoo – AFP, Caroline Henshaw, April 14, 2016

The Panama Papers have exposed the key role played by Hong Kong and
Singapore in funnelling wealth into tax havens (AFP Photo/Anthony Wallace)

Hong Kong (AFP) - Jasmine Li was still a student when she opened her first offshore bank account through Mossack Fonseca Hong Kong, but the shady world she entered that day had been part of the city's underbelly for decades.

The granddaughter of China's then fourth-ranked politician was among dozens named in a vast cache of documents leaked from the Panama law firm that have given a glimpse into how the rich and powerful hide their money.

But the so-called Panama Papers, released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists this month, have also exposed the key role played by Hong Kong and Singapore in funnelling that wealth into tax havens.

More than 16,300 of Panamanian law 

firm Mossack Fonseca's active shell 

companies were incorporated through its

 Hong Kong and China offices (AFP

Photo/Johannes Eisele)

Mossack Fonseca's Hong Kong offices were their busiest in the world, the ICIJ analysis showed, setting up thousands of shell companies including some linked to China's top political brass, the city's richest man, Li Ka-shing, and movie star Jackie Chan.

Experts say the Asian financial hubs have already channelled billions into tax havens, and the Boston Consulting Group predicts they will be the world's fastest-growing offshore centres over the next five years.

"Hong Kong is set up to make it easy for people to do business, and it is very easy to do business here," said Douglas Clark, a barrister with one of Hong Kong's largest chambers.

"But when it's easy to do business then it's easy to do any type of business, legal or illegal."

Offshore companies are not necessarily illegal, but they operate on the fringes of what is allowed and their opaque structures make it easy to conceal ill-gotten or politically inconvenient wealth.

They have proved a boon for Hong Kong and Singapore, which are known not only for their financial expertise but also light-touch regulation, discretion and non-cooperation with foreign tax authorities.

Both are already on regulators' radars -- the EU briefly added Hong Kong to its tax blacklist last year -- but experts say they are unlikely to do anything to jeopardise the lucrative offshore business.

'Turning a blind eye'

Domiciling offshore has a long history in the region. In 1984, then trading house Jardine, Matheson & Co, one of the most powerful companies in Hong Kong's colonial history, relocated to Bermuda citing concerns about the city's handover to China.

"Hong Kong's history as a financial centre that specialises in turning a blind eye to things that would be investigated elsewhere goes right back to the 1960s," said financial commentator Tom Holland.

A company name plate is displayed next to the entrance of Mossack 

Fonseca & Co. (Asia) Limited in Hong Kong, China April 5, 2016. Reuters/Bobby Yip

Today, Chinese investors use offshore companies legally in Hong Kong to bypass red tape, take advantage of tax breaks for foreign investors and circumvent strict capital controls.

Hong Kong University law professor Douglas Arner said it has become "perfectly normal" for companies to park money from overseas operations offshore, as the city does not tax profits made elsewhere.

But their widespread use has earned Hong Kong and Singapore reputations for murky dealings, and the Tax Justice Network ranked them among the least transparent places in the world in last year's financial secrecy index.

In Singapore, seen as more rigorous in policing its financial sector, the TJN said a culture has evolved of enforcing the law domestically but tolerating the illicit money that flows in from crimes committed overseas.

"Singapore is not only a secrecy jurisdiction... but also a tax haven, providing numerous tax avoidance and evasion opportunities," the group said in its profile of the city state.

'They'll find snakes'

Clark said criminals, drug dealers, email scammers and corrupt Chinese officials have turned to Hong Kong to try to hide their money offshore.

But even when used legally, offshore companies can make it harder to sniff out crime.

Local shareholder activist David Webb said three-quarters of companies listed in Hong Kong are incorporated in the Cayman Islands or Bermuda.

More than 500 banks, their subsidiaries and branches have worked with Mossack

 Fonseca since the 1970s to help clients manage offshore companies (AFP Photo/

Niklas Halle'n)

Webb also noted that stock exchange rules do not require listed companies to say who owns any British Virgin Islands companies they make acquisitions from, thereby fostering fraud and corruption.

"I don't think there is any appetite in the stock exchange to look under that particular rock, because they'll find snakes if they do," he said. "They see tighter regulation as a problem."

An exchange spokesman said all companies have to comply with the law and exchange rules, and those incorporated in China and Hong Kong count for more than half of the exchange's market capitalisation.

Despite the controversy, few expect authorities in Hong Kong or Singapore to change their regulations surrounding offshore dealings any time soon given how lucrative the industry is.

And, because the cities' own laws haven't been broken, experts say even international efforts to stop tax cheats are unlikely to make any difference.

"If anything, this is going to make people even more careful when they set up offshore holdings," said Clark.

"People will make sure investments are structured in such a way that if they are ever revealed, you won't be in trouble."

Hong Kong authorities said they were aware of the Panama Papers allegations. Singapore's monetary authority said it was investigating and "will not hesitate to take firm action" against wrongdoers.

#NEWSGRAPHIC #PanamaPapers highlight Hong Kong's extensive offshore banking connections pic.twitter.com/aftCv6twN1

— AFP news agency (@AFP) April 14, 2016

The Tax Justice Network's Financial Secrecy Index (AFP Photo/Alain

Bommenel, Jean Michel Cornu)

Related Articles:

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Pakistan PM's family hit back after Panama Papers leak

Yahoo - AFP, April 4, 2016

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been in power since 2013 (AFP Photo)

The family of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Monday defended their ownership of offshore companies after they were named in the Panama Papers, one of the biggest media leaks in history.

Revenue generation is particularly sensitive for Pakistan's government, which is receiving a $6.6 billion bailout package from the IMF and has a tax-to-GDP ratio of 11 percent, among the lowest in the world.

The daughter of Pakistan's Prime 

Minister Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz (R), 

pictured with her mother Kulsoom Nawaz 

in 2013, is reported to own London real 

estate through offshore companies

 (AFP Photo/Arif Ali)

The leak, comprising 11.5 million documents from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, shows how some of the world's most powerful people have secreted their money offshore.

Among those named are three of Sharif's four children -- daughter Maryam, who has been tipped to be his political successor, and sons Hasan and Hussain -- with the records showing they owned London real estate through offshore companies administered by the firm.

"Nawaz Sharif does not own any company but having companies in the name of his children also raises questions," Umar Cheema of the Center for Investigative Reporting in Pakistan, told AFP.

The centre is partnered with the Investigative Consortium of Independent Journalists, which spent months poring over the documents before Sunday's online release.

"There are more than 200 Pakistanis which our report has identified, and they include lawyers, lawmakers and some people from the judiciary," Cheema said.

Opposition leader Imran Khan called for action against Sharif.

"Our stance vindicated again as Sharif's wealth stashed abroad exposed," he tweeted, adding the country's accountability watchdog, tax authorities and election commission must take action.

But Sharif's son Hussain told the country's largest private broadcaster Geo his family had done "nothing wrong".

"Those apartments are ours and those offshore companies are also ours," he said.

"There is nothing wrong with it and I have never concealed them, nor do I need to do that.

"It is according to British law and laws of other countries that it is a legal way to avoid unnecessary tax via offshore companies."

Hussain said he left Pakistan in 1992 and therefore is not resident, adding Pakistani tax law "says that if you are not staying in Pakistan for more than 138 days, then you are not required to declare your assets".

"We voluntarily present ourselves before it or any other judicial and investigative institution in Pakistan," he said in response to Khan's call for the National Accountability Bureau to investigate.

Several world leaders, including Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz, the prime 

minister of Pakistan and the children of the president of Azerbaijan, also control

 offshore companies (AFP Photo)

Low tax collection

A spokesman for Sharif family late Monday responded to the media reports, saying "Panama leaks and ICIJ have made no allegations of wrongdoing against Sharif family,".

"None of the corporations mentioned are owned or run by Mr Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister of Pakistan," the spokesman said in a statement, which was shared by Maryam on her Twitter account.

The statement said Maryam Nawaz "is merely a trustee of one of the corporations owned by Mr Hussain Nawaz, which would only entitle her to distribute the assets to Mr Hussain Nawaz's family if required".

As prime minister, Sharif has invited investment in Pakistan. But the latest revelations could raise uncomfortable questions about why his family has kept their wealth abroad.

A report commissioned by Britain's Department for International Development last year said Pakistan's economy was facing an "existential crisis" stemming from its woeful tax collection rates and inability to finance itself.

Ali Nadir, a financial analyst, said the use of offshore companies was in some cases legitimate.

But he added: "I believe political and business leaders will be hard-pressed to take the privacy defence given the worldwide move towards a better track of money, tax evasion, laundering and corruption.

"This may also start more locally focused probes as there are likely to be disclosure issues."

The Panama Papers have whipped up a storm of controversy over offshore wealth, ensnaring political leaders, sports figures and underworld members across the globe in the scandal.

'Panama Papers' law firm under the media's lenses https://t.co/m8gCZ9ZGz5 pic.twitter.com/2wNv9zcKuz

— AFP news agency (@AFP) April 4, 2016

The Panama Papers: key facts on the huge journalists' investigation into tax 

evasion (AFP Photo/Thomas Saint-Cricq, Philippe Mouche)

Related Articles:

'Panama Papers' law firm under the media's lenses

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