BREAKING-LEAK:Identities+emails of rich hiding cash offshore $32trillion's worth

[whisper]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/apr/03/offshore-secrets-offshore-tax-haven

Millions of internal records have leaked from Britain's offshore financial industry, exposing for the first time the identities of thousands of holders of anonymous wealth from around the world, from presidents to plutocrats, the daughter of a notorious dictator and a British millionaire accused of concealing assets from his ex-wife.

The leak of 2m emails and other documents, mainly from the offshore haven of the British Virgin Islands (BVI), has the potential to cause a seismic shock worldwide to the booming offshore trade, with a former chief economist at McKinsey estimating that wealthy individuals may have as much as $32tn (£21tn) stashed in overseas havens.

[...]
The names have been unearthed in a novel project by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists [ICIJ], in collaboration with the Guardian and other international media, who are jointly publishing their research results this week.

The naming project may be extremely damaging for confidence among the world's wealthiest people, no longer certain that the size of their fortunes remains hidden from governments and from their neighbours.

[...]
As well as Britons hiding wealth offshore, an extraordinary array of government officials and rich families across the world are identified, from Canada, the US, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Iran, China, Thailand and former communist states.
The data seen by the Guardian shows that their secret companies are based mainly in the British Virgin Islands.

Sample offshore owners named in the leaked files include:

[...]
• US: Offshore clients include Denise Rich, ex-wife of notorious oil trader Marc Rich, who was controversially pardoned by President Clinton on tax evasion charges. She put $144m into the Dry Trust, set up in the Cook Islands.

[...]

The whistleblowing group WikiLeaks caused a storm of controversy in 2010 when it was able to download almost two gigabytes of leaked US military and diplomatic files.

The new BVI data, by contrast, contains more than 200 gigabytes, covering more than a decade of financial information about the global transactions of BVI private incorporation agencies. It also includes data on their offshoots in Singapore, Hong Kong and the Cook Islands in the Pacific.

someone has to show them the way to these guys. Let tell them a big Welcome

[Le Happy Merchant]

This is bigger than Bitcoin.

I expect this to have a positive effect on the price, but I hate to think that Bitcoin will gain a reputation as the way the rich hide how rich they are.

Also: holy shit 32 trillion with a T?!? What the fuck.

[Mark Oates]

This is good because it'll throw some cold water on the blazing flame of press that has been on bitcoin.

We need to cool down for awhile.

[Bowjob]

Mt.Gox, please FFS. Fix your site. We'd see 1 Trillion soon O;

[Gordonium]

This is good because it'll throw some cold water on the blazing flame of press that has been on bitcoin.

We need to cool down for awhile.

Quite the opposite. This is perfect example why every rational person should keep their money in Bitcoins.

[blogospheroid]

The pseudo-anonymous nature of bitcoin will prevent anyone from legally claiming that they lost it. 
So, even genuine losses like hacks cannot be offset as losses for tax purposes. What effect this will have on bitcoin as a store of wealth is something unknown. I was once wondering if bitcoin could act as a liquidity vacuum taking away value from nearly all wealth stores. After this thought, I'm not sure.

ofcourse, there are other ways of accomplishing the same as mentioned in the article of the dude who send money offshore and claimed it as a property loss, to hide assets from his wife.

[goxed]

pastebin or it didn't happen

[whisper]

This is what ONE trillion dollars looks like, imagine 32 of these:

[John (John K.)]

This is what ONE trillion dollars looks like, imagine 32 of these:

I'd imagine most of the 32trillion here is in digital form, and was never printed for circulation.

[Gordonium]

In the future, you can carry 32 trillion in Bitcoins like this.

[Lethos]

What sad is that even a small 5% percent (of 21T) to would easily make 1.1 Trillion British Debt disappear over night. It is one of our islands after all, still governed by the Queen from what I understand. If she wanted to, she probably could take a piece of that pie.

I'm not saying seizure of funds is right, but neither is tax evasion, which I'm sure most of these hiding cash in offshore accounts are probably guilty of, if not other things. Investigate and prove they are guilty and reap huge rewards HMRC (and other agencies).

[whisper]

It is but someone should introduce them to this fact

[cypherdoc]

And you wonder why we're going to the moon?

[b!z]

In the future, you can carry 32 trillion in Bitcoins like this.

Lost USB drive = lost 32 trillion USD

[BTC Books]

And you wonder why we're going to the moon?

No shit.

But crap - 32 Trillion?  If there's that kind of dark money out there that can be discovered, there's five times that, that hasn't been.  At least.

It's like all the debt, everywhere from everything.

[rpietila]

In the future, you can carry 32 trillion in Bitcoins like this.

Lost USB drive = lost 32 trillion USD

Actually no. Not lost 32 trillion USD, but redistributed 32 trillion USD to all other Bitcoin holders.

Yay. My stake is then worth millions

[ehoffman]

In the future, you can carry 32 trillion in Bitcoins like this.

Lost USB drive = lost 32 trillion USD

That's why you should make several offline backups, and keep them at at least 2 or more geographical locations (house, job, in the cloud, friend's house, etc.) and not just on you/in your house (in case of disaster, you don't want to lose all your copies!).  Of course, double-encrypt them

[Piper67]

In the future, you can carry 32 trillion in Bitcoins like this.

Lost USB drive = lost 32 trillion USD

Rubbish, of course. Lost USB drive, go to bank, open safe deposit box, pull out paper wallet, restore, hello 32 trillion nice seeing you again. Gold and cash cannot be backed up, Bitcoin can.

[Endgame]

The implications of this will be enormous. First Cypress and now British Virgin Isles. It seems tax havens are no longer a safe place to store money.

[mobodick]

The implications of this will be enormous. First Cypress and now British Virgin Isles. It seems tax havens are no longer a safe place to store money.

That's good because we will finaly get some tax moneys back.