Trump Tax Blockbuster: German media reveals how Chinese bribes for Siemens products flowed

German media reveals how Chinese bribes for Siemens products flowed

German media reveals how Chinese bribes for Siemens products flowed - ICIJ - International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

Brexit triggers unlikely civil service renaissance
LESSONS FROM THE UK: Brexit is placing a huge strain on the British government but has re-energised parts of the civil service, says the Institute for Government's Jill Rutter.
'Milne told Guthrie to sack ABC journalists of his own accord'
ABC REVIEW: When the erstwhile ABC chair pressured his former MD to fire journalists who annoyed the government, it was his own decision, according to a review by Mike Mrdak, secretary of the Department of Communications.
APS executives trail private sector on skills, says Terry Moran
CAPABILITY: Underinvestment in skills development is leaving bureaucrats lagging behind business, argues the former head of the APS. 

More On The NY Times Trump Tax Blockbuster

Banker to stand trial over involvement in $170m home loan swindle

Former CBA mobile lender accused of making 121 home loan applications worth $36m for clients underpinned with fake payslips, documentation.

Remember the anonymous Op-Ed from within the Trump administration?  We’re hardly talking about it any more, and indeed so many “major” stories from just a few weeks ago seem to be slipping from our grasp.  Why?

The naïve hypothesis is that we keep turning our attention to the very latest events because so much is happening so quickly. But there have been periods in the past when a lot was happening, such as the financial crisis of a decade ago, and the news cycle seemed “stickier” then. So this can’t be the entire story.

An alternate theory is that there are actually very few “true events” happening, but there is lots of froth on the surface. Maybe there is only one “big event” happening, one major transformation underway: a change in the willingness of American political leaders to break with previous norms. If the change is mostly in one direction, then maybe it’s enough to debate only the most recent news.

That may sound abstract, so here is a concrete analogy. Let’s say you are on a sinking ship. You might focus more on the current water level than on where it was in the recent past, except maybe to help you estimate the rate of flooding. In more technical terms, talking about the event of the day is a “sufficient statistic” for talking about the last two years.

The shorter news cycle also may result from greater political polarization. If people don’t frame events in a common way, then a discussion of those events might not last very long. Conversation will return very quickly to the underlying differences in worldviews, and discussion of any particular event will get trampled by a much larger philosophical debate. It does seem like we have been repeating the same general arguments about Trump, populism, gender and governing philosophy for some time now, and we are not about to stop.

Possibly the shorter news cycles are also a result of greater general disillusionment with politics and especially with elites, a theme outlined in Martin Gurri’s forthcoming book “The Revolt of the Public.” The really fun stuff might instead be watching mixed martial arts, debating social norms about gender and browsing the Instagram feeds of your friends.

Finally, maybe we’re all just better at digesting news events more quickly. Perhaps every possible observation, insight and argument gets put on Facebook and Twitter within a day or two, and much of this material is archived. What’s the point of repeating these debates every few months?

That is from my latest Bloomberg piece.  I am thankful to Anecdotal for a related point and insight.

 Tax avoidance 101 Jason Braganza

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Helena Bengtsson described her youthful self as the “strange girl in the corner of the room using Excel.” And now? She’s leading the field when it comes to data journalism.

For our monthly Meet the Investigators, we spoke with Helena about the tools of her craft, and the power of data. Her self-confessed “old-fashioned” methods have helped unearth many stories in Sweden.

“That’s what I love about data journalism… you can go in and both break myths and also find out if it is true.”

Swiss top court knocks down bid to extend banking secrecy Reuters
This news is huge. See our November 2016 blog: Trial of whistleblower Rudolf Elmer breaks open Swiss banking secrecy at a new level
‘I had a moral duty’: whistleblowers on why they spoke up The Guardian
Forbidden Stories – The Daphne Project: One Year After
New Stories – the revelations continue
New report on Golden Visas: EU Commission must close loophole for criminal money in Europe Sven Giegold
Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father The New York Times
See also, from August 2016: The Great Trump Tax Mysteries: Is He Hiding Loopholes, Errors, or Something More Serious? Vanity Fair, by TJN’s Nicholas Shaxson, author of The Finance Curse: How Global Finance Is Making Us All Poorer, and Treasure Islands: Tax Havens And The Men Who Stole The World
Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PwC targeted by Australian Taxation Office Australian Financial Review
Unilever chief caught up in tax row: Firm refuses to reveal what Swiss – based Paul Polman pays on his huge earnings This Is Money
Cites TJN’s chief executive Alex Cobham
The Danske Bank Scandal Is the Tip of the Iceberg Foreign Policy
‘Financial institutions and the governments that regulate them aren’t doing nearly enough to prevent money laundering.’
Denmark has not sought Russian help in Danske Bank case Reuters
Swiss bank UBS on trial in France over alleged tax fraud Reuters
Ex-French President Nicolas Sarkozy Loses First Corruption Appeal OCCRP
Tory MPs back Cayman Islands tax haven after £18,000 trip The Ferret
Bastos is said to have evaded over 100 million Swiss Francs Tages Anzeiger (In German)
‘The Swiss-Angolan businessman Jean-Claude Bastos has moved profits through a company in Mauritius, say the tax investigators. His spokesperson denies the allegations.’ Hat tip: Will Fitzgibbon – ‘alleged tax crimes probe re offshore management and money flows of Angola’s sovereign wealth fund. Huge questions for KPMG, too.’
German media reveals how Chinese bribes for Siemens products flowed ICIJ


Fairness is complex
KELLY O'DWYER: We should understand the complexity of the fairness debate, while re-doubling our efforts for people who need a hand up.

· FATCA news and updates - a lodgment tool developed for FATCA reporters with less than 50 individual and 50 organisation reportable accounts.

· FATCA small reporter tool - guide released to help with preparation of the foreign account tax compliance act report using the small reporter tool.

1. Fifield knew about plans to sack Guthrie a fortnight before dumping

   
   Communications Minister Mitch Fifield tells the Senate he knew the ABC board was planning to sack managing director Michelle Guthrie a fortnight before she was formally dumped.

NSW Labor pledges extra $280 million to upgrade train stations if elected

Opposition Leader Luke Foley announced a major boost for station upgrades.