“ProPublica has obtained a vast trove of Internal Revenue Service data on the tax returns of thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people, covering more than 15 years. The data provides an unprecedented look inside the financial lives of America’s titans, including Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch and Mark Zuckerberg. It shows not just their income and taxes, but also their investments, stock trades, gambling winnings and even the results of audits… America’s billionaires avail themselves of tax-avoidance strategies beyond the reach of ordinary people. Their wealth derives from the skyrocketing value of their assets, like stock and property. Those gains are not defined by U.S. laws as taxable income unless and until the billionaires sell. To capture the financial reality of the richest Americans, ProPublica undertook an analysis that has never been done before. We compared how much in taxes the 25 richest Americans paid each year to how much Forbes estimated their wealth grew in that same time period. We’re going to call this their true tax rate. The results are stark. According to Forbes, those 25 people saw their worth rise a collective $401 billion from 2014 to 2018. They paid a total of $13.6 billion in federal income taxes in those five years, the IRS data shows. That’s a staggering sum, but it amounts to a true tax rate of only 3.4%…”
Law Technology Today: “What identity theft comes down to is that your personal and confidential information ends up in the wrong hands and gets used without your permission for purchases and all kinds of fraudulent activities. The scary part is that most of us willingly make our personal information available online, and it is easy for cybercriminals to steal it. Considering that we all use technology and the internet nowadays, this could happen to anyone. On the up-side, though, identity theft can be prevented with some basic knowledge, planning, and awareness…”
Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, June 6, 2021 – Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: Two New Laws Restrict Police Use of DNA Search Method; On the Taxonomy and Evolution of Ransomware; Amazon’s Ring Finally Discloses Police Requests; and The Limits of Law and AI.
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The whistleblower who leaked the secret U.S. Treasury documents to
BuzzFeed News that would ultimately form the basis of the FinCEN Files
investigation has been
sentenced to six months in prison.
 Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards was a senior adviser at the
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network before she was arrested in 2018 and
charged with sending confidential suspicious activity reports that
detailed potentially dirty money transactions to BuzzFeed News reporter
Jason Leopold. The 2,100 documents became the backbone of an international
ICIJ-led investigation that exposed widespread money
laundering and gaping regulatory holes in the global financial system.
“The FinCEN Files revealed for the first time in forensic detail how
powerful global banks knowingly profit from corruption and how
authorities around the world allow the dark economy to flourish,” said
ICIJ director Gerard Ryle.
“Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards saw evidence of massive global
wrongdoing and risked her
freedom to make the public aware of both the misconduct
and the numerous failures to thwart it. Her actions and our reporting
have sparked unprecedented international reform.”
The sentencing marked the first time BuzzFeed News acknowledged Edwards
as their source.
“She fought to warn the public about grave risks to America’s national
security, first through the official whistleblower process, and then
through the press. She did so, despite tremendous personal risk, because
she believed she owed it to the country she loves,” BuzzFeed News
spokesman Matt Mittenthal said in a statement.
HISTORIC
DEAL
G7 finance ministers have agreed to a 15% global minimum tax, which would
weaken the
lure of tax havens for multinational companies. But their
plan would need international backing to move forward, and experts have
already spotted potential loopholes.
MISSED
OPPORTUNITY?
New corporate tax transparency rules in the EU, five years in the making,
leave out
most countries in the world, which some advocates say make
the agreement “flawed” and “meaningless.”
PRESS
FREEDOM, POST-ARAB SPRING
From access to information and censorship, to investigating corruption
and threats against female journalists, a panel of ICIJ partners from the
Middle East and North Africa look back on the changes over the decade and
why hope for the region remains. Watch the
discussion here.
BUILDING
POLITICAL WILL
In a first-of-its-kind United Nations General Assembly meeting, world
leadership and stakeholders shared
different ideas for anti-corruption measures critical to
post-pandemic economic recovery.
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