Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Swiss spies suspected in tax espionage

How do you say ‘whoops’ in Russian? Podesta Group retroactively files more DOJ disclosures for pro-Putin work Washington Examiner. UserFriendly: “I for one am shocked, shocked!!!”

Cranston doesn't appear in NSW court

The prosecutor in an unprecedented tax fraud case linked to a former ... Michael Cranston resigned as deputy commissioner of the ATO in June ...

Former ATO chief's lawyer says evidence against him 'oppressive'

The lawyer for former senior tax officer Michael Cranston has complained about the amount of evidence filed against him, labelling it ...

Swiss spies suspected in tax espionage


A man suspected of being a Swiss spy has been indicted in Germany. He is suspected of having been employed by the Swiss intelligence services to spy on German tax officials in an attempt to discover who was involved in a 2010 leak of information from a Swiss Bank. German officials bought CDs containing the data in 2012, and shared it with officials across the European Union. In total the data helped recover €7bn in tax revenue.

The case is one of the stranger cases of state capture by the banking industry we have seen in recent years, and shows that despite claims that it is embracing transparency, the Swiss Government are still willing to go to extreme lengths to protect their banks being used as hubs for dirty money.
However, spies working for the Swiss government may think twice in the future about undertaking such missions, if stories circulating about the arrest of this suspect are to be believed. According to some reports Swiss prosecutors may have blown the cover of their spy by failing to redact passages of documents related to the prosecution of a Swiss banker for leaking the information.



Apartheid Gold and Swiss secrecy



For anyone looking for more about how Swiss banking secrecy and Swiss foreign policy are intertwined, look no further than this week’s feature on Apartheid gold in South Africa’s News 24 website.


The article looks at declassified documents from Switzerland which provide details of how Swiss banks helped the Apartheid regime stash their gold in the tax haven’s bank vaults.
Why were to Swiss to keen to help out? Bizarrely, it appears that one reason is that Switzerland was eyeing up South Africa as a safe haven for government officials and Swiss banks if World War three was to break out in Europe.



Tax, international co-operation and the developing world



Representatives from tax authorities from 35 countries met on the shores of Lake Victoria last week for a high level dialogue on how to improve tax collection on the continent. The meeting, which was hosted by the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), was the first of its kind, and gave some insight into the priorities of African tax officials.


Top of the target list appears to be tax incentives. According to the Ugandan Observer there appears to be widespread agreement that tax incentives given to large foreign companies to invest in Africa, simply aren’t working, and are costing states dearly.


Delegates at the event said that tax incentives are frequently a key ask form investors. Dumisani Masilela, the commissioner general of Swaziland’s tax body, argued that African governments needed to see how they could improve local businesses as a counter to this.
He said: “They [investors] want to take as much money as they can to their respective countries. The thing we need to be looking into is developing entrepreneurship among ourselves.”



Portugal eaten by Angola’s kleptocrats



An article in the New York Times this week highlights the damage that can be done by financial secrecy and offshore finance.
In Angola half of the population live on less than $3.10 a day, and poor healthcare contributed to yellow fever outbreak earlier this year. However, Danillo Dos Santos, the president’s son, still finds €500,000 to buy a collection of photographs at a celebrity auction.


Over three decades Dos Santos has ruled over Angola, but as one of Africa’s longest serving presidents steps down, many think little will change, because during that time the president has managed to concentrate power in the hands of a tiny elite. The most powerful, and the most wealthy are his daughter and his son, who control the state oil company and the state’s sovereign wealth fund. For years allegations have circulated that the Dos Santos family have used their grip on the economy to siphon off billions via offshore companies.


One consequence of the huge concentration of wealth in the hands of Angola’s elite has been its relationship with its former colonial master, Portugal.


Desperate for cash, Portugal has flung open its bank vaults to questionable Angolan cash, and has adopted a no questions asked policy on where that money might come from. The result has been a growing bribery problem involving Angolan investments in the country.
The full story can be found here.

https://koozarchdotcom1.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/treasure-island-by-skye-yuxi-sun-rca_dezeen_468_16.jpg 



Illicit Financial Flows: Why we should claim these resources for gender, economic and social justice awid

Panama Papers case, Pakistan: Nawaz Sharif’s family challenge disqualification verdict Financial Express
For analysis, listen to the TJN August 2017 podcast  

Panama Papers lead to exposing 3 billion yen in untaxed income The Asahi Shimbun

The oil deal, the disgraced former minister, and $800m paid via a UK bank The Guardian
“Britain’s commitment to tackling high-end money laundering through the City of London is under serious scrutiny”

Why Lowering Corporate Taxes Is a Political Promise that Does Not Deliver Austaxpolicy: The Tax and Transfer Policy Blog
A reminder: Ten Reasons to Defend the Corporation Tax - how it protects democracy and curbs inequality - and seven myths, busted       

Malawi, Ghana, Africa: #TaxJustice to fund education Global Alliance for Tax Justice

Could Puerto Rico Be the Next Hot Tax Haven? Bloomberg Businessweek"Some 65,000 Puerto Ricans left their bankrupt U.S. island commonwealth last year. A group of private bankers are moving the other way. They’re increasingly opening offshore banks known as International Financial Entities ..."

South Africa: Parliamentary Budget Offices Conference Turns Its Attention to Illicit Financial Flows Parliament of the Republic of South Africa

African taxmen balk at financial incentives The Observer Uganda
“Tax incentives present one of the largest leakages in the system. Countries are opening up special economic zones which are undermining taxadministration.”

UK: 'Life-changing consequences:' HMRC warns of the risks of hiding wealth Business Insider

USA: FinCEN escalates crackdown on shell companies Compliance Week

Australia: Commonwealth Bank faces class action over money-laundering scandal The Guardian


African tax authorities consider how to boost revenue devex

Developing Countries’ Role in International Tax Cooperation Martin Hearson's Blog

Video: EADI Nordic Conference 2017 // Globalization and International Tax Justice       

New Report: Anti-Money Laundering Efforts Near Failure FACT Coalition

Panama Papers: Pakistan’s Ousted Prime Minister Refuses to Cooperate with Investigators OCCRP

Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar files review petition against Panamagate verdict The Indian Express

Portugal Dominated Angola for Centuries. Now the Roles Are Reversed.The New York Times
“In Angola, they call Portugal the laundromat”

Vietnam: FDI from tax havens poses risks to economy VietNamNet
Hat tip: AABA's Offshore Watch  

Nigeria: Federal Government Gives Wealthy Tax Evaders 90 Days to Declare Assets This Day

Australian Taxation Office commissioner says profits on $7bn in sales being taxed for the first time The Guardian

Multinational giants accused of shifting Australian revenue offshore The Sydney Morning Herald

Chevron Settlement Could Mean $8B in Extra Tax for Australia Bloomberg BNA
See also: Australia puts multinationals on notice after Chevron drops tax appeal Reuters

UK crackdown on global financial crime puts onus on companies International Bar Association

Suspected Swiss spy indicted in Germany swissinfo
Alleged spying on German tax officials, in data leak case

India: Income-Tax Dept gets more hands to sift shell firms The Hindu Business Line

Brazil: Operation Car Wash Widens to Include US & Greek Firms OCCRP

Sweden Charges Bombardier Sales Manager with Bribery OCCRP
... for a US$ 350 million deal in Azerbaijan, allegedly via a UK shell company

Panama Papers: Fugitive's trail exposes Red Bull co-owners' offshore deals ABC News / AP

A Spark in the Dark – Scottish Limited Partnerships and the UK Government’s Faltering Transparency Initiative Bellingcat



Unmissable: 'The Spider's Web: Britain's Second Empire' film and ...






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Hot War on the World's Door Steps

As I compiled this set of links my thoughts went to Steve, Gabbie's godfather, and his Japanese wife Haru ... Some of my  friends only recently visited Japan  ... The world is smaller and smaller as we get older 
It's been a grim month in the larger world, a grim month in a grim year. 
'Unprecedented
threat' as North
Korea fires ballistic
missile over Japan

North Korea fires missile over Japan; attack warnings sounded; launch an 'unprecedented threat'

Japan says North Korea launches missile - Hot War Starts in Spring 2017 De Javu of European Autumn of 1917


Can the US and North Korea Move From Threats to Negotiations? TruthOut


No One Compiles News as Well as Google - North Korea covering every angle ... Just amazing sea of stories and observations


As this Houston TV station grapples with flooding, everyone’s a reporter

 Photographer behind powerful Houston flooding image knew it was special as soon as he took it

Due to a war law quirk, an Aussie commander stands between NK & Japan.
The United Nations Rear Command has fallen out of public memory, a remnant of the Korean War that never officially ended. It's key role 'defending' Japan from North Korea is permanently assigned to Australia.
IT’S a text message which struck fear into the hearts of many Japanese as they woke on the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaido.
They were warned of a North Korean missile launch by a “J-Alert” on their mobile phones.
Satellite-based J-Alerts are sent out by the Japanese Government’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency (FDMA). Usually they contain emergency information about earthquakes or tsunamis.
But today’s 6am alert was a doozy, warning of a potential missile attack.
“A missile was fired from North Korea. Please evacuate to a sturdy building or basement,” it read, advising citizens to take cover.
Loud alarms and an email that told people to stay indoors completed the stark warnings from the Japanese government as Kim Jong-un’s missile sailed on, before breaking into pieces and landing in the sea.
The alert went out across social media, as residents held their collective breath, and sirens began to count in Hokkaido.

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Hunt or be Hunted: Dangerous Leaks

Everyone is welcome to read MEdia Dragon, but there is no way out ...

“Mother, do you think they’ll drop the bomb?
Mother, do you think they’ll like this song?
Mother, do you think they’ll try to break my balls?
Ooh, aah, mother, should I build the wall?

Mother, should I run for president?
Mother, should I trust the government?
Mother, will they put me in the firing line?
Ooh, aah, is it just a waste of time?”

  • Pink Floyd
“Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it.” -Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Delmore Schwartz worried that he would be remembered as nasty, gauche, awkward — an overeager clown. The weight of his concerns, and his loneliness, hangs over his biographer...  Biographer 



The business of publishing is tough. Literary fiction is a tiny market in Australia. Most serious fiction and non-fiction books sell fewer than 5000 copies. The number of Australian literary  authors who sell more than 20,000 copies can be counted on one hand. In the non-fiction  universe, cookbooks, self-help, health and personal development books sell well, asi do memoirs by rock and sports stars. The Payne book has sold about 40,000 copies....


MUP is a small publisher that punches above its weight and its boss, Louise Adler, unashamedly admits to wanting to shape public debate, writes Sally Patten. I arrive at the restaurant early but the pocket rocket that is Louise Adler is already sitting at the table, having a pre-lunch caffeine hit. She jumps out of her seat, offers me her hand and a beaming smile and introduces me to the waitress, whom she clearly has known for longer than five minutes. The European, the perennially buzzing, heavily wooded cafe restaurant opposite Victoria's Parliament House, is an extension of Adler's dining room. And, as chief executive of Melbourne University Publishing, she has a fair bit of dining to do in an effort to convince politicians, journalists, sports stars and other would-be authors to write for her. MUP publishes 40 to 60 books a year, which Adler says is not many. In the next breath, however, she concedes she is no good at saying no, suggesting the publishing schedule may be somewhat crowded for an outfit with a staff of 16. "It's healthily busy," Adler says. "I'm a yes person. I'm an enthusiast."

Melbourne University Publishing CEO Louise Adler  ...



Publisher be damned



SO I WAS GOING TO WAIT TO MAKE THIS PUBLIC, BUT IN LIGHT OF THE ARPAIO PARDON HERE’S MY LATEST PAPER: Congressional Control of Presidential Pardons. It’s quite short and readable. Download it early and often!



 Via Moyers & Company – Steven Harper [Steven Harper blogs at The Belly of the Beast, is an adjunct professor at Northwestern University, and contributes regularly to The American Lawyer…] writes: ‘Explore our updated, comprehensive Trump-Russia Timeline — or select one of the central players in the Trump-Russia saga to see what we know about them…


“When it comes to Donald Trump, his campaign and their dealings with Russia past and present, sometimes it’s hard to keep track of all the players without a scorecard. We have one of sorts — a deeply comprehensive timeline detailing what actually happened and what’s still happening in the ever-changing story of the president, his inner circle and a web of Russian oligarchs, hackers and government officials.
Green finance for dirty ships The Economist. “By burning heavy fuel oil, just 15 of the biggest ships emit more of the noxious oxides of nitrogen and sulphur than all the world’s cars put together.”

 WSJ, Companies Promote Corporate-Tax Overhaul:



Large companies, looking for every angle to prod Congress into making the corporate-tax changes they have been seeking for years, are turning to some in-house muscle: employees and customers.



Beyond efforts by corporations’ lobbyists and a television-ad campaign run by the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs, companies are now seeking to rally broader public support for business-tax cuts. They are inviting senior lawmakers to their facilities this summer and encouraging workers to contact their representatives in Congress.

  Australian Business Lawyers, the law firm owned by NSW Business Chamber, went on a trip to the snow with Harmers Lawyers this week. Union heads and the Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission were also invited to visit the NSW ski resorts. The Chamber is a business advocacy group with $190 million in revenues but it also enjoys charity status. The trip to Perisher and Thredbo is therefore subsidised by taxpayers. 
“We believe this issue’s so important that you’ve got to get engaged. We can’t ensure success. We can ensure that our point of view and our customers’ point of view is heard,” David Abney, the chief executive officer of United Parcel Service Inc., said in a brief interview Tuesday.
 
Business executives, though wary of direct connections with the White House after President Donald Trump’s comments about white-nationalist protesters last week, remain deeply involved in promoting one of his major policy objectives.




The Corruption of the Law Common Dreams 


‘Every Country Should Have a Cyber War’: What Estonia Learned from Russian Hacking
In Estonia, people are not afraid of cyber warfare, nor are they afraid of sharing personal data across public and private institutions.  Unlike an authoritarian state like the old Soviet Union, government transparency is built into the system. While all your private data is online, only you can give permission for any data to be accessed. And you can check who has accessed what. If a doctor you don’t know has viewed your records, it will be traceable, and you can have them sacked. As one software developer Quartz spoke to said, “You become your own Big Brother.”


Going back two decades, James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg predicted cryptocurrency (and much more) in their fin de siècle peek into the future, The Sovereign Individual. Much of their work has held up frighteningly well.


SPENGLER: What Do We Say About Decent Men Who Died for a Wicked Cause?

Delmore Schwartz worried that he would be remembered as nasty, gauche, awkward — an overeager clown. The weight of his concerns, and his loneliness, hangs over his Biographer  
 Train stations were Tony Judt's cathedrals; timetables were his Bible. The two trains he cared about most took him 
to places where he could avoid history  

Alone And Adrift


CBS Sunday Morning featured A Speck in the Sea: A Story of Survival and Rescue by John Aldridge and Anthony Sosinski (Hachette/Weinstein Books; Blackstone Audio;OverDrive Sample) as their cover story this week.
In this harrowing but ultimately triumphant story, John Aldridge falls off his boat in the early hours of the morning while fishing in the Atlantic. After surviving sharks, cold, and twelve hours in the open ocean, the Coast Guard spotted him clinging to a rope. The rescue pilot told him they never find men alive, they just find bodies. 

The story was widely reported, most notably in a 2014 NYT Magazine cover story. The Weinstein company bought both the book and the film rights.
The book came out in late May. Publishers Weekly calls it “hair-raising” and a “page turner.”
No word yet on when the film will premiere but it has some big names attached on the production side, including the producers behind Moneyball and Paranormal Activity.



Previous studies predict that rebel groups with access to exploitable resources will engage in looting rather than invest in building the complex bureaucracies that are necessary for taxation. This claim relies on an untested assumption that the sole purpose of rebel taxation is to collect revenue. I challenge this assumption with granular district-month data on seven types of tax policies from the 18 Syrian districts that have been governed by the Islamic State (IS) since 2013.
The Internet's "Nazi Purge" Shows Who Really Controls Our Online Speech



Image result for wisdom quotes

inspirational quotes about travel

FORGET IT, JAKE — IT’S THE TIMES: Red Century story makes me see red.
“Depending on whom you ask today, my grandfather’s story is that of a partisan, a traitor, a hero or a spy. The revolution asked a terrible amount of those who served it. Those who resisted paid a similarly awful price. It left in its wake countless lives, like my grandfather’s, that cannot be compassed by a single line.”
Such a statement doesn’t make up for the many facts omitted from his story, starting with the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact signed on Aug. 23, 1939, which directly led to Hitler’s invasion of Poland on Sept. 1. A secret protocol of the treaty called for the partition of Poland, with Germany getting the western portion and the Soviets the east. The Soviets invaded on Sept. 17 to grab their half of the spoils.
Also left out is what happened to Poland in the roughly 21 months of Soviet rule. Hundreds of thousands of Poles were deported to Kazakhstan, Siberia and other points east during the occupation. Even worse, more than 22,000 military officers, politicians, professors, priests and other civic leaders were executed in what is collectively known as the Katyn Forest massacres.
Mikanowski writes that the Nazis in 1939 captured his grandfather, then a Polish soldier, but he escaped and made his way to Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Curiously, he doesn’t explain why Jakub didn’t halt his flight in Soviet-occupied Poland instead of going hundreds of miles to the east. Maybe Mikanowski didn’t want to bring up all that awkward partition business and Nazi-Soviet hanky panky.
So Mikanowski says it depends on your perspective whether Jakub, a Soviet pawn, was “a partisan, a traitor, a hero or a spy.”

The Times won’t stop running Communist sympathizer pieces until they stop being sympathetic to Communists.



The Most Inspirational Travel Quotes | @projectinspo



CBA money laundering case reflects badly on bank and AUSTRAC ...



Counterfeit alcohol seized at Dublin Port




Big tobacco propping up law enforcement, FOI documents reveal - ABC


Border Force urges more power to stop illegal tobacco smugglers
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