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[Sergarr]

I'm making little giggling noises to myself. While I suspect not a huge amount will change, it's going to be fun watching the guys squirm in the meantime.

They probably won't do anything, though. Like, they'll just say "this is fake, let's ignore that", and then everyone else that matters will agree and ignore that, since they all are also guilty of similar deeds.

[Sheb]

I'm making little giggling noises to myself. While I suspect not a huge amount will change, it's going to be fun watching the guys squirm in the meantime.

They probably won't do anything, though. Like, they'll just say "this is fake, let's ignore that", and then everyone else that matters will agree and ignore that, since they all are also guilty of similar deeds.

Nah, that's just the Kremlin. In the rest of the world, some people will be thrown out (the Icelandic PM is facing a vote of no-confidence over the Panama Papers), other will point out that what they did was perfectly legal (Which seems to be the case in stuff like Poroshenko's holding company).

It's probably going to play a nice role in US politics and make this more of an issue there too, so it might have an impact there.

[smjjames]

I'm making little giggling noises to myself. While I suspect not a huge amount will change, it's going to be fun watching the guys squirm in the meantime.

They probably won't do anything, though. Like, they'll just say "this is fake, let's ignore that", and then everyone else that matters will agree and ignore that, since they all are also guilty of similar deeds.

Nah, that's just the Kremlin. In the rest of the world, some people will be thrown out (the Icelandic PM is facing a vote of no-confidence over the Panama Papers), other will point out that what they did was perfectly legal (Which seems to be the case in stuff like Poroshenko's holding company).

It's probably going to play a nice role in US politics and make this more of an issue there too, so it might have an impact there.

Especially if any election candidate (from possibly Mayoral all the way up to Presidential (emphasis on ESPECIALLY for presidential)) is implicated. It's going to be !!!FUN!!! if either Trump or Clinton or both are implicated. With a higher probablility for Trump.

[Sheb]

Belgium's finance minister has announced the creation of a task force at the finance ministry to investigate the ~700 Belgians named in the Panama Papers. Interestingly, last year a special law called the "Caiman Tax" was created to allow the taxing of money spirited away is tax havens. It's going to be nice to see it in application.

[mainiac]

That sounds like a very difficult tax to make work.

[Drakale]

If I was the source of the leak, I would release a subset of the data, wait a bit, then blackmail some of the bigger fish into releasing their part in a subsequent leak.
Well maybe not so big as to be disappeared, but sport personalities, small time politicians and the like.

And maybe it's exactly what is happening.
*tip tinfoil hat

[smjjames]

Or maybe they're just trailing things along rather than in one massive mother of all massive data dump(s).

Wikileaks did the same thing, release portions at a time.

An additional reason could be that they are still preparing the stuff and looking at them.

[Baffler]

The Prime Minister of Iceland has said he isn't going to resign, so unless he gets no-confidence'd I can think of at least one person who'll (probably) get off scot-free. His political career might be over, but as we've recently been made aware he's got plenty of money squirreled away for a comfy retirement.

[Sheb]

That sounds like a very difficult tax to make work.

Yeah. I actually have never heard of it before, so I'm trying to dig info on it. I sometime envy the US, with its size meaning anything the government does bring a ton of think tanks report and the like.

[TempAcc]

Shit's got real, from high ranking politicians across the world to... Jackie Chan?

Really?

My heart is borked.

[mainiac]

That sounds like a very difficult tax to make work.

Yeah. I actually have never heard of it before, so I'm trying to dig info on it. I sometime envy the US, with its size meaning anything the government does bring a ton of think tanks report and the like.

The size of the intellegenstia in the US also means a lot of stuff gets lost.  And there is no awesome process for separating the wheat from the chaff so really crappy work can take the world by storm just because it has a couple big names attached to it.  A country like Belgium can try something like that and figure out if it will work.  If it doesn't you can always scrap the program.  It's harder for the US to learn from trial and error so instead we have to resort to abstract models that can be too clever by half.

[Sinistar]

PTW, can't wait to see if this will bring any of the big fishes in my country down. I'm already hearing some lawyers and financial "experts" how there is not necessarily any foul play involved so you can be sure rich and powerful will try their best to remain rich and powerful, but who knows - maybe some heads will finally roll!

[Parsely]

Shit's got real, from high ranking politicians across the world to... Jackie Chan?

Really?

My heart is borked.

Jackie Chan no. ;-; I don't think I'll ever trust anyone ever again.

[Teneb]

Just throwing it out here, but wouldn't trade/economic embargoes be a way to crack down on tax havens?

[Parsely]

Just throwing it out here, but wouldn't trade/economic embargoes be a way to crack down on tax havens?

You'd be punishing the wrong people.