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[MaximumZero]

I officially know nothing.

[TheBiggerFish]

Except when it's dry, anyway.

Wow, did not know!

[Dorsidwarf]

My sister went to Iceland last week and found that one gift store had stuck those "Tax Free" stickers on all their postcards of the ex-PM

[Sheb]

My sister went to Iceland last week and found that one gift store had stuck those "Tax Free" stickers on all their postcards of the ex-PM

Who on Earth makes postcard of the PM?

[Veylon]

My sister went to Iceland last week and found that one gift store had stuck those "Tax Free" stickers on all their postcards of the ex-PM

Who on Earth makes postcard of the PM?

That's easy: anyone who realizes that there's a market for the things and wants to cash in.

Harder question: Why on Earth is there a market for the things?

[Sheb]

Were any of those made before the Panama Papers?

European Parliament vote directive on protecting trade secrets.

[Cruxador]

My sister went to Iceland last week and found that one gift store had stuck those "Tax Free" stickers on all their postcards of the ex-PM

Who on Earth makes postcard of the PM?

I guess they figured there wasn't much else to see. Besides Iceland's geological oddness, their belief in the fae, and their ban on pornography despite constitutional protection for free speech, there's not much that sets them apart.

[smjjames]

My sister went to Iceland last week and found that one gift store had stuck those "Tax Free" stickers on all their postcards of the ex-PM

Who on Earth makes postcard of the PM?

That's easy: anyone who realizes that there's a market for the things and wants to cash in.

Harder question: Why on Earth is there a market for the things?

Or someone thought it was funny to do that AND sell the postcards.

[Interus]

You know, I don't think I'd know about these if I hadn't read this back on the 6th, but I've been googling "panama papers" every day or two since then.  I don't normally follow these big controversies, but I'm really into this, and I'm always finding new stuff.  And it's really fun watching some of these stories unfold.  For example, the first day I heard about this, the Iceland PM was saying that there was no way he was going to resign.  I've also read a couple articles about the "Man with Cane" painting, or whatever it's called.  To be brief, the people who bought the painting originally claimed that they didn't own it, it belonged to an offshore corporation that just showed it in their gallery, so they couldn't be expected to return it to its original owner.  When it turned out that they owned the offshore corporation, they started saying it didn't matter that they owned it because the original owner couldn't prove it had been stolen from his family by Nazis.  Last I heard, the Swiss police or something had seized the painting while awaiting trial.

I think the narrative with Russia is really interesting too.  One of the earliest articles about the papers that I read was actually on Russia Today, and it was about how the whole thing is clearly an American CIA plot to make Russia look bad and that nothing in it should be trusted.  And more recently, I read that Putin was saying that the information wasn't exactly inaccurate, so he basically admitted that yeah, some of his close associates are moving around a lot of money in secret, but he said that it's not important and it's just American manipulation to weaken Russia and you shouldn't care about it, or something like that.

Here's something I found a few days ago that I actually wanted to share.  It doesn't have much new information on specific stories, but it's an interview with Marina Walker Guevara on what it was like to manage all the various journalists that investigated the data.
https://www.propublica.org/podcast/item/Meet-the-Panama-Papers-Editor-Who-Handled-376-Reporters-in-80-Countries

[Helgoland]

PTW.

[SalmonGod]

So... I feel like attentions on this fizzled out rather quickly?

Anyone have a good summary of what's concretely resulted from the leak so far?  Only thing I'm aware of is Iceland's PM resignation.  Otherwise, it seems like just another temporary spike in global cynicism that will subside into the lexicon of political black humor that people who have political memories will laugh at because they feel it's all they can do.  Pretty much exactly what happened with the Manning & Snowden leaks.

[Sergarr]

So... I feel like attentions on this fizzled out rather quickly?

Nay, it's just about right.

Also, I totally called it: nobody who matters (lol prime minister of Iceland) got anything more than a slap on the wrist. No miracle happened. Business as usual. Go along, citizen.

[Baffler]

A number of other top level people resigned, including the CEO of a major Austrian bank, a board member of a major Dutch bank, Armenia's justice minister, and Spain's Minister of Energy. The information is being used as evidence against a lot of people who committed other crimes, though most of the company's dealings aren't illegal, just unethical. That's mostly stuff like this. The Japanese government is changing rules to prevent businessmen from doing the same thing in Hong Kong. The company itself, Mossack Fonseca, is in some deep shit with Panamanian authorities. We'll probably see waves of convictions and plea bargains coming months or years down the line. This probably wouldn't have happened otherwise.

It's not very visible, but things are happening.

[SalmonGod]

Good to know there's more I didn't know about.  Although I don't see resignations as very meaningful.  At least there's some other stuff.

[sluissa]

Apparently the reporters are refusing to publish the evidence in full. This is leading to people being given a chance to move their money around and hide it again. Makes you wonder if it wasn't all done by a competitor of Mossack Fonseca to run them out of business and get some of their clients. There was some collateral damage, but as was said, nobody of serious note. A few resignations, mostly probably accompanied with golden parachutes anyway.