November 7, 2017 SnyderTalk— The Paradise Papers Data Dump: What’s Been Reported So Far

“I am Yahweh; that is My Name!  I will not give My glory to anyone else, nor share My praise with carved idols.” (Isaiah 42: 8)

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Bloomberg—The Paradise Papers Data Dump: What’s Been Reported So Far:

A new set of data taken from an offshore law firm again threatens to expose the hidden wealth of individuals and show how corporations, hedge funds and others may have skirted taxes. A year after the Panama Papers, a massive leak of confidential information from the Bermuda law firm Appleby Group Services Ltd. has shone another light on the use of offshore accounts.

Here are the highlights so far of the reporting by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and partner news outlets on the so-called Paradise Papers. Bloomberg hasn’t seen the leaked documents:

  • S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross faces questions about his financial disclosures to Congress and the government after a reportthat he didn’t disclose business ties to the son-in-law of Russian President Vladimir Putin and an oligarch under U.S. sanctions. The Appleby documents included details of Ross’s stake in a shipping company, Navigator Holdings, according to the New York Times.
  • House Republicans should slow downtheir consideration of a tax-overhaul bill after the investigative reports alleged offshore tax-avoidance by U.S. multinational companies including Apple Inc. and Nike Inc., congressional Democrats and tax-advocacy groups said.
  • Canadian tax authorities are reviewingreports linking a key fundraiser for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to offshore trusts in the Caribbean. Montreal-based businessman Stephen Bronfman, son of billionaire Charles Bronfman, was among the individuals cited by news organizations including the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., Radio-Canada and the Toronto Star in Sunday’s leak of bank documents.
  • Commodities trader Glencore Plcwas one of the top clients of Appleby, which even had a “Glencore Room” at its Bermuda office that kept information on the trader’s 107 offshore companies, according to the ICIJ investigation.
  • Prominent Silicon Valley investor Yuri Milner, who was an early backer of Facebook Inc., partnered in two investments with the Russian state-controlled bank VTB Bank PJSC before it was sanctioned, his spokesman confirmed Friday. Details about the relationship between Milner and VTB surfaced in the wake of the Paradise Papers.
  • Indonesian authorities are investigatingif former presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto and the children of ex-dictator Suharto, named in the leaked documents, are in breach of the country’s tax laws.
  • A North Korean was listed in the leaked documents as a shareholder in a Malta-based company which may have been involved in the overseas transfer of North Korean construction workers, according to Newstapa, a South Korean partner of the ICIJ.

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SnyderTalk Comment:

Nothing is hidden.  Everything is known by someone, and everything can be exposed.

Money can’t prevent it from happening.  Power can’t prevent it from happening.  Nothing can prevent it from happening.

I used to tell my students at the University of Virginia to imagine that what they were planning to do, every detail associated with it, would appear on the front page of the Washington Post and to consider how they would react if it did.  I wasn’t joking, and I wasn’t just flapping my gums.  I meant it.

The Messiah said, “What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.” (Luke 12:3)  He wasn’t making small talk.  He meant it.

The world is corrupt, our nation included.  There are exceptions, but the exceptions are the minority. That’s true in government, religion, business, journalism, academia, etc.  In other words, it is a plague that touches every institution in our society.

Some of the culprits are ignorant.  They should know better, but they don’t.  Either they don’t have enough interest or they don’t have enough imagination to examine the facts.  Whatever the case may be, they are guilty of complicity in a corrupt system.

The cop who abuses suspects because others in the department do is just as guilty as the most crooked cop on the force.

I’m not picking on cops.  As I said, it’s a plague.  It has infected every institution.

Draining the swamp won’t be easy.  There are a lot of guilty people in the swamp.  They stand to lose money, power, and prestige.  They will fight to keep the truth from getting out.

It’s happening now, because they see what President Trump is doing.  Establishment politicians from both parties don’t want anyone to drain the swamp.

Remember the data dumps by WikiLeaks.  Who was most critical of Julian Assange for publishing that information?

Remember Donna Brazile.  Who stands to lose most because of the facts she has released?

If Hillary Clinton had been elected president, Brazile would not have gone public, and Hillary would not have been exposed so quickly.  Eventually, the truth would have been revealed, but it would have happened much later.

As I said, the truth can’t be hidden.  Everything will be found out.  We are about to see what that means.

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SnyderTalk Comment:

Elizabeth Warren claimed to be a Native American to take advantage of opportunities available to minorities.  That may not sound like a big deal now, but it is indicative of her behavior.

There are other things like that for which Warren will be held accountable if she runs for president.  She is not the standard-bearer for virtuosity.  If she was a virtuous person, she would not be a Democrat.  Higher-ups in the Democrat Party are rotten to the core.

That is not an endorsement of the Republican Party.  It has similar problems.  As I said, the truth can’t be hidden.

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“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17: 22-24)

See “His Name is Yahweh”.

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