After the explosive “Panama Papers” bombshell released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) over the weekend – the biggest leak in history – some world leaders could be brought down. Before we start bitching, here’s how massive this project was to the ICIJ and those involved during their 12 months of hard work.

 

• approximately 11.5 million documents
• 6 Terabytes of leaked data
• coverage – from the 1977 to the spring of 2016
• researchers – 400 journalists, 100 media organizations, over 80 countries
• implicating 214,488 companies
• 29 billionaires featured in Forbes Magazine’s list being flagged
• 12 current and former world leaders being featured
• 128 more politicians and public officials being mentioned

To be fair it was Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), a Munich-based and the largest German national newspaper that was first approached by a whistle blower. The lucky reporter, Bastian Obermayer, revealed how a still-unknown figure contacted him – “Hello. This is John Doe. Interested in data? I’m happy to share.”

 

Soon, the Germany newspaper realized it couldn’t bite off more than it can chew. Therefore, they contacted ICIJ and it took battalions of journalist more than 12 months to comb the huge information before releasing their findings. But the revelations don’t stop here and more would be released to the public, promised ICIJ.

Already, some politicians or leaders are having cold sweats since the leaks. Thousands of demonstrators took to the street in Reykjavik calling for Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson’s resignation. Australia has become the first country to launch investigations after at least 800 Australian residents were named from the leaked data.

 

New Zealand, Sweden, Netherlands, France were some other countries promising investigations. However, dictators or leaders who do not subscribe to democracy such as Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Ukranian Petro Poroshenko and all the Middle East King, Emir and Prime Minister couldn’t care less.

ICIJ is supposed to be the most independent journalism money can buy. That was why they partnered with MalaysiaKini in Malaysia but not government-owned Bernama, Utusan Malaysia or The Star, for example. But one cannot help but wonders about the wide coverage on Vladimir Putin despite the bad boy owning zero offshore account.

 

True, it’s extremely suspicious to see Putin’s best friend Sergei Roldugin, childhood friends Arkady Rotenberg and Boris Rotenberg, banker Yury Kovalchuk all over the place – suggesting that the Russian supremo have secretly shuffled as much as US$2 billion through banks and shadow companies.

However, if one looks hard enough, he / she would notice there’s very little being mentioned about American big boys exposed by ICIJ. Surely there must be some bad guys from the United States who were corrupt or at least tried to hide their money from the tax officers. Does this mean ICIJ has been cherry picking in their Panama Papers project?

 

Surprisingly, with the exception of Miami Herald, Charlotte Observer, Univision, McClatchy and Fusion, United States media’s participation has been negligible. The absence of big players such as New York Times, the Washington Post or the Wall Street Journal screams “conspiracy”. How a leak of such magnitude could fails to move them?

One theory has it that the American media wasn’t interested because there aren’t any high-ranking leaders or officials in the Panama Papers database. Another theory claims ICIJ has been selective in this project that they have deliberately left those big boys from the United States out of their research – because ICIJ wanted all the credit to themselves.

 

There was also speculation that ICIJ didn’t include the New York Times simply because the U.S. media aren’t good team player and don’t co-operate well on big stories – less willing to share their finding and discovery with other colleagues around the world, the main recipe for any news organization wishing to work based on ICIJ’s model.

Strategically, ICIJ could have had deliberately left major U.S. media out in the cold at the initial stage until they get the world attention, like now. In a way, ICIJ might want to take the credit after all before letting the New York Times into the picture. Or they might want to control, manage and corroborate the stories systematically, unlike the CNN way.

 

The most damaging theory on why ICIJ shuts its door to the western media has been offered by Craig Murray, a former British ambassador to Uzbekistan. The same ICIJ is not neutral at all because they are funded entirely by the USA’s Center for Public Integrity, of whom the funders include:

• Ford Foundation
• Carnegie Endowment
• Rockefeller Family Fund
• W K Kellogg Foundation
• Open Society Foundation (Soros)

 

That explains why ICIJ and his band of journalists have been hitting Russia, China, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Ukraine. But why telling the obvious, that the Russia and China are corrupt, when it’s the public knowledge they are in the first place? ICIJ has no plan to expose western capitalism, let alone dirty secrets of western corporations.

Well, I can think of one person – Hillary Clinton, if not Barack Obama. Two years ago in 2014, Hillary Clinton publicly declared – “We came out of the White House not only dead broke, but in debt.” But she earns more for a 20-minute speech to an industry trade group than a dozen fast-food workers make in a year.

 

Last year, it was revealed that Hillary Clinton’s net worth was US$ 32,015,000 while his husband Bill Clinton has an estimated net worth of US$ 80 million. And I’m willing to bet my last penny both the Clintons have offshore accounts. How could a liar be honest about paying taxes, right?

But ICIJ’s funder George Soros is a strong Democrats supporter – both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. In fact, almost all major news media in the U.S. are united against Donald Trump so any bean spilt on Hillary’s offshore accounts during the present critical moment would be suicidal. Therefore, the best thing to do now is cover-up, until the presidential election is over.

 

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• Panama Papers – The Secrets Of Dirty Money – From King Salman To Lionel Messi
• The WSJ Is Hustling Razak Family – Nazir Could Have Committed Money Laundering
• One Big Family Of Crooks? Najib’s In-Law Took Hermes Bags Without Paying
• UFUN Ponzi Scheme – Did Nazifuddin Son Of PM Najib Razak Lie?
• FIFA Crackdown – World Cup Of Corruption Operates Like Big Mafia Families
• 1MDB Scandal – An Ali-Baba “Scam” Partnership Goes Bust
• Leaked!! – The Ultra Rich And Powerful Chinese Who Stash Money Offshore

Tweet

April 5th, 2016 by financetwitter

If you enjoyed this post, what shall you do next? Consider: