Leaked files from a Panama law firm tie world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, to global corruption that involves secret offshore holdings.
“At least $2 billion in transactions involved people and companies the ICIJ alleged had ties to Putin, according to the report,”Bloomberg wrote. “It outlined, for example, the creation, within 24 hours, of a chain of four shell companies in three countries, involving two banks, a process that made the money behind it ‘all but untraceable.'”
The German government said it hopes the revelations would spur global efforts to combat tax evasion and money laundering, according to The Local. The documents, spanning from 1977 to 2015, came from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca. The leak includes 2.6 TB of data and names 214,488 businesses.
“The Panama Papers investigation unmasks the dark side of the global financial system where banks, lawyers and financial professionals enable secret companies to hide illicit corrupt money,” Transparency International chairman José Ugaz told Bloomberg. “This must stop. World leaders must come together and ban the secret companies that fuel grand corruption and allow the corrupt to benefit from ill-gotten wealth.”
The parliament of Iceland and the nation of Argentina have also chimed in on the situation. The ICIJ’s report said account holders also include current and former leaders from Georgia, Iraq, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, and Ukraine.
The ICIJ is a global network of more than 190 investigative journalists in more than 65 countries, according to its website.
Ted Cruz v Donald Trump Timeline: Their Insults About Wives and Rat Sex (Photos)
This week began with nude pictures of Donald Trump's wife, Melania Trump, and ended with Ted Cruz calling Trump a rat and just barely avoiding the word "ratfucking." Let's review.
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It all started with an anti-Trump Facebook ad targeted at Mormons from the super PAC America Awesome, which featured a photo of Melania Trump posing naked for GQ.
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Taking offense to the perceived slight, Trump threatened to "spill the beans" on Cruz's wife Heidi. "Be careful, Lyin' Ted," he warned on Twitter.
"Pic of your wife not from us. Donald, if you try to attack Heidi, you're more of a coward than I thought. #classless," responded Cruz.
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On Wednesday, a story accusing Cruz of having affairs with five women appeared in The National Enquirer. Cruz denied the story, calling it "complete and utter lies" and "a smear that has come from Donald Trump and his henchmen."
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While accusing Trump of planting the story, Cruz tried to talk around the word "ratfucking," derogatory slang for an especially dirty kind of political sabotage.
“He’s a man for whom a term was coined for copulating with a rodent,” Cruz said of a former Trump ally. “Well let me be clear, Mr. Trump may be a rat but I have no desire to copulate with him. And this garbage does not belong in politics.”
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On Friday, Trump issued a statement on Facebook, denying the accusation that he planted the Enquirer story.
"While [The National Enquirer was] right about O.J. Simpson, John Edwards, and many others, I certainly hope they are not right about Lyin’ Ted Cruz," he wrote.
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This week in disgusting presidential politics
This week began with nude pictures of Donald Trump's wife, Melania Trump, and ended with Ted Cruz calling Trump a rat and just barely avoiding the word "ratfucking." Let's review.