[Den 3. april 2016 oplevede vi historiens største læk af data.] [Panama papirerne afslørede rige og magtfulde mennesker,] [som skjulte store summer af penge i offshore kontoer.] [Hvad betyder dette?] [Vi fik Robert Palmer fra Global Witness til at forklare.]
[On April 3, 2016 we saw the largest data leak in history.] [The Panama Papers exposed rich and powerful people] [hiding vast amounts of money in offshore accounts.] [What does this mean?] [We called Robert Palmer of Global Witness to explain.]
I denne uge har der været et stort antal af historier, der kommer fra lækket af elleve millioner dokumenter fra et Panama baseret advokatfirma, kaldet Mossack Fonseca. Afsløringen af disse papirer fra Panama løfter sløret for en lille del af den hemmelighedsfulde offshore verden. Vi får et indblik i, hvordan klienter, banker og advokater går til firmaer som Mossack Fonseca og siger, "Ok, vi søger et anonymt firma, kan i skaffe os et?" Man får lov til at se e-mails, man får lov til at se beskedudvekslinger, man får lov til at se, hvordan det fungerer,
This week, there have been a whole slew and deluge of stories coming out from the leak of 11 million documents from a Panamanian-based law firm called Mossack Fonseca. The release of these papers from Panama lifts the veil on a tiny piece of the secretive offshore world. We get an insight into how clients and banks and lawyers go to companies like Mossack Fonseca and say, "OK, we want an anonymous company, can you give us one?" So you actually get to see the emails, you get to see the exchanges of messages, you get to see the mechanics of how this works, how this operates.
Det har allerede haft meget umiddelbare følgevirkninger. Islands premierminister er trådt tilbage. Vi har også fået af vide, at en allieret til den syriske diktator Bashar Al-Assad har offshore selskaber. Der har været påstande om, at et 2 mia. dollar pengespor fører tilbage til præsident Vladimir Putin i Rusland via hans tætte barndomsven, som tilfældigvis er en af de bedste cellospillere. Der er en masse rige individer og andre, som vil være nervøse for de næste historier og de næste lækkede dokumenter.
Now, this has already started to have pretty immediate repercussions. The Prime Minister of Iceland has resigned. We've also had news that an ally of the brutal Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad has also got offshore companies. There's been allegations of a $2 billion money trail that leads back to President Vladimir Putin of Russia via his close childhood friend, who happens to be a top cellist. And there will be a lot of rich individuals out there and others who will be nervous about the next set of stories and the next set of leaked documents.
Det lyder som et plot til en spion thriller eller en John Grisham roman. Det virker meget distanceret fra dig, mig, normale mennesker. Hvorfor skal vi bekymre os om dette? Men sandheden er, at hvis rige og magtfulde individer kan holde deres penge offshore og undgå at betale skat, som de skulle, så er der færre penge til vigtige, offentlige tjenester såsom sundhedsvæsenet, uddannelse, veje. Og det påvirker os alle sammen.
Now, this sounds like the plot of a spy thriller or a John Grisham novel. It seems very distant from you, me, ordinary people. Why should we care about this? But the truth is that if rich and powerful individuals are able to keep their money offshore and not pay the taxes that they should, it means that there is less money for vital public services like healthcare, education, roads. And that affects all of us.
For min organisation Global Witness har disse afsløringer været fænomenale. Vi har fået verdens medier og politiske ledere til at snakke om, hvordan nogen kan bruge hemmelige offshore selskaber til at skjule deres aktiver -- noget vi har snakket om og afsløret i et årti.
Now, for my organization Global Witness, this exposé has been phenomenal. We have the world's media and political leaders talking about how individuals can use offshore secrecy to hide and disguise their assets -- something we have been talking about and exposing for a decade.
Jeg tror, at en masse mennesker finder hele denne verden forbløffende og at de synes, at denne form for offshore verden er svær at forstå. Jeg betragter det lidt som en russisk dukke. Man kan have et firma inde i et andet firma, som er inde i et andet firma, hvilket gør det næsten umuligt at forstå, hvem der står bag disse strukturer. Det kan være meget svært for dem, der håndhæver loven eller skattemyndigheder, journalister, civilsamfundet virkelig at forstå, hvad der foregår.
Now, I think a lot of people find this entire world baffling and confusing, and hard to understand how this sort of offshore world works. I like to think of it a bit like a Russian doll. So you can have one company stacked inside another company, stacked inside another company, making it almost impossible to really understand who is behind these structures. It can be very difficult for law enforcement or tax authorities, journalists, civil society to really understand what's going on.
Jeg synes også, at det er interessant, at der har været mindre dækning af emnet i USA. Og det er måske fordi, nogen fremtrædende folk fra USA ikke har optrådt i disse afsløringer, i denne skandale. Det er ikke fordi, der ikke er nogen rige amerikanere, som gemmer deres værdier offshore. Det er bare på grund af den måde offshore fungerer på, Mossack Fonseca har færre amerikanske klienter. Jeg tror, at hvis vi så et læk fra Caymanøerne eller endda Delaware, eller Wyoming eller Nevada, ville man se flere tilfælde og eksempler, der går tilbage til amerikanere.
I also think it's interesting that there's been less coverage of this issue in the United States. And that's perhaps because some prominent US people just haven't figured in this exposé, in this scandal. Now, that's not because there are no rich Americans who are stashing their assets offshore. It's just because of the way in which offshore works, Mossack Fonseca has fewer American clients. I think if we saw leaks from the Cayman Islands or even from Delaware or Wyoming or Nevada, you would see many more cases and examples linking back to Americans.
Faktisk skal man i mange amerikanske stater skaffe færre oplysninger for at starte et firma, end du skal for at få et lånerkort til biblioteket. Den form for hemmeligholdelse har gjort det muligt for ansatte i skoledistrikter at snyde skolebørn. Det har tilladt svindlere at snyde sårbare investorer. Dette er den form for adfærd, der påvirker os alle sammen.
In fact, in a number of US states you need less information, you need to provide less information to get a company than you do to get a library card. That sort of secrecy in America has allowed employees of school districts to rip off schoolchildren. It has allowed scammers to rip off vulnerable investors. This is the sort of behavior that affects all of us.
Hos Global Witness ville vi se, hvordan dette rent faktisk så ud i praksis Hvordan fungerer det egentlig? Det, vi gjorde var, at vi sendte en undercover efterforsker til tretten advokatfirmaer på Manhattan. Vores efterforsker optrådte som en afrikansk minister, som ønskede at flytte mistænkelige midler til USA for at købe et hus, en yacht, et jetfly. Det der var virkelig chokerende var, at alle advokaterne undtagen én forsynede vores efterforsker med forslag til hvordan, man kan flytte disse mistænkelige midler. Det var alle indledende møder, og ingen af advokaterne valgte at repræsentere os, og selvfølgelig var der ingen penge, der skiftede hænder, men det viser virkelig det problem, der er med systemet.
Now, at Global Witness, we wanted to see what this actually looked like in practice. How does this actually work? So what we did is we sent in an undercover investigator to 13 Manhattan law firms. Our investigator posed as an African minister who wanted to move suspect funds into the United States to buy a house, a yacht, a jet. Now, what was truly shocking was that all but one of those lawyers provided our investigator with suggestions on how to move those suspect funds. These were all preliminary meetings, and none of the lawyers took us on as a client and of course no money moved hands, but it really shows the problem with the system.
Det er også vigtigt ikke bare at se dette som en individuel sag. Dette handler ikke kun om en enkelt advokat, som har snakket med vores undercover efterforsker og kommet med forslag. Det handler ikke kun om en enkelt, højtstående politiker, som er blevet taget i en skandale. Det her handler om, hvordan systemet forankrer korruption, skatteunddragelse, fattigdom og ustabilitet. For at håndtere dette bliver vi nødt til at ændre spillets regler, så denne form for adfærd bliver sværere.
It's also important to not just think about this as individual cases. This is not just about an individual lawyer who's spoken to our undercover investigator and provided suggestions. It's not just about a particular senior politician who's been caught up in a scandal. This is about how a system works, that entrenches corruption, tax evasion, poverty and instability. And in order to tackle this, we need to change the game. We need to change the rules of the game to make this sort of behavior harder.
Det virker måske lidt dystert og trist, som om vi ikke kan gøre noget ved det, som om der ikke er noget, der har ændret sig, som om der altid vil være rige og magtfulde individer. Men som en naturlig optimist kan jeg se, at der er noget, der er ved at ændre sig.
This may seem like doom and gloom, like there's nothing we can do about it, like nothing has ever changed, like there will always be rich and powerful individuals. But as a natural optimist, I do see that we are starting to get some change.
Igennem de sidste par år har vi set en tendens til større gennemsigtighed, når det kommer til ejerskab af virksomheder. Dette emne var sat på den politiske dagsorden af Storbritanniens premierminister David Cameron ved G8-topmødet, der blev afholdt i Nordirland i 2013. Og siden da er EU gået i gang med at skabe et nationalt centralregister over hvem, der virkelig ejer og styrer virksomheder i Europa.
Over the last couple of years, we've seen a real push towards greater transparency when it comes to company ownership. This issue was put on the political agenda by the UK Prime Minister David Cameron at a big G8 Summit that was held in Northern Ireland in 2013. And since then, the European Union is going to be creating central registers at a national level of who really owns and controls companies across Europe.
Det triste er, at USA faktisk sakker bagud. Der findes en tværpolitisk lovgivning, der er blevet introduceret i Repræsentanternes hus og Senatet, men der er ikke så meget fremgang, som vi gerne ville se. Vi ville gerne se Panama papirerne, dette kæmpe indblik ind i offshore verdenen, blive brugt som en måde at åbne op på i USA og rundt omkring i verden.
One of the things that is sad is that, actually, the US is lagging behind. There's bipartisan legislation that had been introduced in the House and the Senate, but it isn't making as much progress as we'd like to see. So we'd really want to see the Panama leaks, this huge peek into the offshore world, be used as a way of opening up in the US and around the world.
For os her hos Global Witness er dette en tid for forandring. Vi har brug for, at almindelige mennesker bliver sure over den måde, man kan skjule sin identitet på ved at gemme sig bag hemmelige selskaber. Vi har brug for at virksomhedsledere rejser sig og siger, "Hemmeligholdelse på denne måde er ikke godt for erhvervslivet." Vi har brug for, at politiske ledere anerkender problemet og forpligter sig til at ændre lovgivningen for at åbne op for denne hemmeligholdelse.
For us at Global Witness, this is a moment for change. We need ordinary people to get angry at the way in which people can hide their identity behind secret companies. We need business leaders to stand up and say, "Secrecy like this is not good for business." We need political leaders to recognize the problem, and to commit to changing the law to open up this sort of secrecy.
Sammen kan vi ændre denne hemmeligholdelse, som lige nu tillader skatteunddragelse, korruption og hvidvaskning af penge.
Together, we can end the secrecy that is currently allowing tax evasion, corruption, money laundering to flourish.