…from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
[ Editor’s Note: We are beginning to see some heads roll from the Pandora Papers, but not nearly enough. One of the problems is that the large scale of this graft cannot be dealt with by law enforcement institutions which are already overloaded chasing down ordinary crooks.
They can’t turn on a dime and go after the big wigs, many of whom are in the law enforcement political chain of command. Then there is the unspoken so far, that we have not seen any major law enforcement people exposed in this international scandal. Imagine that.
The only effective way to combat this is to freeze and seize all offshore accounts and begin to identify the ‘owners’ so they can come forward to disclose where the funds came from. Any banks not complying with the order would have to be taken off the SWIFT system immediately, and bank officers held accountable.
All these accounts would be turned over to an international UN type conservator, with a time period of like a year for the owner to come forward. If none did, then the account balance would go into a general fund to do nice things with, like funding the monitoring of such money laundering.
This would make a lot of powerful people unhappy, to the point where they might start killing people to show their displeasure. But that game would be a two way street, which I would not advise them to take… Jim W. Dean ]
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First published … November 11, 2021
Big news out of Chile today. President Sebastián Piñera has been impeached weeks after the Pandora Papers revealed details of a controversial mining deal, which the opposition argued constituted a conflict of interest.
Members of the lower house of the legislature voted to impeach based on reporting by ICIJ partners, the Chilean Center for Investigative Reporting (CIPER) and Labot.
The investigation revealed a contract, signed offshore, involving the $138 million sale of a Piñera family stake, which was allegedly contingent on the government not enacting new environmental regulations while Piñera was president. Piñera denies wrongdoing.
The impeachment was approved after a dramatic debate that carried on for almost 24 hours in order to make time for a legislator to be released from quarantine to cast a key vote. The bid now moves to the Senate, while presidential and legislative elections are set to take place later this month.
Piñera is one of three current Latin American presidents whose offshore dealings came to light in the Pandora Papers, and one of a number of world leaders now facing probes as a result of the global investigation.
“I want it to be an example and testimony that this parliament is capable of putting an end to the abuses, to the impunity with which this government has acted,” said opposition leader Jaime Naranjo, who spoke for more than 14 hours of the filibuster.
Jim W. Dean is VT Editor Emeritus. He was an active editor on VT from 2010-2022. He was involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews. He now writes and posts periodically for VT.
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“””a two way street, which I would not advise them to take… Jim W. Dean ]””””
Wow-wee Jim, you cut to the nub.
Only in the USA is going after these grifters a huge political problem, Jim. We are after all an oligarchy and oligarchs always get away with shit. It’s built right into our national DNA to do this. Every four years we have an election. The choices are: barely concealed corporate fascism or out-and-out in-your-face Christo-fascism wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross like Sinclair Lewis wrote.
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