Argentina ranks third for offshore bank accounts in 'Pandora Papers' leak
Argentina ranks third worldwide for having the most people concealing assets offshore for tax evasion and other purposes in the so-called 'Pandora Papers' leak.
The data probed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) comes from a leak of some 11.9 million documents of 14 financial services companies worldwide.
With 2,521 final beneficiaries, Argentina ranks only behind Russia (4,437) and the United Kingdom (3,506) - countries with economies 4 and 7 times larger, respectively.
According to the investigation, most of these Argentines opted to create dummy companies in the British Virgin Islands (1,981).
Those mentioned include both the brothers of Argentina's former President Mauricio Macri, Gianfranco and Mariano Macri, in two companies which were among the beneficiaries of the 2016 tax whitewash during Macri’s administration - as well as that administration’s CIA-linked spin doctor, Jaime Durán Barba from Ecuador.
Argentina also ranks high in the Pandora Papers as the fifth country with the most firms listed, with at least 1,448 companies.
At: https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/argentina/argentina-ranks-third-for-offshore-bank-accounts-in-pandora-papers-leak.phtml
Argentine banking whistleblower Hernán Arbizu.
Arbizu, a former JP Morgan Chase executive, testified in 2013 on how Argentine firms and wealthy clients evade billions of dollars in taxes using banks and exchange houses - which routinely skirt the country's tight financial regulations.
Argentines, who figured prominently in the recent Pandora Leaks as well as in the 2016 Panama and Paradise Papers, are estimated by the Central Bank to hold over $250 billion (and up to $400 billion) in overseas deposits - dwarfing the $95 billion in domestic deposits.
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It's no coincidence that, since 1980, every major Argentine crisis ('81, '89, '01, '18) was preceded by a wave of dollarizing & offshoring assets - typically facilitated by deregulation and a sharp rise in foreign (dollar) debt.
That's the neocon business model for developing countries - and certainly Macri's.
So it's no surprise he's now giving a lecture series at Florida International University - for him, a good excuse to skip today's court summons in Buenos Aires (over alleged spying on victims' families of the 2017 ARA San Juan submarine disaster).
To be fair to FIU, it could be that they invited him to provide a first-hand example of what not to do.
Inside joke: "Professor" Macri beams at his cousin (and top public works beneficiary) Ángelo Calcaterra, with former Economy Minister Nicolás Dujovne (who left Argentina after the economy imploded in 2018) smiling between them.
They were spotted at the upscale Cipriani Downtown Miami Italian restaurant last Saturday night.
It should set a new record in lowness, lower than a destroyed submarine.
Creepy image of three grifters out on the town in Miami when they should all be back in Argentina facing the mess they left behind them, and making restitution, or going to prison.
What a shock it is to the the Economy Minister up there with them, too! He's got nerve showing his face in public anywhere.
No doubt you're right the FIU students have been informed Macri will be explaining all the things that should NEVER be done under any circumstances!
