2016-04-04 Panama spin in high gear...

2016-04-04 Panama spin in high gear... smile emoticon
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Plenty of fodder for the spinners... smile emoticon

Pepe Escobar

April 4 at 4:58pm · 

THAT PANAMA RACKET UPDATE

A who’s who of wealthy/powerful players has been DIRECTLY targeted in the Panama Papers leak, from the – demented – King of Saudi Arabia to former Fiat/Ferrari stalwart Luca de Montezemolo, from Lionel Messi to (unnamed) Chinese Communist Party officials and members of President Xi Jinping’s family.

Quite juicy to also find Alaa Mubarak – the son of the deposed snake; the butcher of Fallujah, Ayad Allawi, former US occupation PM; Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif (a Saudi protégé, so he gets offshore advice as well); and butcher of Gaza Dov Weisglass, former advisor to PMs Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert (this one convicted of corruption)

Thus we find in the list not only Middle Eastern racketeers but also “respectable” Europeans – including David Cameron’s Dad.

A particular emphasis is on BRICS members – from those mysterious Chinese to a few Indian companies. As far as Brazil is concerned, there’s a healthy counterpoint; the presence of some notoriously corrupt players targeted by the Car Wash investigation such as Eduardo Cunha and Joaquim Barbosa.

Lula is NOT on the list – to the despair of the Exceptionalistan-supported regime changers in Brazil, many of them (media barons, bankers, businessmen) part of the previous HSBC leaks. Regime-changers-in-Chief, the Globo media empire, are not on the Panama leaks, although they profit from a certified offshore racket.

No Americans, either. Isn’t it lovely? Panama may be too obvious, too rakish, too crude. Exceptionalists prefer more refined racket holes, say Luxembourg. Or the rakish Caymans, for that matter.

So what’s left to spin? Well, the obvious: it’s Putin fault. Virtually every major Western corporate media headline blares that Putin has $2 billion offshore.

The problem is he doesn’t. Putin is guilty by association because of his “close associates” Arkady and Boris Rotenberg’s ties to money laundering. Yet three “incriminating” emails happen not to “incriminate” them, or Putin.

And then there’s cellist Sergey Roldugin, a childhood friend of Putin’s. Here’s the spin by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which, crucially, is financed, among others, by notorious Russophobe George Soros:

“The records show Roldugin is a behind-the-scenes player in a clandestine network operated by Putin associates that has shuffled at least $2 billion through banks and offshore companies. In the documents, Roldugin is listed as the owner of offshore companies that have obtained payments from other companies worth tens of millions of dollars. … It’s possible Roldugin, who has publicly claimed not to be a businessman, is not the true beneficiary of these riches. Instead, the evidence in the files suggests Roldugin is acting as a front man for a network of Putin loyalists – and perhaps for Putin himself.”

What about, “the evidence in the files suggests Lionel Messi is acting as a front man for a network of Argentine football loyalists trying to evade the rape of Argentina by US hedge fund vultures”?

Pathetic.