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Revealed: the $2bn offshore trail that leads to Vladimir Putin
The Guardian ^ | April 3 2016 | Luke Harding

Posted on 04/04/2016 5:51:42 AM PDT by tlozo

A network of secret offshore deals and vast loans worth $2bn has laid a trail to Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin. An unprecedented leak of documents shows how this money has made members of Putin’s close circle fabulously wealthy. Though the president’s name does not appear in any of the records, the data reveals a pattern...The documents suggest Putin’s family has benefited from this money – his friends’ fortunes appear his to spend….. The Panama Papers disclose that Kovalchuk and Bank Rossiya achieved the transfer of at least $1bn to a specially created offshore entity called Sandalwood Continental. These funds came from a series of enormous unsecured loans from the state-controlled Russian Commercial Bank (RCB) and other state banks…Cash was also handed over directly to the Putin circle, this time in the form of very cheap loans, made with no security and with interest rates as low as 1%… The transactions, include apparently fake share deals, with shares “traded” retrospectively; multimillion-dollar charges for vague “consultancy” services; and repeated payments of large sums in “compensation” for allegedly cancelled share deals. In 2011 a Roldugin company buys the rights to a $200m loan for $1. “This is not business, this is creating the appearance of business in order to continually move and hide assets,” Andrew Mitchell QC, a leading authority on money-laundering…. Speculation over the size of Putin’s personal fortune has gone on for almost a decade, following reports in 2007 that he was worth at least $40bn, based on leaks from inside his own presidential administration. In 2010, US diplomatic cables suggested Putin held his wealth via proxies. The president formally owned nothing, they added, but was able to draw on the wealth of his friends, who now control practically all of Russia’s oil and gas production and industrial resources…

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Russia
KEYWORDS: corruption; offshore; panamapapers; putin; putinsbuttboys; russia; sergeiroldugin; tafta; tisa; tpa; tpp; vladimirputin; vladtheimploder
US political scientist Karen Dawisha said it was inconceivable that Putin’s friends had become rich without his patronage. “He takes what he wants. When you are president of Russia, you don’t need a written contract. You are the law.”
1 posted on 04/04/2016 5:51:42 AM PDT by tlozo
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To: tlozo

Well well, who else is a member of this elite little club?

How many of ours are members?


2 posted on 04/04/2016 5:58:46 AM PDT by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal the 16th Amendment)
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To: tlozo

Coming to Amerika, crony crooked politicians will sell their mother and your tax dollars to whomever greases their campaign.
Trump looks better and better.


3 posted on 04/04/2016 6:04:18 AM PDT by Leo Carpathian (FReeeeepeesssssed)
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To: tlozo

Is the British newspaper heralding the capitalist
progress that Rodina Russia has made, in its
continual metamorphosis from all those years
under Communism/royalty, or are the British
jealous that they cannot shed their parasitical
monarchy, and declare themselves truly free?


4 posted on 04/04/2016 6:06:53 AM PDT by Terry L Smith
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To: tlozo

It’s already been noted that western media has “cleansed” the data of anything related to western leaders.

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/04/corporate-media-gatekeepers-protect-western-1-from-panama-leak/


5 posted on 04/04/2016 6:10:57 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("Don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative." -Obama, 09-24-11)
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To: tlozo

The real story will be how the Saudis (and other gulf states) are paying our politicians and network execs HUGE bucks for a pro-Islamic slant.

Also probably paying groups like NOW to keep their mouth shut about REAL women’s rights abuses in Islamic countries.

Unfortunately the propaganda is so deeply ingrained in the sheeple that such news will likely be met with the usual cries of “islamophobia”


6 posted on 04/04/2016 6:11:03 AM PDT by varyouga
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To: Travis McGee

Ping.


7 posted on 04/04/2016 6:11:59 AM PDT by Lurker (Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is it is the only answer.)
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To: tlozo

Interesting hit job on Putin. What will be the repercussions? The payback?


8 posted on 04/04/2016 6:18:02 AM PDT by McGruff (We don't need another JFK or Bill Clinton)
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To: tlozo; All

Call this “The revenge of Darth Soros”. Funny how this comes out, right on the heels of the world’s largest political bribery scandal, Unaoil, which connects to numerous Soros Cabal Allies, and that the U.S. media is completely ignoring


9 posted on 04/04/2016 7:07:39 AM PDT by tcrlaf (They told me it could never happen in America. And then it did....)
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To: McGruff

Russian Ministry of Defense on fire.

10 posted on 04/04/2016 7:08:39 AM PDT by Leo Carpathian (FReeeeepeesssssed)
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To: tlozo
Putins story is the story of all governments and large bureaucracies, whether they are for profit or non profit.

Once they achieve a certain level of size (power), the greed takes over. They see the possibility of manipulating their positions of influence and gradually they morph into totally self serving entities.

They no longer feel allegiance to their original purpose. They convince themselves that they and the “work” they do are so important, that they need not be constrained by the original intent for which they were elected/appointed/created.

No, they are special, they are chosen. They surround themselves with “yes” people who encourage them and who benefit from the corruption and cronyism.

So, Putin and others have been exposed. The veneer is being pulled back, and the shiny thin cosmetic layer seen by the average observer has been hiding a morass of slimy deadly parasitic maggots that is limitless in size and will eventually devour its host.

Then it all ends.

11 posted on 04/04/2016 8:14:47 AM PDT by Awgie (truth is always stranger than fiction)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

The whole list of all the names needs to be made public.


12 posted on 04/05/2016 4:11:36 PM PDT by free_life (If you ask Jesus to forgive you and to save you, He will.)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

The whole list of all the names needs to be made public.


13 posted on 04/05/2016 4:11:45 PM PDT by free_life (If you ask Jesus to forgive you and to save you, He will.)
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