Article Analysis Essay on "Panama Papers Investigation: Four Men Criminally Charged in Us." By the Guardian

Introduction

The article in the Guardian newspaper presents the case of the four people arrested and criminally charged in the US. This is after investigations that had been done by Panama Papers were taken by the US government. The information contained leaked files from an offshore law firm, Mossack Fonesca.

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The four men have been charged with what is called wire fraud, tax fraud, and money laundering. This is alongside other financial crimes. The four include an attorney as well as the company's investment manager. The company was investigated after reports of fraud emerged and the crime linked to some of its managers. Panama papers carried the investigations and the US government took the findings which contained leaked files from the company.

According to the prosecutor, Mossack Fonseca had engaged in a "decade-long criminal scheme" something that came to the eyes of the public after being exposed by the Guardian and other media outlets liked to it since 2015.

The article says that the four people did extraordinary things and went too far lengths to evade the US tax laws and this they did so that they could boost the wealth of their clients. US attorney, Geoffrey Berman said that these people are facing years in prison because of their crimes that they committed. The tax scheme was netted and is over and what remains ns is for the individuals to face the law because of their crimes.

The four men charged were Ramses Owens who is an attorney from Panama and also worked for the firm; Dirk Brauer who worked as an investment manager for a subsidiary of Mossack; Richard Gaffey who is an accountant based in the US; and Harald Joachim von der Goltz who was a former resident of United States of America and also a big client of Mossack firm.

The arrests were made separately with Von Der Goltz, who is a German citizen being arrested in London after British authorities helped the US authorities to make the arrest. The British authorities have offered a lot of assistance in the case.

On the other side, Brauer was arrested in Paris whereas Gaffey was arrested in Massachusetts. The only person not arrested who still remains at large is Owen. According to a court record, the men had been accused of secret back in September.

According to the article, Owens and Brauer created sham foundations, opaque offshore trusts as well as undeclared bank account which were used by the firm's American clients to enable them to hide their income to avoid the US tax authorities.

The American clients were then guided on how to illegitimately take the funds into the US and this was done by the use of debit cards that were specially made and the clients were told to claim that the money was form selling of companies. The firm's American client, Von der Goltz, who is a German citizen is accused of creating shell companies that were used to hide a lot of money and he claimed that his mother who is from Guatemala is the owner of the offshore holdings.

The article goes further to reveal that Gaffey assisted Von der Goltz in his scheme and also he is also accused of advising another taxpayer. According to the prosecutor, Gaffey created a system for the taxpayer to bring money of offshore funds into the US and this he was advised to claim that he had sold a company.

This is one of the biggest white-collar crime and the US authorities are working hard to make sure the four are prosecuted. This indictment comes less than a week after German authorities raided Deutsche bank as they were investigating an alleged money laundering crime that is also connected to the Panamanian scheme.

The German authorities searched the Deutsche bank offices and seized files. They are investigating two bank employees who are accused of creating offshore accounts for their clients to launder money. This prosecution in the US presents one of the fiercest battle against white-collar crime by Trump's administration.

This represents a milestone in the fight against white collar crime. The authorities are doing good to try and stop the syndicate and this is because white-collar crime has been on the rise for many years now. A lot of people are using technology to carry out the white-collar crime. This shows that there is a need to create better systems that can help in combating the white-collar crime.

I feel that little is being done to reduce white collar crime and that this needs a multi-agency collaboration to help in stopping it. More technology should be used to combat this type of crime because the criminals are always smart in terms of their execution. This is a societal issue that has been caused by the society not being able to assert authority in terms of morals in society.

There is a need to have morals in society as many people now want to use the shortest ways to amass wealth. Due to this a lot of smart criminals are coming up and we need to help the authorities to stop this wave of crimes.

This event affects me very much because the net effect is felt in the overall economy. These people were dealing much on money laundering and tax evasion something that can affect the economy of the country and bring a lot of repercussions. This directly affects the citizens and the country and its effects may be short term or long term.

The event will have a very big social and economic impacts. Socially, we are passing a bad example to the next generation because they will always want to use these smart ways to get wealth. Technology has come with its challenges and there is a need to try and work them out.

The crimes bring a lot of social problems and this may include lack of employment due to the effects it can have on the economy. Economically, money-laundering, tax evasion, and other financial crimes usually have a lot of effects. They take toll of the country's economy and they in most cases cripple it.

Creation of offshore accounts and other undeclared bank accounts is something that affects the economy in terms of investment and this usually affects the growth of the economy. These financial crimes have a lot of negative effects and something should be done to combat them. To control white collar crimes I think we need improved systems that can detect the money laundering and tax evasion schemes. These systems will be useful to the authorities to net the criminals before they do more damage to the economic system.

Reference

Swaine, J., & Kirchgaessner, S. (2018). Panama Papers investigation: four men criminally charged in the US. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018