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This week, there have been [br]a whole slew and deluge of stories

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coming out form the leak[br]of 11 million documents

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from a Panamanian-based law firm[br]called Mossack Fonseca.

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The release of these papers[br]from Panama

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lifts the veil on a tiny piece[br]of the secretive offshore world.

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We get an insight into how[br]clients and banks and lawyers

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go to companies like Mossack Fonseca

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and say, "Okay, we want[br]an anonymous company,

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can you give us one?"

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So you actually get to see the emails,

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you get to see the exchanges[br]of messages,

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you get to see the mechanics[br]of how this works,

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how this operates.

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Now this has already started[br]to have

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pretty immediate repercussions.

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The Prime Minister of[br]Iceland has resigned.

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We've also heard news that an ally[br]

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of the brutal Syrian dictator [br]Bashar al-Assad

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has also got offshore companies.

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There's been allegations[br]of a 2 billion-dollar money trail

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that leads back to [br]President Vladimir Putin of Russia

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via his close childhood friend

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who happens to be a top cellist.

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And there will be a lot [br]of rich individuals our there

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and other who will be nervous[br]about the next set of stories

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and the next set of leaked documents.

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Now, this sounds like the plot[br]of a spy thriller

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or a John Grisham novel.

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It seemed very distant from[br]you and me ordinary people.

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Why should we care about this?

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But the truth is that if rich[br]and powerful individuals

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are able to keep their money offshore

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and not pay the taxes that they should,

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it means that there is less money[br]for vital public services

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like healthcare, education, roads,

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and that affects all of us.

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Now for my organization Global Witness,

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this exposé has been phenomenal.

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We have the world's media[br]and political leaders

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talking about how individuals can use[br]offshore secrecy

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to hide and disguise their assets,

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something we have been talking about[br]and exposing for a decade.

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Now I think a lot of people[br]find this entire world

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baffling and confusing[br]and hard to understand

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how this sort of offshore world works.

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I like to think of it a bit[br]like a Russian doll.

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So you can have one company[br]stacked inside another company,

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stacked inside another company,

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making it almost impossible[br]to really understand

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who is behind these strucutres.

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It can be very difficult[br]for law enforcement

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or tax authorities, journalists,[br]or civil society

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to really understand what's going on.

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I also think it's interesting[br]that there's been

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less coverage of this issue [br]in the United States,

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and that's perhaps because [br]some prominent US people

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just haven't figured in this exposé,[br]in this scandal.

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Now that's not because there are[br]no rich Americans

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who are stashing their assets[br]offshore.

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It's just because of the way in which[br]offshore works,

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Mossack Fonseca has fewer [br]American clients.

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I think if we saw leaks from[br]the Cayman Islands

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or even from Delaware[br]or Wyoming or Nevada,

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you would see many more cases[br]and examples

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linking back to Americans.

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In fact, in a number of US states,

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you need less information,[br]you need to provide less information

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to get a company than you do [br]to get a library card.

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That sort of secrecy in America[br]has allowed

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employees of school districts[br]to rip off school children.

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It has allowed scammers[br]to rip off vulnerable investors.

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This is the sort of behavior[br]that affects all of us.

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Now at Global Witness,[br]we wanted to see

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what this actually looked [br]like in practice.

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how does this actually work?

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So what we did is we sent in[br]an undercover investogator

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to 13 Manhattan law firms.

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Our investigator posed[br]as an African minister

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who wanted to move suspect funds[br]into the United States

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to buy a house, a yacht, a jet.

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Now what was truly shocking[br]was that all but one of those lawyers

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provided our investigator with suggestions[br]on how to move those suspect funds.

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These were all preliminary meetings