Latest / The Epstein Chronicles / Mega Edition: Jeffrey Epstein And His Utilization Of Shadow Markets (5/27/26)

Transcript

Mega Edition: Jeffrey Epstein And His Utilization Of Shadow Markets (5/27/26) · The Epstein Chronicles

0:00
Speaker 1: All right, So this article is from the International Consortium
0:04
of Investigative Journalists, the headline British Virgin Islands corruption scandal
0:10
threatens its dependable tax haven reputation. The territory, whose shell
0:15
companies have repeatedly played a role in notorious global crime schemes,
0:20
also may be blacklisted by the EU after the Brexit deal.
0:26
This article was authored by Will Fitzgibbon. So it goes
0:30
to show you the long reaching effects of the Brexit
0:35
deal as well. And I'm not talking about which side
0:38
of it you fall on personally. As an American, you know,
0:42
I don't really feel like I could speak on it
0:44
too well. I don't know all of the ins and outs.
0:47
But when you leave something like the EU, there is
0:50
going to be repercussions. And I could see the EU
0:53
being spiteful about, you know, the United Kingdom leaving, Britain leaving,
0:59
and them trying to get back at the UK by
1:02
you know, ramping up the UH the regulations for a
1:06
place like the British Virgin Islands. Now, like I always say, however,
1:14
I think the EU should worry about their own backyard
1:16
before they're appointing fingers about the overgrown lawn that England has,
1:24
but those ramification ramifications still remain because of the Brexit deal.
1:30
So I've wondered how they would leverage the Brexit deal
1:37
in ways like this. Right, you know, in the major
1:39
ways how it's going to happen, but in littler ways
1:41
like this, I'm always interested to see how, you know,
1:45
the cards fall. It's very interesting to see how all
1:48
of that works. The British Virgin Islands is reeling from
1:53
a corruption scandal that threatens to upend the territory's reputation
1:58
as one of the world's most dependent tax havens. Last week,
2:03
outgoing BBI Governor Augustus Jaspert announced a commission of inquiry
2:08
to investigate allegations of corruption and the misuse of millions
2:12
of dollars in public funds. The outgoing governor, huh, pretty
2:19
interesting that it's the outgoing governor that initiates this. And
2:23
now remember the United Kingdom is in charge of the
2:26
British Virgin Islands. They oversee all of this stuff. So
2:30
I find it interesting that it's the outgoing guy who
2:34
brings this all up, sets this in motion, right on
2:37
the heels of the fins and files dropping. You see
2:41
things don't just happen, you know, out of order. In
2:46
situations like this, you know there are no coincidences. Everything
2:49
connects to each other, and once one domino begins to
2:53
fall around the world, you start to see the rest
2:56
of it happen. And that's what we're seeing here. The
2:59
long ranging of effects of the fence and files is
3:02
playing out right before our eyes. Now. My hope is
3:07
that it goes even further than what we have seen.
3:11
I want, especially after what we saw take place with
3:16
Robin Hood and GameStop, I want these people on Wall Street,
3:20
these hedge fund managers, and all the rest of these
3:23
bankers and manipulators. I want them to be regulated into oblivion.
3:28
At this point, they're so greedy and so disgusting that
3:39
we can't trust them to conduct themselves correctly, So their
3:43
whole entire industry must be highly regulated. The inquiry will
3:50
focus on a range of claims and alarming discoveries. In
3:53
a Facebook video posted during his last week as governor,
3:57
Jaspert referred to accusations he heard during his I'm in
4:00
office from officials, journalists, and members of the public, including
4:05
one case in which forty million earmarked for COVID nineteen
4:08
relief allegedly siphoned to political allies. Well, what do you know, huh?
4:15
We all knew that the grift was on and in
4:18
our own countries especially, you know that the money that
4:21
was set aside for COVID relief was being paid out
4:24
to cronies and to allies and to donors and shit
4:28
like that. You know, Main Street wasn't going to see
4:31
any of it, but it gets blasted and amplified in
4:36
a place like the British Virgin Islands. Forty million dollars
4:39
down there is a lot of money, okay, And the
4:44
fact that it was spread around to the political allies
4:48
of this governor makes it even more audacious that he's
4:53
the one that's initiating this investigation. And I wonder if
4:57
there is pressure coming from England and and that is
5:00
why this and this this investigation is being opened now.
5:04
Because usually when it has to do with your political allies,
5:07
you're pretty hesitant to uh to get anything going right.
5:12
You're pretty hesitant to make a move one way or
5:15
the other, and you know, regulate your people or censor
5:23
them or bring them up on charges or whatever may
5:26
have you. But this is a uh a situation where
5:31
we're going to see a lot more of this moving forward.
5:33
I think, folks, in the wake of the fence and
5:37
files and all of the new money laundering regulations that
5:41
we're seeing pop up around the world, I think we're
5:44
going to see a lot more of these inquiries and
5:47
all of these bankers that that have been running around
5:50
for all of these years engaging in all of this
5:54
let's let's be very let's be nice and say borderline behavior. Well,
6:00
I have a feeling that all of their chickens are
6:02
gonna come home to roost, because if the whole world
6:06
gets on board with this kind of thing and everybody
6:08
starts prosecuting these people in the proper manner, then I
6:14
think it's going to send a huge shockwave through the
6:18
whole entire industry, and it's going to show these people
6:22
that they're not above the law, because up until now,
6:25
they truly believe that they're above the law. How many
6:29
of them went to jail over the financial meltdown. How
6:32
many of these people who basically bankrupted all of our
6:36
four to oh one ks went to jail, I'll tell
6:40
you none of them. And meanwhile, while all that was happening,
6:44
and they were getting bailouts of your money. They were
6:47
still running these offshore operations, these shell companies, not paying taxes,
6:53
not paying back their loans. Oh no, that's forgiveab all.
6:57
You're too big to fail. What does that even mean?
6:59
Too big to fail? While I'm ranting, there's no such
7:03
thing as too big to fail. You fail and then
7:06
somebody else moves into your place in the market and
7:09
provides a service that you were providing but better. That's
7:14
how all of this works. And I'm tired of the
7:19
crony capitalism, especially in the financial sector. I mean, you
7:24
see the way that Wall Street is operating. You see
7:29
Robin Hood getting shut down to help the hedge funge
7:32
managers cover their positions. It's such bs, it's such garbage.
7:36
You know. They don't want anybody to get out of
7:42
poverty or anybody to make any money. They don't want
7:46
that because then you can't be controlled if you're making
7:49
your own money and you're the ruler of your own
7:51
life and you're not relying on the government for anything.
7:54
So how dare you try and get in on the
7:57
market and get in on the show. The way that
8:00
the hedge funds do on a regular basis. How dare
8:03
the common man try and make a profit. We need
8:06
to stop that trading right now. We're the only ones
8:09
that are allowed to steal, says the hedge funge managers.
8:14
And then Robin Hood's bitch asked, more like Robin, people
8:17
just going right along with it and pausing trade. Oh now,
8:22
they announced that trade's gonna resume tomorrow, but you know
8:25
where is pause it now? And they did it for
8:27
your own interest, to make you better or to make
8:30
sure that your position is protected. We don't need you
8:35
to protect us, okay, Robin Hood. These people on Wall
8:40
Street and these financial advisors and these firms, and these
8:45
hedge funge managers, they've gone away with this shift for
8:48
way too long, folks, and it's time that the script
8:52
is flipped. How many companies have they ruined with their
8:55
shorts and now the shoes on the other foot. Well,
9:00
we can't have that, can we. The only people that
9:03
can have a tilted playing field are the so called
9:05
e lead I guess. In another case under investigation, the
9:12
BBC reported cocaine worth almost two hundred and fifty million
9:16
dollars was found in the home of a local policeman.
9:20
A local policeman. What do you mean, like a patrolman?
9:23
Where do you get two hundred and fifty million dollars
9:27
worth of snort as a regular old policeman. That's a
9:32
lot of kilos, folks, that's a lot of kilos of cocaine.
9:36
What is this dude's uncle live in Mediine packaging them
9:41
up a little bit of something something and sending it
9:43
up north? What in the hell is a regular old
9:48
policeman doing with two hundred and fifty million dollars worth
9:54
of nose candy. I'm sure he's the only one involved
9:57
in that, right, I'm sure he saved up his policeman's
10:00
salary in the British Virgin Islands and put all of
10:04
that blow on layaway. Come on, man, who else is involved?
10:09
He's holding it? Probably he's the bag boy. Which one
10:12
of these rat bag politicians is really the one pulling
10:16
the strings? Who's the puppeteer, because obviously this dude is
10:21
the puppet. The inquiry is backed by the United Kingdom,
10:25
which oversees the BVII as an overseas territory. The BVII
10:30
governs its domestic affairs and raises its own taxes, but
10:34
relies on the United Kingdom for defense and diplomatic matters. Yeah,
10:39
you know, the overall the United Kingdom is going to
10:47
be involved in this, right, they're going to provide logistical support,
10:50
forensic support, all of that jazz. They're definitely gonna help them.
10:54
Try and blow this up, try and get people arrested.
10:58
And you know, whoever was involved in this stealing of
11:01
this money, the forty million dollars here, you know, they're
11:05
they're gonna try and make it so this person pays
11:07
a price. And I think that's a damn good start.
11:10
All of these politicians that were involved with this sort
11:13
of thing, with setting up Jeffrey Epstein, all of these
11:16
people need to be held to account. And as much
11:18
as I dig what Denise George is doing in the
11:20
Virgin Island sending out the subpoenas and going hard in
11:23
the paint, I think until she cleans up her backyard
11:26
and charges some of the politicians that were involved in
11:29
all of this, then they really shouldn't be trying to
11:31
get any money out of the fund because it's just
11:34
a bad look. Right. But over in the British Virgin Islands,
11:40
you see the same thing starting to happen. Over here.
11:42
You see the locals starting to get on board, and
11:46
they're starting to say no more, you're not going to
11:48
use our island as a mecca for illegal activity. These
11:53
are beautiful places, folks. Is there anyone that's listening to
11:57
this podcast right now that would turn down a train
12:00
to either of these places to go sit on the
12:02
beach and sip a few my ties. You can certainly
12:05
count me in. So it's a shame when a few
12:08
people ruin it for everybody. It's a shame when a
12:11
few people give it a black eye. And that's what
12:15
this governor is trying to stop here. It looks like
12:18
trying to set some things right on his way out
12:20
the door. And you know what, you can only applaud
12:23
that because it's you know, we go hard enough on
12:27
people when they are not doing the right thing. So
12:31
when they're doing the right thing, well it's good to
12:34
give them some props. So this outgoing governor definitely somebody
12:37
that should be given some props. A consistent and deeply
12:44
troubling array of concerns have been put to the governor
12:47
by local institutions and the community. UK Foreign Secretary Dominic
12:52
rob Set in a statement to Parliament. We cannot ignore
12:55
such serious allegations and they can't. Right, they have to act,
12:59
They have to come forward, They have to do something
13:01
about it, especially considering the fence and files, putting it
13:06
all into picture for people. You know, it's a lot
13:11
for people to put together themselves. But when the pieces
13:13
are there and you start moving them around on the
13:16
puzzle board yourself, it's a lot easier when all the
13:19
pieces are provided for you. The BBI is one of
13:28
one of the world's most popular tax havens and attracts
13:31
legitimate business corporations, celebrities, multimillionaires, and criminals alike. The island
13:37
offers cheap and simple shell companies that allow their owners
13:40
to avoid registering their names in public. Oh that's nice, right,
13:45
real nice, isn't it. I would hope that that changes
13:49
as well. That definitely needs to be something that changes
13:53
with the new law here in America. That's something that
13:55
they're doing away with now. Of course, there's going to
13:58
be shit ton of loopholes, and we've talked talked about
14:00
that already, but it's a start, right, We got a
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walk before we can run while owning and piping money
14:09
through BVII companies is legal. Shell companies created on the
14:12
island are a regular feature in the world's most notorious scandals.
14:17
BVII companies appeared in a two billion dollar scheme in
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the name of a close friend of Russian President Vladimir
14:24
Putin and the corruption pack that last week saw Israeli
14:27
tycoon Benny Steinmet's sentenced to jail. So, as you can see,
14:33
there's some very unsavory characters that are using these shell
14:38
companies for very unsavory practices. Friends of Vladimir Putin, chances
14:43
are you're in Oligark's scumbag Sir, probably shouldn't be doing
14:47
business with you. Have a nice day. More than half
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the shell companies exposed in the Panama Paper's investigation were
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registered in the BVII, according to an analysis by the
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International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. More recently, ICIJ revealed as
15:04
part of the Fens and Files investigation that BVII companies
15:08
appeared in one in every five suspicious activity reports filed
15:13
by banks that had concerns about possible money laundering. Yike's
15:18
twenty five percent, folks, So the struggle is real, the
15:23
problem is real, and the fact that the outgoing governor here,
15:28
mister Jaspert is putting this on blast is a huge
15:31
deal in my opinion, and I think it's a good thing.
15:34
It's about time that these people are put on blast,
15:37
and the government of the United Kingdom has to get
15:40
on board and they have to have some teeth with
15:43
the legislation and they have to make sure people are
15:46
paying a price for their corruption. It is the only
15:50
way to stop it. More recently, excuse me. Responding to
15:58
pressure and sustained scandals that highlight had highlighted the role
16:01
of BBI shell companies in global crime, the island last
16:04
year agreed to introduce a public register of company owners.
16:08
Following the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union, pressure
16:12
from European members of Parliament has grown to add the
16:15
BBI back to the Continents tax haven blacklist. Previously, the
16:21
UK had lobbied to keep its overseas territories off such
16:24
a list. Yeah, well, they want to make money off
16:27
of it, right. Well, you don't think that the politicians
16:30
and the government of the United Kingdom are corrupt, Oh
16:33
they are, breaking news. Politicians worldwide a corrupt That's why
16:37
they lobbied to keep it off such a list, and
16:40
for the EU's part in it all, well, it's pretty
16:43
childish right there. When England was part of the EU,
16:48
A okay, sure, but now you're gone, Yeah no, we
16:51
don't think that's okay anymore. And I get it right,
16:54
it's all part of it. But they should have been
16:56
like that when England was part of the EU. They
17:00
should have been as forceful and gone against the silly
17:03
ass tax havens and the way that they're the way
17:06
that they're manipulated and used for criminal activity. For years,
17:15
the BVII and its defenders have presented the overseas territory
17:18
as a reliable location for which the global so called
17:21
elite can discreetly and cleanly manage their affairs and avoid
17:26
the world's prying eyes. Yeah no, more of that. We
17:28
should just do away with all of this shit. If
17:31
I have to bank in America, associated you or wherever
17:33
your country is, here's an idea. You want to start
17:35
one of these shell companies, you're gonna have to start
17:37
it in the United States or in England or in Europe,
17:40
and you're going to have to put everything on record.
17:43
Enough of this BS. The BVII is a stable and
17:48
mature financial center with a distinctive and professional legal and
17:52
regulatory framework, according to an advertising brochure that forms part
17:57
of the ICIJS two thousand and seven seventeen Paradise Papers investigation.
18:03
In the past, companies and individuals question by ICIJ about
18:08
their choice of the BVII have praised the jurisdiction as
18:12
having a recognized and well established regulatory and compliance regime.
18:17
Oh well, I guess if you consider that one in
18:20
every five stars being filed coming from there, I guess
18:24
that's a great regulatory system and a great compliance regime.
18:30
Holy cal talk about not giving a damn and only
18:34
caring about increasing the zeros on your bank account. Many disagree.
18:40
Margaret Hodge, a UK member of Parliament who has pushed
18:43
for greater transparency in the BVII, told The Guardian that
18:46
the shocking revelations that corruption may be rife in the
18:50
BVII are a shameful indictment of the tax haven model.
18:54
It is clear that an economy based on secrecy and
18:57
low taxes is a recipe for bad governance, corruption and criminality. Well, look,
19:04
these shell companies certainly are all of that. And as
19:09
the Epstein case continues, we're going to continue to cover
19:12
this stuff, this financial portion of it as a subplot,
19:16
and will continue to cover the fins and files as
19:20
they come out and as more stories grow from them, because, folks,
19:25
as our case, the Epstein case, and the Maxwell case
19:28
continues to grow, you will see how important the financial
19:32
aspect truly becomes. If you like to contact me, you
19:37
can do that at Bobby Kapuchi at ProtonMail dot com.
19:41
That's bo b b y c ap you Cci at
19:45
ProtonMail dot com. You can also find me on Twitter
19:49
at Bobby Underscore cap you Cci. All of the links
19:55
that go with this episode can be found in the
19:58
description box. All right, everybody, I'll be back later on.
20:02
Have a great night of the Jeffrey Epstein Criminal Enterprise.
20:08
And we have also talked a lot about the Finson files.
20:12
We talk about how these offshore LLC's and these shell
20:19
companies are basically the lifeblood for people like Epstein and
20:24
others who are involved in the underbelly of the world. Well,
20:29
we're going to talk today about tax havens. We're going
20:34
to talk a little bit about offshore finance, and we're
20:38
going to explain it a little bit with the help
20:41
of an article from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
20:47
Now you should be familiar with these folks, considering they're
20:52
the ones who broke the Finson Files investigation as well.
20:57
So today we're going to go through the article and
21:01
we're going to talk about tax havens, what in the
21:03
hell are they, how they're established, what their role is,
21:07
and all of that other stuff that will continue to
21:11
add context to the financial angle of this case, which,
21:16
as you all know if you've been listening to the
21:18
podcast anyway, I think is a very very important avenue
21:25
considering his financial ties deep financial ties to so many
21:30
movers and shakers. I think that if the investigation is
21:35
conducted correctly and done with the aggressiveness that it should
21:41
be done with, that it will not be hard to
21:45
establish the fact that Jeffrey Epstein was using tax havens,
21:50
was using shell companies, was using different means to hide money.
21:57
And I think it will be rather obvious as those
22:01
investigations progress and they turn up more evidence that the
22:07
people who were involved with Jeffrey Epstein, we're also engaging
22:12
in financial crimes as well. So I really think that
22:17
as this case grows and we see that occurring, especially
22:22
down in the Virgin Islands, where Denise George has one
22:26
hundred percent begun to turn this into at the very
22:31
least a civil reco case. So we're going to go
22:37
over tax havens tonight and we're going to add a
22:41
little bit more meat to the bone. That way, when
22:44
we're discussing all of this stuff, it's easier to put
22:47
the pieces together right. And of course, this sort of
22:51
thing is super important in the Jeffrey Epstein case when
22:55
you're talking about the whole entire case in general, because
23:01
there are so many people that were connected to him financially,
23:06
so many big wigs and financial big shots that were
23:11
involved with Jeffrey Epstein being in charge of their money.
23:15
That if the proper amount of trees are shaken and
23:20
the proper amount of doors are kicked in, it's going
23:24
to be very apparent what was going on here. And
23:29
if we understand just exactly how these people hide their
23:33
money and what vehicles are used to do so, then
23:37
when all of the pieces of the puzzle come together,
23:40
it'll be a lot easier to understand all of this
23:43
stuff if we have all of the contexts that we
23:46
possibly can have. So with that said, let's jump into
23:50
this article, and let's talk about tax havens. This article,
23:55
as I said earlier, is from the International Consortium of
24:00
Investigative Journalists. The authors are will Will Fitzgibbon and Ben Hollman.
24:08
This article was published on April sixth of twenty twenty.
24:14
Tax revenues keep civilization afloat, but not all taxpayers play
24:19
by the same set of rules. With the help of lawyers, accountants,
24:23
white shoe professionals, and complicit Western governments, the wealthy and
24:28
well connected have avoided paying trillions of dollars in taxes.
24:32
And there's no doubt about that, right. I am certainly
24:36
not somebody who is ever going to champion high taxes.
24:40
I'm not a big fan, but I am a big
24:42
fan of these companies and these individuals that use these
24:46
loopholes that aren't available to the common folks. Well, I
24:50
am a big fan of them paying their fair share.
24:53
For sure. There's no reason that these billionaires that are
24:56
parking their money overseas to avoid taxes should be able
25:01
to get away with it. They should have to pony
25:03
up their fair share. And if they don't like what
25:06
the percentages, well maybe they should yank on the chain
25:09
of their dogs in Congress to have them change it.
25:14
They shouldn't be hiding their money overseas, they shouldn't be
25:17
parking it in these LLCs, and they certainly shouldn't be
25:21
getting away with it, not when you and I have
25:23
to account for every single dime the rest of us
25:30
cover the difference, or more commonly can't, leaving treasuries bereft
25:35
of moneies needed to build roads, schools, and tackle existential
25:39
threats like climate change and global pandemics. Yeah, there's no
25:44
doubt the money laundering is such a huge hit. And
25:48
while it gets lost in the sauce for the most
25:51
part in the Western world, in these developing countries it
25:57
is a lot more of a hindrance, right, a lot
26:03
bigger of a burden when you have these oligarchs and
26:08
kleptocrats enriching themselves on the money of the people while
26:12
the people continue to get hosed and don't have their
26:16
needs met, their basic needs met by their government. And
26:22
that is the pool that Jeffrey Epstein was playing in.
26:25
That's the pool that Jeffrey Epstein was excelling in, and
26:28
that is certainly the pool that all of his friends
26:30
were also swimming around in. Tax havens make it all possible.
26:37
By some estimates, about ten percent of the total output
26:40
of all the economies in the world is parked in
26:43
offshore financial centers held by shell companies that exist only
26:48
on paper. The cost of governments in lost revenue is
26:52
estimated to exceed eight hundred billion a year. That's eight
26:56
hundred billion with a B. Folks, think about that, all
27:00
that money grifted by the already wealthy. It's certainly not
27:05
any you know, person in your neighborhood that's making moves
27:10
on this eight hundred billion and siphoning it off. It's
27:14
the kleptocrats, It's the bureaucrats, it's the oligarchs. The same
27:19
people that would have you hating your neighbor and think
27:22
that your neighbor is an existential threat to you, are
27:26
really the ones that are a true threat, are really
27:31
the ones that keep our lives from being as good
27:36
as they should be. And you see it here. I mean,
27:41
these people are richer than you could possibly imagine, and
27:45
they still have to steal, they still have to avoid
27:48
paying taxes. That is just the way the game is
27:53
played for the so called elite, for so called polite society.
27:58
But people are starting to wake up. And when you
28:02
lock people in their homes for six months and they
28:04
have nothing better to do, while they start to pay
28:07
attention to who is really pulling the strings, to who
28:10
the puppets are, and to who the puppeteers are. And
28:15
as people wake up around the world, it's going to
28:18
be a whole hell of a lot harder for these
28:20
people to continue with their tried and true ways of
28:25
pillaging the wealth from the rest of us. The wealthy
28:32
keep the money to build intergenerational fortunes, creating a new
28:36
global aristocratic class and exasperating the divide between the global
28:42
haves and have nots. And what have we seen during
28:45
this pandemic, the most incredulous transfer of wealth from the
28:50
bottom up. Sure, people are back at work, but who
28:55
isn't back at work? The hardest people hit, the people
28:59
that have the least amount of education, the people that
29:04
are going to be the hardest to rehire. And somehow
29:08
that seems to not be a point of conversation. Somehow
29:11
that doesn't seem to be driving what's going on in Washington, DC.
29:16
As these eight, nine, ten to fifteen million people don't matter.
29:20
We're not talking about people that were laying around on
29:22
their couches all day. We're talking about people who have
29:25
the rug pulled out from underneath them by these lockdowns.
29:29
And then, like usual, the government doesn't make right. Oh, sure,
29:34
twelve weeks of an extra six hundred dollars a week
29:36
for unemployment, great, awesome, But what about after that? Nothing?
29:43
But you see, the transfer of wealth, this great transfer
29:48
of wealth continue to occur while the most vulnerable amongst
29:53
us are now staring at serious trouble starting December twenty
29:57
sixth December thirty first, when unemployment starts running out, and
30:02
I know that in Las Vegas alone, we're looking at
30:05
a legit apocalypse of people losing their homes and being
30:10
kicked out of their apartments. An absurd number of homes
30:15
aren't up to date on their bills, and it's not
30:17
going to get any better. But meanwhile, while all of
30:21
that was happening, folks, while you were asleep, these people
30:24
were transferring our wealth to their coffers. These people were
30:28
transferring our wealth to their bank accounts. And while people
30:34
suffer on Main Street, the grifters and the thieves on
30:39
Wall Street continue to get fat. Multinational companies use the
30:46
extra cash to reward shareholders and edge out smaller competitors. Yeah,
30:51
and mom and pop stores continue to go by the
30:53
wayside for big box shops. And then when shit goes
30:57
south and there's PPP money to be had or money
31:01
for Main Street, somehow, it inevitably ends up in the
31:06
pockets of the big businesses such as Walmart et cetera,
31:10
et cetera. And meanwhile, Wall Street continues to stack their
31:14
chips while Main Street flounders. Countries that need tax revenue
31:21
the most lose more tax money as a percentage of
31:24
GDP than wealthy countries. As with other inequities, the poor
31:29
get it the worst, and it trickles down like that
31:32
even in the Western world, folks. I mean, you know,
31:35
let's be real, twenty five percent finance rates from the
31:39
bank that should never be occurring. All it does is
31:41
keep poor people poor. And oh, I know the counter argument,
31:45
well you should have paid your bills. Well maybe people
31:47
would be able to pay their bills if their finance
31:50
rate was only twelve percent. And even that's crazy in draconian.
31:55
These banks shouldn't be charging a higher vig than the
31:58
mafioso boss down on the block. Are you kidding? Me
32:01
right now. But they get away with it. My question
32:07
is for how much longer are we going to let
32:09
them get away with it? How much longer are we
32:11
going to let these scumbags enable people like Jeffrey Epstein
32:17
and steal the wealth right out from underneath us. Years
32:22
after Panama Papers, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists remains
32:28
committed to exposing those who exploit tax havens, a long
32:33
list that also includes corrupt politicians, mobsters, drug traffickers, and
32:39
other criminals who launder cash and assets through offshore companies
32:43
to throw law enforcement off the scent. The easy movement
32:47
of illicit money destabilizes governments and helps despots stay in power.
32:52
And that we've seen it with every single one of
32:54
these strong men, so called strongmen from Kadafion down. How
32:58
much of their money do they have offshore? How many
33:01
billions are hidden offshore while there are people can't even
33:04
get a meal, and these people are celebrated. These people aren't,
33:10
you know, aren't damned on the world stage. Billions and
33:16
billions of dollars stolen from their people, hidden offshore, all
33:22
to enrich themselves. Here's a guide we've assembled to help
33:30
explain how offshore finance works and why it matters. If
33:34
you have questions we haven't answered, you can email us here.
33:37
So obviously click on the link when you check out
33:40
this episode and you have the hyperlink, so you can
33:44
email the actual journalists who wrote the article if you
33:47
have some questions, or you could shoot me an email
33:49
and I'll try and answer them as well. What is
33:52
a tax haven? There is no universal definition, but tax
33:57
havens or offshore financial centers are generally countries or places
34:02
with low or no corporate taxes that allows outsiders to
34:07
easily set up businesses there. Tax Havens also typically limit
34:12
public disclosure about companies and their owners because information can
34:17
be hard to extract. Tax Havens are sometimes also called
34:22
secrecy jurisdictions. Tax havens nearly always deny being tax havens.
34:28
And you know, when you think about taxaans right here
34:30
in America, you think about like the Cayman Islands, you know,
34:34
Switzerland offshore, but no, America is one of the biggest
34:40
perpetrators of this nonsense. And that's all because the financial
34:43
sector is not regulated at all, very little regulation, and
34:49
under Trump, hardly anyone went to crime for what I mean,
34:52
want to prison for white collar crime, and I understand
34:56
they were trying to cut the red tape and trying
34:58
to get business booming, and I get it. But at
35:01
the same time, there has to be a happy medium
35:03
and a balance. And these white collar criminals, these money launderers,
35:08
these people that are enabling people like Jeffrey Epstein, they
35:13
need to be held accountable for the way they steal,
35:16
from the way they grift, and from the way they
35:20
continue to keep poor people poor. Where are these tax
35:27
havens all over the world. Some are independent countries like Panama,
35:33
the Netherlands, and Malta. Others are within countries like the
35:37
US state of Delaware or our territories like the Cayman
35:41
Islands ICIJ. Investigations have focused on different taxaans, often depending
35:47
on the origin and content of the documents. Panama Papers,
35:52
for example, exposed how Mosak Fonseca, one of the biggest
35:56
offshore law firms in the world, sold thousands of shell
36:00
companies in the British Virgin Islands to clients around the globe.
36:05
Mortis Leaks examined how companies used mortis to avoid taxes,
36:10
while Paradise Papers revealed the secrets of Bermuda the island
36:14
where the law firm Applebee was founded. So these are
36:18
all of the leaks that have come out, the Panama papers,
36:21
the Paradise papers, and they have built this picture for
36:26
us that we have had in front of us leading
36:31
up to the fence and files. And then when the
36:34
fence and files were dropped, obviously it added more context,
36:38
more meat to the bone, as I like to say,
36:41
and it made the picture come in just that much clearer.
36:44
Do we have the full picture yet, No, we do not,
36:47
but it sure is starting to take shape. Some taxhabans
36:53
like new and Vanatu, have cleaned up their act under
36:56
international pressure, while others like to Buy are emerging as
37:01
new hotspots of illicit wealth. That doesn't shock me, considering
37:05
all of the wealth that you will find in Dubai,
37:08
all of the rich people looking to skate on taxes,
37:10
doesn't shock me for one single minute to hear or
37:14
think that Dubai would be one of these tax havens.
37:18
Certainly falls right in to line with how we see
37:24
things moving around the world. Right it seems like some
37:27
of the most industrialized countries, including the United States of America,
37:31
are leading the way for being taxaans. So we know
37:35
We have a lot of jawing from American politicians as
37:39
of late about bringing these people to heal. But we'll see, right,
37:44
considering that there hasn't been much of a change, as
37:49
you know at the top, how can we think that
37:54
there's going to be change as far as it goes
37:57
when it comes to these tax havens. So I'll need
38:01
to be convinced of that. Their words are fine and all,
38:04
fine and all, but I'm going to need some action
38:06
from the US politicians that say their staunch about making
38:11
sure that these people that are engaging in these financial
38:15
crimes are no longer able to manipulate the financial system
38:19
the way they have been able to for all of
38:22
these years. Why would a country or state decide to
38:27
become a tax haven money? Tax haveans make significant income
38:32
from fees paid by people and companies who create and
38:35
use shell companies. Tax haveans also create work for lawyers, accountants,
38:40
and secretaries. Moritis, for example, has said five thousand people
38:45
would lose jobs if the country stop being a tax haven.
38:48
So you see what they do there, right, They intertwine
38:51
it with the actual economy, the real economy, and then
38:54
they bring in secretaries and the sort and when things
38:59
start going going south, they'll point to those folks and
39:02
be like, well, all of these people are going to
39:03
lose their jobs if we can't make this, if this
39:06
can't be a tax saan anymore. Meanwhile, those jobs are
39:13
basically being used to help these people under money. So
39:18
I don't really know why any country or district would
39:25
play ball with these people. I get it, the money
39:28
is a draw. But now, especially as people are starting
39:32
to focus more on this and more journalists are beginning
39:35
to write about this problem and how big it is,
39:39
I think that these districts or little islands or republics
39:43
or whatever would be crazy to get into bed with
39:48
as a shell company with some of these corporations, what
39:53
is a shell company? A shell company is a legal
39:57
entity created and a tax haven. Shell companies typically exist
40:01
only on paper, with no full time employees and no office.
40:05
A single office building in the Cayman Islands, for example,
40:09
is home to nineteen thousand shell companies. Rules differ, but
40:13
the actual owners of many shells are not disclosed in
40:16
incorporation documents. Some use the term shell company and offshore
40:21
company interchangeably. Now you see why we talk about this
40:26
when it comes to Epstein considering all of the shell
40:28
companies he had in the Virgin Islands. Look, it was
40:31
not a coincidence he was located down there, right. He
40:35
was getting a great deal on a lot of these
40:39
LLC's offshore shell companies that he had down there. He
40:43
was getting a sweetheart deal on the taxes, and he
40:46
knew that people were going to look the other way
40:48
for his behavior because of these entities that he had there.
40:52
He was pumping money into the hands of the bureaucracy.
40:57
So Jeffrey Epstein and his enterprise was in the Virgin
41:03
Islands for many reasons, and they were on the islands
41:06
for many reasons. One of those reasons, in my opinion,
41:10
is because of how prevalent the money laundering was and
41:15
the LLCs and shell companies and that whole entire situation
41:20
for him to stay off the grid with his shadow
41:22
money down in the Virgin Islands, that played a huge
41:26
part in it. Why are they called shell companies because
41:32
like an empty shell, there's nothing inside. A shell company
41:36
exists legally only on paper. And like we talked about
41:40
a second ago, nineteen thousand shell companies in one building
41:44
in the Cayman Islands. Yeah, because that's possible, right. What
41:51
are shell companies used for legal and illegal purposes? Shell
41:56
companies can hold money, luxury homes, intellectual property, businesses, and
42:01
other assets. They also play a vital role in facilitating
42:05
the flow of illicit money around the globe, and we
42:08
have established that with our conversations here. I mean, let's
42:14
be real. The art world, especially is rife with money
42:20
laundering and dark money being moved around and the art
42:25
being used as the vehicle for that to occur. You know,
42:29
these people think they're slick, right, and for years this
42:32
has been a great market for them to make their
42:34
moves and to play their games. But once again, people
42:38
are catching on and people are starting to pay attention,
42:41
and the silence that once surrounded them by the people
42:45
that they abused is no longer guaranteed. People are seeing
42:49
that they're not alone, and they're not going to just
42:52
be laughed at and told that they're liars, and they're
42:56
coming forward to put these scuzzbags on blast, and you're
43:00
going to see it happen more and more as this
43:02
case gets deeper. Who uses tax savins and why rich?
43:09
But otherwise average folk including dentists and at least one
43:13
Alabama Greengrocer use shell companies for reasons that may include
43:18
making it harder for potential creditors, including former spouses, displease
43:23
business partners, or tax inspectors to identify and recoup monies
43:28
allegedly owed. Investments made through tax shelters can be especially
43:33
lucrative owing to the significant tax savings offshore companies may enjoy.
43:39
And again, there are a lot of people that are
43:43
utilizing these shell companies right, People that don't want to
43:48
pay their fair share of taxes, want to stash that money,
43:51
or like they're saying here, they're trying to hide some
43:54
dough from their wives or from their business partners or
43:56
whatever it is. And while that's all fine and well,
44:00
it has to be regulated. I get it. You don't
44:03
want your estranged ex wife or your estranged ex husband
44:06
to have their portion of that eighty five grand that
44:09
you just made in Las Vegas hitting the tables or
44:12
Betanan Sports, and you want to go park it off shore.
44:15
I get it, bro I understand. But unfortunately these dirt
44:21
bags like Epstein and all of his scumbag friends have
44:25
ruined it for everybody. So now the whole damn thing
44:28
needs to be regulated. In. Bob Geldorf, Madonna and US
44:35
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross are among the boldfaced names that
44:39
ICIJ is linked to shell companies. Some like Queen Elizabeth
44:43
I say they don't even know they have invested offshore. No,
44:47
of course not. They have no idea, no idea. We
44:51
don't know that we invested offshore. We don't know that
44:55
Prince Andrews is sick, disgusting bastard. We don't know any
44:58
of it what they would have you believe. But everybody
45:02
knows that old money, like the money of the Windsors,
45:06
is buried offshore, probably in safes, right in treasure chests
45:13
like the pirates used to have. And shit wouldn't shock me.
45:17
These people come from very old money folks and they've
45:20
been very much manipulating the system for a very long time.
45:26
Imagine what a full audit of the Royal House of
45:29
Windsor would turn up. Politicians like Iceland's former Prime Minister
45:36
Sigmunder David Gunlagsen and Nigeria's former Senate President Bukala Saraki
45:44
have concealed investments or luxury homes with the help of
45:47
shell companies. Some of their children notables include the son
45:51
and daughter of former Pakistani Prime Minister Noah Sharif, and
45:56
Isabelle Santos, the billionaire daughter of former and Golan strongman
46:01
president Jose Eduardo dos Santos. Oh, I'm sure that none
46:06
of that money that their kids stashed offshore was pilfered
46:10
from the people or made off of their hard work
46:14
and stolen from them. I'm sure none of that occurred.
46:17
You noticed none of these people go to prison, Folks. Ever,
46:20
none of these people ever have to pay any kind
46:23
of penalty for their behaviors, for their stealing, from their
46:27
outright larceny of the few of our future. Drug lords
46:34
and ladies, bank robbers and arms traffickers, mafia kingpins and queens,
46:39
and bribetakers and makers also used shell companies to obscure
46:43
their identities and conceal money, assets, and illicit activities. Let's
46:48
add human traffickers to that as well, because we know
46:52
that Jeffrey Epstein's lifeblood and the money he used in
46:56
his dark, sadistic world was pumped through the heart of
47:00
the financial system. Is owning or using a shell company illegal.
47:08
The short answer is no. The longer answer is that
47:11
it depends on how it is used and where the
47:13
shell company is created or incorporated. Hiding stolen assets abroad
47:19
is clearly illegal, but buying a luxury yacht with a
47:22
shell company may not be. Hello, Microsoft's Paul Allen and
47:27
Saudi Prince Mohammed Ben Salomon Alsad. Lawyers and accountants are
47:31
very good at proposing technically legal ways to spend r
47:35
stash cash offshore. I wonder how much Indyke was involved
47:39
in that shit with Epstein. Huh? I wonder how much
47:42
money was parked off shore that no one knows about. Oh,
47:46
I'm guessing a lot. He In my opinion, Jeffrey Epstein
47:50
definitely has money in the billions. Only six hundred and
47:54
some change is on the books, but there's definitely more, folks.
48:00
Companies benefit from tax saverings. Businesses, especially those that transact
48:05
across borders, can enjoy massive tax savings by routing payments,
48:10
profits or investments through subsidiaries in offshore financial centers. And
48:15
that's a genius move, right. They pay taxes through the
48:19
subsid then offshore, and they avoid getting whacked by the
48:24
tax the taxman in you know, whatever country they're trying
48:29
to avoid the taxman in a big pharmaceutical company, for example,
48:35
might set up a new entity in Bermuda or the
48:38
Netherlands and sell that entity a patent for a profitable drug.
48:43
The parent company might then pay a big licensing fee
48:46
to the offshore company, which in turn would allow it
48:49
to record lower profits at home and pay a lower
48:53
tax bill. Drug companies have avoided billions of dollars in
48:57
taxes this way, according to Oxfam, while at the same
49:00
time charging you a bazillion dollars for your medicine, charging
49:05
you a bazillion dollars to make sure that you don't
49:08
get sick, and all at the same time producing shit
49:12
like oxy conton by the ass load, causing all sorts
49:18
of misery and death, but at the same time screw
49:22
you on the other side. By the way, they're not
49:24
going to pay any taxes on that either. They're gonna
49:26
park that shit off shore and you can go kick GROCKX.
49:29
What are you gonna do about it? They own your
49:31
local politician, Well, are you gonna keep sending your local
49:35
politicians back to DC folks, or are we going to
49:40
do a better job and ditch the incumbents. Each year,
49:46
companies avoid paying more than five hundred billion in taxes.
49:49
Using methods like these, some pay little or no taxes
49:53
at all in their home countries. Notable corporate tax avoids
49:57
include Apple, Johnson and Johnson, and Skype. Well, it doesn't
50:02
shock me. With Johnson and Johnson, they could. They can't
50:04
run a football team to save their lives. Their family
50:08
member had a property that they gave half of the
50:12
Jeffrey Epstein and had their money managed by Jeffrey Epstein.
50:15
And they can't even make powder that doesn't give you cancer.
50:19
So why anyone would have any kind of confidence in
50:21
Johnson and Johnson paying their fair share is beyond me. Apple,
50:26
I mean, come on, they're using slave labor over in China.
50:30
I mean, give me a break already. With Apple and Skype,
50:32
I don't know much about their company, but pretty sure
50:35
that they're scummy as well. All of these so called
50:38
masters of the universe from Silicon Valley and their subs
50:42
are all scary as hell folks, And they really truly
50:46
think that they can control our lives and censer what
50:51
we hear and what we don't hear. And it's pretty terrifying.
50:55
Some straight up nineteen eighty four or Wellian type shit
51:01
companies often say shell companies encourage foreign investment and get
51:05
deals done that wouldn't otherwise. Well, then the deal doesn't
51:08
get done, you'll find another deal. Then. I'm pretty tired
51:11
of this too big to fail mentality. Now. It would
51:14
be one thing if these corporations took care of us, right,
51:17
it would be one thing if these corporations took care
51:20
of their employees and gave a shit. But they don't.
51:24
You think they give a damn They really do not.
51:28
And I know that for a fact, because well, I
51:30
worked for a corporation too, in fact for a very
51:33
long time. And then I've seen the way that they've
51:36
treated people here in Las Vegas during this pandemic. You
51:40
know how many people that were furloughed from their jobs
51:43
that had good union jobs working as cocktail waitresses or bartenders,
51:47
et cetera, et cetera, just lost their insurance on October
51:51
thirty first, in the middle of a pandemic. And then
51:54
these corporations have the audacity to try and get money
51:58
from a ball out. It is a bunch of bullshit,
52:02
and these corporations are a joke. So if you can't
52:06
get the deal done otherwise, with all of your fancy
52:09
schmancy people from Harvard and the rest of the cesspools.
52:12
Then maybe the deal shouldn't get done, and maybe somebody
52:15
else should step into your place and make a better deal.
52:20
They also incorporate offshore, many say, to avoid paying taxes
52:25
twice on the same pot of money. Experts say that
52:28
such defenses are either overblown or mythical. It's true, they
52:33
are overblown or mythical. These people are putting their money
52:38
offshore for the simple reason of making sure that they
52:41
don't pay their fair share. Well, you have to pay
52:44
every nickel and dime. These rich, disgusting sons of bitches
52:48
are finagling and loopholing the same way Gilain Maxwell and
52:53
Jeffrey Epstein were loopholing in their trials and in their
52:58
criminal cases. It shouldn't shock you, though, because we know
53:04
from our year together here that the whole entire game
53:09
is rigged, and the playbook when it comes to the
53:12
way they manipulate things in a court case or when
53:15
they're manipulating things financially, is certainly carried out in the
53:21
same manner. If you'd like to contact me, you can
53:25
do that at Bobby Kapuci at ProtonMail dot com. That's
53:29
Bobby c ap u Cci at ProtonMail dot com. You
53:35
can also find me on Twitter at Bobby Underscore c
53:39
ap u Cci. All of the links that go at
53:43
this episode can be found in the description box. To
53:47
everybody who has donated