Page 16 - Monocle Quarterly Journal Vol 3 Issue 2 Spring

MONOCLE QUARTERLY JOURNAL | DEEP LEARNING
inheritance purposes. But, as the German journalists note in their book, “the fact is that people often have recourse to an anonymous offshore company because they want to hide something – from the taxman, their ex-wife, their former business partner or the prying eyes of the public.” And the data painted a clear picture of unethical and exploitative behaviour on a global scale. With Mossack Fonseca’s help, the wealthy were routinely maximising the advantages of offshore tax havens to anonymously hide vast sums of money from the governments of their home countries.
The method was relatively simple: contact was made with Mossack Fonseca through an intermediary, such as a bank or lawyer, who was then technically Mossack Fonseca’s actual client. Mossack Fonseca then acted as an incorporation agent, as the firm was licenced to register companies in Panama – a desirable business domicile with low rates of taxation and a high degree of secrecy. It was quick and relatively cheap to set up the company and its offshore bank account, and to close both when they had served their purpose. Moreover, the owner’s identity remained hidden as Mossack Fonseca appointed three directors from within its own staff base to act as the official representatives of the shell company. The real owner, or their lawyer, was given a power of attorney by the directors to access the company’s bank account – a perfectly legal loophole that most people were unaware of.
Though establishing this scheme may have been a relatively easy task, its effects were devastating, with these offshore accounts essentially working collectively
In many ways, the exposing of the Panama Papers ushered in a new wave of investigative journalism – one that relies on huge amounts of data, sophisticated software, and mobile collaboration between various international publications. The use of computer software called Nuix – which is routinely used by international
It was quick and relatively
cheap to set up the company
investigators – was central to the journalists’ ability to sift through the enormous amount of data they received, and to find important connections in this information. Optical character recognition was first applied to the various documents – which included shareholder registers, bank statements, passport photos, and emails – to alter the format of the data to searchable text. This enabled the journalists to search through the data using a list of keywords – which included the names of prominent politicians, criminals and celebrities – much as one would conduct a Google search. A more detailed investigation was then conducted into each of the people whose names appeared in the leaked documents.
The problem with the statistical analyses of the trades that occurred just before 9/11 and the journalists’ computer-aided investigation into the Panama Papers is that, in both cases, the patterns and connections in the data that provided the key evidence of wrongdoing could only be detected after a significant amount of damage had already been done. But what if we could monitor and detect these patterns in such a way as to predict these types of events before they occur?
In the final pages of The Panama Papers, there is a statement written by the anonymous source responsible for leaking the Mossack Fonseca data to the Süddeutsche Zeitung. In the final paragraph he or she claims: “Historians can easily recount how issues involving taxation and imbalances of power have led to revolutions in the past. Then, military might was necessary to subjugate peoples, whereas now, curtailing information access is just as effective, or more so, since the act is often
and its offshore bank account, and to close both when they
had served their purpose.
to widen the already substantial gaps that exist between the very rich and the very poor through tax evasion and money laundering, and the further facilitation of criminal activities and anti-competitive business practices. And the scope of the data informing the exposé indicated just how routinely the laws and obligations of the international monetary system are manipulated for these selfish purposes.
And the scope of the data informing the exposé indicated
just how routinely the laws and obligations of the international
monetary system are manipulated for these selfish purposes.
14