http://boingboing.net/2016/05/30/when-brad-birkenfeld-blew-the.html
It's not the Panama Papers, but it is about offshore tax evasion, and Hillary's complicit cooperation with the Swiss to protect their banking and the politically exposed.
My belated commentary.
-Calling Bradley Birkenfeld a whistleblower is disingenuous. A more apt description would be: "A criminal who dropped a dime on his crew for a nickel." While he
allegedly didn't know what he was doing at UBS (advising Americans on how to get assets to Switzerland to avoid reporting income) was illegal at first, I personally find that an extremely tall tale. You don't get to that level of wealth management with that astounding a level of ignorance. Did I mention that he didn't simply hand over the information to the authorities when his conscience--no doubt helped along by the passage of federal law that monetarily rewards persons who report tax evasion to the authorities--compelled him? No, he tried to trade it for immunity first.
-The 4,450. This article wants you to believe that UBS only had to give up 4,450 names chosen by no real standard and that was the end of the matter. What actually happened was that the IRS said to all taxpayers, "UBS is going to give us 4,450 names. If you confess now you only have to pay a penalty and your back taxes. If you don't confess and your name is on that 4,450, we're going to throw the book at you." Guess what happened? People fell over themselves to confess and avoid potential jail time. Plenty of people without means skate and avoid jail in tax matters. Generally speaking the IRS is more concerned about making sure you rendered unto Caesar, not crucifying you.
-Name and Shame. IRC Sec. 6103 severely limits what taxpayer information may be shared by the IRS. I'm not exactly one to fetishize rule of law, but this one exists to protect taxpayers (from FDR to Nixon this information was abused for political purposes prior to its passage) and give them peace of mind in reporting very sensitive information (e.g. medical records, religious affiliations). Ultimately the #1 interest of the IRS is getting people to file their required returns, not assuaging public curiosity.
-The United States is an international tax haven. Delaware is the one you might be familiar with, but Florida is something like the Switzerland of Latin America. (The U.S. welcomes money hidden from leftist governments for "political" reasons? Color me shocked.) Because of this topic that generally goes undiscussed outside tax periodicals it has been difficult for the Treasury Department to modernize reporting reciprocity with foreign countries since countries usually want something for something. The UBS incident gave the U.S. cause to leverage the Swiss into coming more into the fold... I don't think people really realize how huge it was to even get 4,450 names in the first place. Check out the agreement, it's pretty lopsided in favor of the U.S.
https://www.justice.gov/tax/file/631356/download
