So there was a diary on here earlier about the Wikileaks servers being down because of an Australian censorship list. Not being critical but that seemed a little odd to me - sort of parochial to overload Wikileaks.
Well this evening reading through Tech Crunch I came across this article and its set of links which details Barclay's Tax Avoidance Schemes and the interactions of the lawyers and accountants that conspired to create labyrinthine mechanisms to avoid government(s) and therefore taxpayers of their expected contribution to the society they so greedily profited from. And Barclay's is trying to gag the Guardian which is a pretty desperate measure.
The country is edging towards a precipice. Things are very very bad economically - far worse than most realize. And as it gets worse, much worse, things will get ugly - and if these crooks persist in getting away with blatant crimes... something really must be done.
More about it after the fold:
I suspect this is a better explanation for the wikileaks issues. But more importantly - I think this could be explosive if picked up by the media - and that is starting in the UK with the Guardian on the case.
I would be interested in hearing the opinions of any of our legal or accounting professionals who are regular DKOS readers.
To let you know what this is about:
The Guardian’s editor, Alan Rusbridger, told the court in a witness statement: "I considered these documents to be of the highest significance in the debate about tax avoidance. They revealed at first hand the processes involved in structuring extremely complex and artificial tax avoidance vehicles; how lawyers and accountants worked together to exploit loopholes in government legislation; and the degree to which they are sanctioned at the highest levels within Barclays.
I like what Techcrunch is doing providing a source of the links so that more people might download and archive them. According to them:
The seven documents highlight Barclays structured finance deals that use a variety of complicated finance vehicles to move profits to low tax countries and generally away from the UK. Parts of the documents were disclosed to the UK tax authority. But portions of the documents containing legal advice on the risk of challenge to aspects of their schemes were removed before disclosure. A 2007 scheme called Project Knight proposed to avoid taxes by structuring more than $16 billion in loans through an elaborate offshore network involving entities in the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg and the U.S.
I'm starting my way through them out of interest - to see if they are close to the way they appear to be from the reportage springing up on the Internet.
I believe - and not without reason (I have been a Peak Oil doomer for a long time) - that we're facing something far worse that most expect with this economic collapse. I believe that things are going to get very very bad. This sort of thing, after the bonus issues... a lot of Americans have had stresses and issues with taxes, incorrect payments, audits... seeing the major banks and their professional service class getting away with this so brazenly time and again, not just suspecting it or seeing it debated by talking heads - but having the evidence in black and white - I think the pressure is building for what is truly needed - a complete re-write of how our finance system works starting with the breakup of these corrupt, thieving, murderous megabanks. If it doesn't happen, it's going to be nasty...
I recommend those of you not familiar with John Robb to read him, and in particular with reference to this diary, this piece on the banksters and their fate.