Panama papers

The "Panama Papers" are revealing the unshocking reality of the rich stashing tons of money in offshore or other tax havens to avoid paying those nasty, nasty taxes that most people accept as the price of civilization.

That's not really news. But how they obtained the money would be, if obtained illegally or from corruption.  

from the NYT

The Panama Papers have exposed how some of the world’s most powerful people may have used offshore bank accounts and shell companies to conceal their wealth or avoid taxes.

The papers — millions of leaked confidential documents from the Mossack Fonseca law firm in Panama — identify international politicians, business leaders and celebrities involved in webs of suspicious financial transactions. The revelations have raised questions about secrecy and corruption in the global financial system.

CNN lists 7 things we need to know about the Panama papers. One is:

Who is mentioned in the documents?

The documents reference 12 current or former world leaders, as well as 128 other politicians and public officials. In addition to allegations involving associates of Putin -- the Russian leader isn't himself mentioned by name in any of the documents -- and FIFA, the papers also accuse the prime minister of Iceland, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, of having ties, through his wife, to an offshore company that were not properly disclosed, while Argentina's President Mauricio Macri is alleged to have failed to disclose links to a company in his asset declarations.

FIFA boss Gianni Infantino denies wrongdoing

Putin says it's an attack on Russia. Obviously, this is a developing story. Let's hope it doesn't get "buried." It's so hard to know who or what to trust these days.