Friday, April 18, 2025

Syria Update

New articles that will be added to our File: Syria in Transition https://metagora.blogspot.com/2025/01/file-syria-in-transition.html page:

Syrian Civil War map. This map cites https://syria.liveuamap.com/ Do not modify it without citing any sources.

Syrian Civil War map - Date unknown - Ermanarich, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Israel and Syria

Future of the IDF: Nagel Commission issues report on transforming military Its mandate did not include anything relating to probing the Oct. 7 failure, rather only a forward-looking view to preparing the IDF for the future https://www.jpost.com/author/yonah-jeremy-bob By Jonah Jeremy Bob - Jan 6, 2025

Potential of the Turkish Threat – Direct and Indirect – to Israel; A Situation Assessment https://israel-alma.org/potential-of-the-turkish-threat-direct-and-indirect-to-israel-a-situation-assessment/ Israeli researcher Yaakov Lappin takes a close look at Turkish missile and UAV tech and their geopolitical implications - Alma Research & Education Center - Feb 11, 2025

However, in recent years, a significant change has taken place in the regional environment: Turkey’s military capability – especially in the fields of missiles and UAVs – is on the rise. In parallel, a new horizon of influence, both direct and through proxies, has opened for Turkey in Syria following the collapse of the Assad regime and the removal of the Iranian – Shiite rival axis from Syria.

Former head of Israeli military intelligence welcomes ‘chaos’ in Syria: Tamir Hayman said infighting between Syrian factions was beneficial, but added Israel must remain silent on the matter https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/former-head-israeli-military-intelligence-welcomes-chaos-syria By Mera Aladam - Middle East Eye - 13 March 2025

David’s Corridor

The battle between ‘Greater Israel’ and “Neo-Ottomanism” in Syria: As Israel escalates its warnings about Turkiye’s hegemonic ambitions and military influence in Syria, a once-strategic partnership is unraveling into a deep rivalry that could reshape the region https://thecradle.co/articles/the-battle-between-greater-israel-and-neo-ottomanism-in-syria by Mohamad Hasan Sweidan - The Cradle - Mar 20, 2025

David’s Corridor: Israel’s shadow project to redraw the Levant - Through ‘David’s Corridor,’ Israel aims to forge a geopolitical artery stretching from occupied Golan to Iraqi Kurdistan, reshaping West Asia under the guise of fostering minority alliances and realizing biblical claims https://thecradle.co/articles/davids-corridor-israels-shadow-project-to-redraw-the-levant by Mahdi Yaghi - The Cradle - Apr 4, 2025

Russia and Syria

The President of Russia sent a message to Head of the Syrian State Ahmed al-Sharaa http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/76489 - Mar 20, 2025

Vladimir Putin sent a message to Head of the Syrian State Ahmed al-Sharaa, expressing support for the efforts made to stabilise the situation in the country as soon as possible in the name of ensuring its sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity

The President reiterated Russia’s continued willingness to develop practical cooperation with the Syrian authorities across the entire spectrum of bilateral relations in order to further strengthen the traditionally friendly ties between Russia and Syria.

Saturday, April 12, 2025

File: Panama, Paradise, Pandora

Version 1: Fri, Apr 11, 2025

Introduction

Note, ICIJ was involved in all three releases, while Süddeutsche Zeitung only in the first two.

Süddeutsche Zeitung https://www.sueddeutsche.de/ (German)

The Süddeutsche Zeitung published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest and most influential daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. It is considered one of Germany’s newspapers of record. - Wikipedia

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists https://www.icij.org/ 1730 Rhode Island Ave NW, Suite 317, Washington, D.C. 20036 USA. Donors include:

  • U.S. State Department (Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor)
  • National Endowment for Democracy
  • Open Society Foundations

Not clear whether at the time of the releases they were the same funders. Archive https://archive.ph/iEV2f


Panama Papers (2016)

Panama Papers Source Offers Documents To Governments, Hints At More To Come https://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/20160506-john-doe-statement/ By ICIJ - May 6, 2016

In a statement issued to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the so-called “John Doe” behind the biggest information leak in history cites the need for better whistleblower protection and has hinted at even more revelations to come.

Titled The Revolution Will Be Digitized the 1800-word statement gives justification for the leak, saying that “income inequality is one of the defining issues of our time” and says that government authorities need to do more to address it.

Süddeutsche Zeitung has authenticated that the statement came from the Panama Papers source.

Panama Papers https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Papers - Wikipedia

The Panama Papers are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) published beginning April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. These documents, some dating back to the 1970s, were created by, and taken from, the former Panamanian offshore law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, and compiled with similar leaks into a searchable database.

Panama Papers trial concludes with all defendants acquitted of money laundering https://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/panama-papers-trial-concludes-with-all-defendants-absolved-of-money-laundering-charge/ By Carmen Molina Acosta - June 28, 2024

Panama’s courts closed out the high-profile Panama Papers trial Friday, with judge Baloisa Marquínez acquitting all 28 people who faced trial over their alleged role in setting up shell companies used in bribery and corruption scandals in Brazil and Germany.


Paradise Papers (2017)

Offshore Trove Exposes Trump-Russia links and Piggy Banks of the Wealthiest 1 Percent https://www.icij.org/investigations/paradise-papers/paradise-papers-exposes-donald-trump-russia-links-and-piggy-banks-of-the-wealthiest-1-percent/ By ICIJ - November 5, 2017

The leaked documents, dubbed the Paradise Papers, show how deeply the offshore financial system is entangled with the overlapping worlds of political players, private wealth and corporate giants, including Apple, Nike, Uber and other global companies that avoid taxes through increasingly imaginative bookkeeping maneuvers.

Paradise Papers https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Papers - Wikipedia

The Paradise Papers are a set of over 13.4 million confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investments that were leaked to the German reporters Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer, from the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. The newspaper shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and a network of more than 380 journalists. Some of the details were made public on 5 November 2017 and stories are still being released.

Countries with politicians, public officials, or close associates named in the leakThe documents originate from the legal firm Appleby, the corporate services providers Estera and Asiaciti Trust, and business registries in 19 tax jurisdictions. They contain the names of more than 120,000 people and companies. Among those whose financial affairs are mentioned are, separately, AIG, then-Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth II, President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos, and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross.

Greeks in the Paradise Papers

From the Wikipedia article above:

Mareva Grabowski is listed in the Paradise Papers. She is married to Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who later became Prime Minister of Greece. She owns 50% of an offshore company, Eternia Capital Management in the Cayman Islands. This match was verified in Appleby and listed in Cayman records on 30 March 2010.

In total, 2.829 Greek names are listed in the papers, including several prominent business people.

Odessa Mafia

Paradise Papers: Ukraine crime gang hid proceeds in luxury London flats https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43823962 - Paradise Papers reporting team - BBC Panorama - 23 April 2018

The Odesa Mafia’s Secret Flats in London https://www.occrp.org/en/project/paradise-papers/the-odesa-mafias-secret-flats-in-london by Anna Babinets and Elena Loginova - Paradise Papers Investigation - April 23, 2018

In the 1990s, “Angert’s Gang” in Odesa, Ukraine, was a powerhouse of crime. It diverted fuel sales from the reliably corrupt Odesa Refinery, extorted local businessmen, and even arranged the murders of local enemies and politicians.

Points of interest:

  • Info about the Odessa mafia also comes from the Panama Papers
  • As of 2018 the daughter of the crime boss Aleksander Angert lived in London
  • Aleksander Angert lives according to an account the turkish resort town Bodrum
  • Original group leader Leonid Minin was also involved in arms trafficking
  • Gennadiy Trukhanov the current mayor of Odessa was at one time a member of the group

Interesting to speculate how the new 100-year agreement between UK and Ukraine that involves the Odessa port will impact the illegal activities.


Pandora Papers (2021)

Pandora Papers: An offshore data tsunami https://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/about-pandora-papers-leak-dataset/ By Emilia Díaz-Struck et al. - October 3, 2021

A terabyte data trove exposes the offshore secrets of wealthy elites from more than 200 countries and territories. These are people who use tax and secrecy havens to buy property and hide assets; many avoid taxes and worse. They include more than 330 politicians and 130 Forbes billionaires, as well as celebrities, fraudsters, drug dealers, royal family members and leaders of religious groups around the world.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists spent more than a year structuring, researching and analyzing the more than 11.9 million records in the Pandora Papers leak.

The Pandora Papers investigation is the world’s largest-ever journalistic collaboration, involving more than 600 journalists from 150 media outlets in 117 countries.

Offshore havens and hidden riches of world leaders and billionaires exposed in unprecedented leak https://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/global-investigation-tax-havens-offshore/ by ICIJ - October 3, 2021

Frequently asked questions about the Pandora Papers and ICIJ https://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/frequently-asked-questions-about-the-pandora-papers-and-icij/ By Dean Starkman, Fergus Shiel, Emilia Díaz-Struck and Hamish Boland-Rudder - October 19, 2021

  • Why is it called “Pandora” Papers?

    We called the project Pandora Papers because the investigation builds upon previous ICIJ-led collaborations , the Panama and Paradise Papers; the ancient myth of Pandora’s Box evokes an outpouring of trouble and woe.

  • What’s the difference between Pandora Papers and Panama Papers?

    Size, scale, scope. While the Panama Papers was based on the files of a single offshore services provider, the Pandora Papers records come from 14. The new investigation includes data on more than 27,000 companies and 29,000 so-called ultimate beneficial owners — the real owners of shell companies — or more than twice the number of beneficial owners identified in the Panama Papers. The Pandora Papers also connected offshore activity to more than twice as many politicians and public officials as did the Panama Papers.

Pandora Papers https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora_Papers - Wikipedia

The Pandora Papers are 11.9 million leaked documents with 2.9 terabytes of data that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published beginning on 3 October 2021. The leak exposed the secret offshore accounts of 35 world leaders, including current and former presidents, prime ministers, and heads of state as well as more than 100 business leaders, billionaires, and celebrities.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and associates

Pandora Papers Reveal Offshore Holdings of Ukrainian President and his Inner Circle https://www.occrp.org/en/project/the-pandora-papers/pandora-papers-reveal-offshore-holdings-of-ukrainian-president-and-his-inner-circle by Elena Loginova - October 3, 2021

Revealed: ‘anti-oligarch’ Ukrainian president’s offshore connections https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/03/revealed-anti-oligarch-ukrainian-president-offshore-connections-volodymyr-zelenskiy by Luke Harding, Elena Loginova and Aubrey Belford - Sun 3 Oct 2021 - Archive https://archive.ph/uJwGd

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has railed against politicians hiding wealth offshore but failed to disclose links to BVI firm

Was Volodymyr Zelensky in the Panama Papers? Offshore Companies Revealed https://www.newsweek.com/zelensky-panama-pandora-papers-offshore-companies-finances-1776124 by Jack Dutton - Jan 24, 2023

The Pandora Papers showed that two offshore companies belonging to Zelensky’s partners were used to buy three upmarket properties in central London.

The papers showed that weeks before he won the presidential vote, Zelensky gave his stake in the British Virgin Islands-registered Maltex Multicapital Corp. to his business partner, Serhiy Shefir, who would later become a top presidential aide.

However, the document shows that an arrangement would soon be made to allow the company to continue paying dividends to a company that belongs to Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska.


Started: Fri, Apr 11, 2025

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