The Grauniad is being sued over the Paradise Papers.
The Guardian is to defend robustly a legal action seeking to force the disclosure of the documents that formed the basis of its Paradise Papers investigation.
The offshore company at the heart of the story, Appleby, has launched breach of confidence proceedings against the Guardian and the BBC.
In legal correspondence, Appleby has also demanded that the Guardian and the BBC disclose any of the 6m Appleby documents that informed their reporting for a project that provoked worldwide anger and debate over the tax dodges used by individuals and multinational companies.
Appleby is also seeking damages for the disclosure of what it says are confidential legal documents.
Oh, goody! Given that these papers exposed nothing of any interest despite much wailing and gnashing of teeth and cries of “fair share!”; it relating to perfectly legal and reasonable avoidance of rampant theft from rapacious and avaricious governments, Appleby are right. I hope they win and I hope the damages are punitive. The scum who think it is okay to hack into private accounts need to be taught a painful lesson.
A spokesman for the Guardian said the claim could have profound consequences, and deter British media organisations from undertaking serious, investigative journalism in the public interest.
This was neither.
This claim could have serious consequences for investigative journalism in the UK. Ninety-six of the world’s most respected media organisations concluded there was significant public interest in undertaking the Paradise Papers project…
There is a difference between “in the public interest” and “interesting to the public.” The illegal hacking and disclosure of private papers detailing perfectly legal activities (with the possible iffy nature of Lewis Hamilton’s jet) is most certainly not in the public interest despite what the “most respected media organisations” (Ha! Snork! You are killing me here – Ed) say.
There isn’t enough popcorn in the world…
Oh, and this:
…calls from the EU finance commissioner, Pierre Moscovici, for changes in the law to stop “vampires” avoiding paying tax.
This arsehole doesn’t understand the difference between avoidance, which is perfectly legal and evasion which is illegal. Scum like him are the vampires here.
When was the last time the MSM did any serious investigative journalism? I rather think that it would have been in the public interest for them to have shone a very bright light on the shonky science that the climate change scare is based on. That alone could have saved billions in wasted taxes.
Wouldn’t EU finance commissioner, Pierre Moscovici be the guy responsible for making sure the EU’s accounts are in order? Maybe if there wasn’t so much money going missing that these accounts can never be signed off by the “auditors” legal tax avoidance might be less of a problem.
As for the fair share issue, I think that a big part of the problem is that if you have even a little bit of money, governments expect you to be happy to pay much more than your fair share.
The blurring of the lines between, evasion, aggressive avoidance (non existence in law but already successfully prosecuted) and avoidance is deliberate.
Perhaps they will eventually link aggressive, progressive taxation with people trying to minimise their tax.
Spend less and tax less you morons.
Quite.
Ah yes, ‘financial vampires’. All of them in public sector employment or politics I think you’ll find. Like Pierre Moscovici for example.
The whole ‘Paradise Papers’ situation was instigated by the ‘Open Society Foundation’, an organisation funded by one George Soros. I covered it briefly here, and included an excellent short video of Nigel Farage addressing the subject in the European Parliament.
This wasn’t just a random hack, it was planned, with an agenda in mind.
“…with the possible iffy nature of Lewis Hamilton’s jet…”
Hamilton is domiciled in Switzerland, I believe. In that case, his jet and other tax matters are not the business of either the UK authorities oe the UK populace.
Quite so. That said it does smell a bit funny.
No, it does not “smell funny”. Lewis moved to Switzerland in 2009, now lives in Monaco.
You are going dangerously close to supporting CM no avoidance, more tax curmudgeons.
No I’m not. It’s clearly a manufactured arrangement to get around labyrinthine tax rules. So pointing that out is merely acknowledging that fact. If I was in his position I’d do the same. If such complex tax rules didn’t exist and if states did not try to steal such huge amounts of money, these artificial arrangements would melt away. However, it is an artificial arrangement and if Hamilton was a UK taxpayer, he would find himself subject to an HMRC investigation as they have done with other similar schemes. Acknowledging this fact does not mean that I am “going dangerously close to supporting CM no avoidance, more tax curmudgeons“. That’s just plain silly.
“if Hamilton”: True, but Lewis is not a UK taxpayer; any alleged artificial is for UK, IoM, Swiss & Monaco Tax to investigate – innocent until proven guilty.. “If” is irrelevant and why I disagreed. No fishy smell.
I’m not sure why you are still banging on about this. The original throwaway remark was merely to underpin the fact that so little was found. Hamilton could however find himself subject to an investigation by the Swiss authorities. My statement about his arrangements was factually true. Disagree all you like, that point remains – it is a dodgy tax avoidance scheme and it does smell a bit funny. In stating this, I am merely acknowledging fact, just as I acknowledge fact when pointing out tax evasion. I have no moral qualms about either as they are a weapon being used against the enemy, but it does no good to deny that they are what they are.