Secrecy World: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite

I have been slogging through this book for months wondering if the day will ever come that I read the final chapter. Like other reviewers have stated this is a fascinating subject and much overdue for exposure. Unfortunately Bernstein’s writing is so stilted and choppy the book is practically unreadable. He jumps from one sound bite to the next. It is more like a series of tweets than a book or a helpful expose. Bernstein follows a pedestrian narrative timeline: first this, then this happened. Good investigative journalism is overshadowed by a stilted play-by-play recounting of events. This book needs to be re-written.

Secrecy World pulls back the curtain on international criminal - or what should be criminal - tax evasion (oh, sorry, I mean tax avoidance) and the corrupt industries that make it possible. The book is focused through the lens of the blockbuster reporting of the Panama Papers, the enormous leak of internal documents from a Panamanian law firm, so we get the inside view from the trenches of international investigative journalism as well. It's a great read, incredibly detailed and full of can't-make-this-stuff-up characters and plots - my hat's off to Mr. Bernstein for weaving it together as a page-turner that kept me up late reading, and reaching for more first thing in the morning. Remarkable!

The world of secret offshore companies is outrageous. The rich and corrupt, seeking to hide assets and income from taxes, set up shell companies, foundations and trusts – by the hundreds of thousands – every year. Despite the harm it does to local government and the likely illegality of it, the industry holds public trade shows and conferences where shady lawyers, accountants, financial planners and consultants flaunt their services. The numbers are mind-numbing: over $100 trillion hidden from view, costing middle class taxpayers trillions to make up the difference. The treasure trove of the Panama Papers has imposed a little sunshine here, in Secrecy World.

Jake Bernstein has followed the leads backwards and forwards. He fills in the details of who the players are and how they got there. He also takes some minor side trips to corrupt practices like drug dealing, a slave ship, abandoned construction and a fraudulent reinsurer, to show how these players are actively ruining the lives of others with their fake firms. There is even a side trip to the Swiss tax-free art warehouses, where a good hundred billion dollars in precious art is hidden from view and taxation.

The book is structured like a tree. Each of the roots gets an airing, and they all lead up to the visible trunk – Mossack Fonseca, the Panamanian law firm from which all the documents were leaked. The roots consist of Mossfon bureaus around the world, dealing with various corrupt governments, corrupt banks and eager clients. The crown is the billowing scandals the journalists perpetrated, going off in many directions, covering the sky with corruption on a truly global scale.

Bernstein has an interesting style. He does with paragraphs what good writers do with chapters – entice. His paragraphs become cliffhangers for the next paragraph, keeping the reader hooked over a long, incredibly diverse and involved exposé. He gives the Panama Papers worldwide relevance.

The roll call of leaders using hidden offshore accounts is a who’s who. The perps include Vladimir Putin and his cabinet, Xi Jinping, Hosni Mubarak, Hafez Al Assad, both Kirchners, the king of Saudi Arabia, Nawaz Sharif, the ruling Aliyev family of Azerbaijan, David Cameron, Dick Cheney, the prime minister of Iceland, the world football regulator FIFA, and Odebrecht. It seems like there is not a single financial corruption case in the news today that does not pass through the offices of Mossack Fonseca. And there is an entire chapter on Donald Trump’s connections and dealings with Mossfon clients and their offshore firms. They are his partners and friends.

The real hero of the story is the unique collaboration among journalists around the world, called the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, where Bernstein works. They spent a year trying to make sense of the documents and data. Their familiarity with their own country and region allowed them to identify players and plug them into deals. There was so much data it took 33 8-processor Amazon servers to execute a search in parallel. 12 million documents worth 2.6 terabytes had been sent to the group over many months. No one knew when it would stop or what the final size might be or what it all meant. More than 300 journalists in 65 countries researched the hoard, on a deadline so they could all publish on the same day. And the whistleblower/leaker/hacker has wisely remained unidentified, seeing what has happened to the likes of Manning, Snowden and Assange.

Finally, with the decline of the huge offshoring operations in Panama, Luxembourg and the BVI, the global leaders of this nefarious industry of corruption are the US states of Delaware and Nevada.

David Wineberg

Although the book is very informative, the writing style is a little bland. Thus, reading same can be laborious.

I read the book and didn’t find anything extraordinary. It is a summary of an investigation by the ICIJ into off-shore tax evasion. I read about the collapse of the banks in Iceland, corruption in Argentina and Russian criminal activity involving Putin and his friends. A lot of money is hidden by dictators, etc. for their personal use. This is known by governments who provide it for their own purposes. There are no references to George Soros whose Open Society funded the ICIJ study. No mention of recent US politicians who made money from corruption and self-interest while serving in office. However, in the last chapter the author combines innuendo and allegation to attack Trump because he had business dealings with Russians. He alleges Putin threw the election Trump’s way as payback against Obama’s moves to control off shore money. There is no proof of course for these charges. He criticizes Trump for labeling the false reporting at the time as Fake News. As events have turned out the initial reports were biased and false. The author uses the Panama Papers to substantiate charges against the guilty. Not in Trump’s case; guilty as alleged. This book goes from mediocre to just plain hackery in one fell swoop with the last chapter.

I listened to this book read by the author and have consistently brought it up to every person who will listen to me for five minutes. A very helpful exploration of the Panama Papers, Swiss Leaks, and the Luxembourg Leaks. Bernstein also writes the book with a great attention to the human factors which does, as another reviewer noted, makes the book read like a spy thriller or even a melodrama at times. It also gives one a true appreciation for the world of journalists and the innovative work of collaboration amongst journalists around the globe. I just gave it four stars since the writing is quite "just the facts ma'am" with tired cliches and very little attention to style.

This book reads like a suspense novel.If you want to learn how not to pay your taxes, this is a must read. It seems that the rich from all over the world are doing this. Whether it's thru shell companies or art work. As one person put it, he was more worried about his wife finding out then the tax man. This is a must read book.

First, I purchased this from B&N. I don't typically write a lot of reviews, however this book sucked so bad it's necessary. I'll keep it brief.

1. It starts off interesting. The author generally stays on topic, however he is a little name heavy. He presents the book as a neutral viewpoint and makes no bias left or right.
2. Further into the book you start seeing what the book is really about: The journalists who broke the story. I was expecting a book full of exciting dirty secrets. Sadly, this is not it. It's mostly a book about every useless detail about all of the main journalist involved. I LOVE reading and it was like pulling teeth to finish this book.
3. I did finish it. The sneaky author devotes the entire last chapter to underhandedly bashing Donald Trump and labeling him as corrupt. Had the author come out in the beginning and showed his bias, I would be ok. Instead, he builds himself as a credible/neutral source when in fact he is not.

If you can get this book for free, read about 1/3 of it and throw it away. Hopefully someone writes a better story about the topic because it is fascinating.

A bit on the boring side -- stopped reading half way through -- much of the same.

Who hides their money in Switzerland any more when nations like Panama offer so much more? This book illuminates the world of hidden bank accounts that allows criminals, politicians, celebrities and family dynasties to conceal their wealth and investments. Taking advantage of loopholes and lax enforcement within and between the laws of both developed and less developed nations, the investors exposed in this spy-like financial thriller range from global banks like HSBC to a billionaire Saudi arms trafficker, to a classical cellist and "old friend " of Putin and long-time co-real estate investors of the Trump Organization. This is also the untold story of the many investigative journalists around the world who together contributed to the "Panama Papers" and later the "Paradise Papers." The author even chronicles infighting among a nonprofit journalism group that led the investigation in a manner that is brutally frank. (Full disclosure: I know to varying degrees many of the journalists involved.) Most importantly, interviews with the top two bankers at the heart of this story are included. The combined results make for a damn good read.