1/ This is a memo outlining 11 ways to hide your money offshore.
It was not supposed to “fall into the wrong hands.”
Well, it did. https://t.co/N6RUDqHVfR
2/ The “11 ways” memo is part of a huge trove of documents—350,000 to be exact—leaked from inside a trust company called La Hougue, based on an island off the coast of France.
Amid the data, this memo stood out for its candor.
3/ After one tax expert reviewed it, he told @SamEifling and @CalynShaw, “I have to say I’m not sure what else I can add other than ‘WTF’? (you can quote me on that). How stupid (or confident nothing will ever happen to you) do you have to be to put this in writing?”
4/ Mother Jones and @GlobalRepCentre are surfacing this particular memo simply because it’s the sort of thing you never see: a customer-facing document obtained in a big offshore data leak, quoting dollar amounts that few people ever hold in their hands at one time.
5/ Each of the 11 options listed in the memo offers some sort of contrived business deal by which you move money into an anonymous offshore account. And—here’s where the genius lies—they design those deals to give you some sort of tax break. The methods are, at best, legal-ish.