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Secrecy World: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite
A hidden circulatory system flows beneath the surface of global finance, carrying trillions of dollars from drug trafficking, tax evasion, bribery, and other illegal enterprises. This network masks the identities of the individuals who benefit, aided by bankers, lawyers, and auditors who get paid to look the other way.
In The Laundromat, investigative reporter Jake Bernstein explores this shadow economy and how it evolved, drawing on millions of leaked documents from the files of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca – a trove now known as the Panama Papers – as well as other journalistic and government investigations. Bernstein shows how shell companies operate, how they allow the superwealthy and celebrities to escape taxes, and how they provide cover for illicit activities on a massive scale by crime bosses and corrupt politicians across the globe.
The Laundromat offers a disturbing and sobering view of how the world really works and raises critical questions about financial and legal institutions we may once have trusted.
In The Laundromat, investigative reporter Jake Bernstein explores this shadow economy and how it evolved, drawing on millions of leaked documents from the files of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca – a trove now known as the Panama Papers – as well as other journalistic and government investigations. Bernstein shows how shell companies operate, how they allow the superwealthy and celebrities to escape taxes, and how they provide cover for illicit activities on a massive scale by crime bosses and corrupt politicians across the globe.
The Laundromat offers a disturbing and sobering view of how the world really works and raises critical questions about financial and legal institutions we may once have trusted.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2017
457 people are currently reading
4866 people want to read
About the author
Jake Bernstein
1 book60 followersPulitzer Prize-winner Jake Bernstein was a senior reporter on the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists team that broke the Panama Papers story. He has written for the Washington Post, Bloomberg, The Guardian, ProPublica, and Vice, among others, and has appeared on the BBC, NBC, CNN, PBS and This American Life. He is the coauthor of Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, Eve.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 168 reviews
April 21, 2024
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Nonfiction
Secrecy World, also known as The Laundromat, is a nonfiction book that delves deeply into the murky world of offshore finance, which was brought to light by the leak of the Panama Papers. The primary focus of this book is a law firm known as Mossack Fonseca, which is based in Panama and played a great role in establishing tax havens and a convoluted network of shell companies.
The main goal of creating this devious system was to assist wealthy individuals in evading taxes, money laundering, and a wide variety of other illegal activities. And what is even more shocking than all this is that many big and well-known names in the banking sector were knowingly or unknowingly partners in all this.
Obviously, the author has done extensive research to write this book, connecting banks, individuals, and governments to this shadowy system. You will find a comprehensive analysis of all the different situations, mostly backed by the leaked documents.
Considering that this is a work of nonfiction, I would not consider the entertainment value to be a factor in this case. Nevertheless, the amount of information that the book offered is, in my opinion, an appropriate criterion to use when evaluating the material. I will not lie and say that I really hoped the scope of it extended beyond the leaks in the Panama Papers. Despite that, it was still a good read.
Genre: Nonfiction
Secrecy World, also known as The Laundromat, is a nonfiction book that delves deeply into the murky world of offshore finance, which was brought to light by the leak of the Panama Papers. The primary focus of this book is a law firm known as Mossack Fonseca, which is based in Panama and played a great role in establishing tax havens and a convoluted network of shell companies.
The main goal of creating this devious system was to assist wealthy individuals in evading taxes, money laundering, and a wide variety of other illegal activities. And what is even more shocking than all this is that many big and well-known names in the banking sector were knowingly or unknowingly partners in all this.
Obviously, the author has done extensive research to write this book, connecting banks, individuals, and governments to this shadowy system. You will find a comprehensive analysis of all the different situations, mostly backed by the leaked documents.
Considering that this is a work of nonfiction, I would not consider the entertainment value to be a factor in this case. Nevertheless, the amount of information that the book offered is, in my opinion, an appropriate criterion to use when evaluating the material. I will not lie and say that I really hoped the scope of it extended beyond the leaks in the Panama Papers. Despite that, it was still a good read.
October 19, 2017
At this writing, a lot of people are seemingly terrified of people dressed as clowns, yet are completely comfortable with people dressed as lawyers or accountants. I put it to you that this is unreasonable because, as far as I know, no clown has ever looted a pension fund for widows and orphans of coal miners (Kindle location 909), nor has any member of the red-nose-and-floppy-shoes crowd ever caused the suicide of a small businessman by committing insurance fraud (location 3769). These tragedies were caused by, respectively, a lawyer and an accountant, both using the services of Panamanian off-shore shell-company specialist Mossack Fonseca. This firm, right up to and past the moment they were exposed to the world, insisted they did not suspect any of their clients were involved in illegal activities. Mossack Fonseca also claimed their lackadaisical attempts to inform themselves about their clients’ activities exempted them from any liability or blame.
A Panama Papers-related tragedy that you won’t read about in this book is the 16 October 17 murder of Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. This is no fault of the author’s -- the murder took place after the electronic galley proof was made available, free of charge, to reviewers like me. Daphne Caruana Galizia is only mentioned briefly in this book (l. 4864), and only because she was able to put certain pieces together and told the world the Panama Papers investigations were coming 24 hours before their official release. However, since then, Caruana Galizia mined the wealth of Panama Papers information and other sources to expose the hypocrisy of the wealthy and powerful in her home country. Her work caused her death.
A lot of this very readable book is about the efforts of a large and far-flung team of investigative journalists who, often defying personal egomania, stifling bureaucracy, and the 24-hour-newscycle-driven desire for content now at any cost, worked effectively as a team and published simultaneously across the globe for maximum effect. There are many interesting (in an enraging kind of way) digressions in the story on the path to this end. For example: the 292-foot yacht Donald Trump bought in 1988 (l. 396) had a previous life as a floating brothel for a corrupt arms dealer, and former Vice-president Dick Cheney “was no stranger to offshore companies” (l. 1181), especially during certain Wyoming land deals in the 1990s.
Also interesting was Chapter 8, “The Art of Secrecy” (l. 2132), which explains how many of the world’s treasures, both from antiquity and later, some looted and sold by the Nazis, lie crated in climate-controlled Geneva warehouses, seemingly beyond the arm of any law.
President Trump, unsurprisingly, figures prominently throughout this book, buying yachts, lamenting the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (l. 5239), and engaging in lunatic failed development projects on various continents (e.g., New York (l. 5328) and Baku (l. 5415)) with partners who regularly used offshore banking. Most interesting, though, is the author’s contention that the revelations in the Panama Papers led to Trump’s election.
The argument goes like this: It is impossible to determine who the leaker of the Panama Papers (who styled himself “John Doe”) is. It is of course possible that the leaker was a state agency, meaning, a Western intelligence service. It is nearly impossible to prove it was not a state actor. However, Doe himself has said: “I do not work for any government intelligence agency, directly or as a contractor, and I never have” (l. 5113). One web site specializing in information security said hacking Mossack Fonseca ”wouldn’t even tax a beginning security analyst”, while Forbes magazine wrote ”a teenager with no hacking knowledge other than basic googling skills could have done it”.
Nevertheless, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his circle of cronies, whose many corrupt dealings were exposed, lept to the conclusion that the Panama Papers leak was a CIA plot. This tendency to attribute a starring role in misfortunes to nefarious government agencies is common in Russians (and, to be fair, other nationals as well) because it both makes the self-proclaimed victim feel important (see next paragraph) but also allows the victim to proceed without examining the role his or her own personal shortcomings had.
I mean, having your unalloyed avarice paraded in public is bad enough, but if you knew that the cause of your woes was actually some 14-year-old in his mother’s basement in Cleveland, it would be another serious blow to your personal dignity.
But I digress: The argument continues that the rage and desire for revenge by Putin and cronies against the perceived author of their misfortune led to the mobilization of great Russian resources, including the mobilization of troll farms in St. Petersburg and elsewhere, and wholesale manufacture of fake news, etc., which in turn led to a lot of the credulous to vote for the bloviating failed developer and reality television star for President.
As is probably obvious, I found this explanation compelling and well-argued, and I think you should, too. I recommend this book both for its thesis and its relative readability (meaning, while not a novel, it is easy to follow).
An unconnected note or two:
At Kindle location 667, the Liberian ship registry, a New York-based enterprise that has for many decades allowed ship owners to avoid onerous safety regulations and labor protectors required in other jurisdiction, is said to be the brainchild of an unnamed “former U.S. [S]ecretary of [S]tate”. Of course, I wanted to know which one. It was Edward Stettinius, who served under President Franklin Roosevelt.
There have been reports that this book will be made into a movie.
I received a free advanced electronic galley copy of this book for review. Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Company for their generosity
A Panama Papers-related tragedy that you won’t read about in this book is the 16 October 17 murder of Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. This is no fault of the author’s -- the murder took place after the electronic galley proof was made available, free of charge, to reviewers like me. Daphne Caruana Galizia is only mentioned briefly in this book (l. 4864), and only because she was able to put certain pieces together and told the world the Panama Papers investigations were coming 24 hours before their official release. However, since then, Caruana Galizia mined the wealth of Panama Papers information and other sources to expose the hypocrisy of the wealthy and powerful in her home country. Her work caused her death.
A lot of this very readable book is about the efforts of a large and far-flung team of investigative journalists who, often defying personal egomania, stifling bureaucracy, and the 24-hour-newscycle-driven desire for content now at any cost, worked effectively as a team and published simultaneously across the globe for maximum effect. There are many interesting (in an enraging kind of way) digressions in the story on the path to this end. For example: the 292-foot yacht Donald Trump bought in 1988 (l. 396) had a previous life as a floating brothel for a corrupt arms dealer, and former Vice-president Dick Cheney “was no stranger to offshore companies” (l. 1181), especially during certain Wyoming land deals in the 1990s.
Also interesting was Chapter 8, “The Art of Secrecy” (l. 2132), which explains how many of the world’s treasures, both from antiquity and later, some looted and sold by the Nazis, lie crated in climate-controlled Geneva warehouses, seemingly beyond the arm of any law.
President Trump, unsurprisingly, figures prominently throughout this book, buying yachts, lamenting the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (l. 5239), and engaging in lunatic failed development projects on various continents (e.g., New York (l. 5328) and Baku (l. 5415)) with partners who regularly used offshore banking. Most interesting, though, is the author’s contention that the revelations in the Panama Papers led to Trump’s election.
The argument goes like this: It is impossible to determine who the leaker of the Panama Papers (who styled himself “John Doe”) is. It is of course possible that the leaker was a state agency, meaning, a Western intelligence service. It is nearly impossible to prove it was not a state actor. However, Doe himself has said: “I do not work for any government intelligence agency, directly or as a contractor, and I never have” (l. 5113). One web site specializing in information security said hacking Mossack Fonseca ”wouldn’t even tax a beginning security analyst”, while Forbes magazine wrote ”a teenager with no hacking knowledge other than basic googling skills could have done it”.
Nevertheless, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his circle of cronies, whose many corrupt dealings were exposed, lept to the conclusion that the Panama Papers leak was a CIA plot. This tendency to attribute a starring role in misfortunes to nefarious government agencies is common in Russians (and, to be fair, other nationals as well) because it both makes the self-proclaimed victim feel important (see next paragraph) but also allows the victim to proceed without examining the role his or her own personal shortcomings had.
I mean, having your unalloyed avarice paraded in public is bad enough, but if you knew that the cause of your woes was actually some 14-year-old in his mother’s basement in Cleveland, it would be another serious blow to your personal dignity.
But I digress: The argument continues that the rage and desire for revenge by Putin and cronies against the perceived author of their misfortune led to the mobilization of great Russian resources, including the mobilization of troll farms in St. Petersburg and elsewhere, and wholesale manufacture of fake news, etc., which in turn led to a lot of the credulous to vote for the bloviating failed developer and reality television star for President.
As is probably obvious, I found this explanation compelling and well-argued, and I think you should, too. I recommend this book both for its thesis and its relative readability (meaning, while not a novel, it is easy to follow).
An unconnected note or two:
At Kindle location 667, the Liberian ship registry, a New York-based enterprise that has for many decades allowed ship owners to avoid onerous safety regulations and labor protectors required in other jurisdiction, is said to be the brainchild of an unnamed “former U.S. [S]ecretary of [S]tate”. Of course, I wanted to know which one. It was Edward Stettinius, who served under President Franklin Roosevelt.
There have been reports that this book will be made into a movie.
I received a free advanced electronic galley copy of this book for review. Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Company for their generosity
May 9, 2018
(3.5) Mostly a recap of the most prominent clients of Mossack Fonseca
When the book got closest to narrative was where it was best: the contact with John Doe, internal tension within the ICIJ, how to coordinate hundreds of journalists from around the world, make the data available and searchable for all of them, and still keep the story under wraps. It's amazing they did as well as they did. (And fortunate that Wikileaks didn't get ahold of the data sooner, though John Doe apparently reached out to them too but was/were ignored?)
Second best was the history of tax havens, how Panama, the British Virgin Islands, Delaware etc became center of the universe of shell companies, titular directors, powers of attorney, bearer shares....
Least interesting was the long list of tax evaders and corrupt leaders. We saw most of those in the headlines and the reading was kind of like a collage of newspaper snippets, trying to tie them all together.
When the book got closest to narrative was where it was best: the contact with John Doe, internal tension within the ICIJ, how to coordinate hundreds of journalists from around the world, make the data available and searchable for all of them, and still keep the story under wraps. It's amazing they did as well as they did. (And fortunate that Wikileaks didn't get ahold of the data sooner, though John Doe apparently reached out to them too but was/were ignored?)
Second best was the history of tax havens, how Panama, the British Virgin Islands, Delaware etc became center of the universe of shell companies, titular directors, powers of attorney, bearer shares....
Least interesting was the long list of tax evaders and corrupt leaders. We saw most of those in the headlines and the reading was kind of like a collage of newspaper snippets, trying to tie them all together.
November 23, 2017
This is a must read book. It reads like a suspense novel. If you want to learn how not to pay your taxes, this is a book for you. 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 book is a great read.
September 30, 2021
I was very interested in this topic after watching the movie based on this book, The Laundromat, but was really disappointed in the lack of context, fixation on minutiae, and no arc to the story. Would not recommend.
November 20, 2019
An extraordinary book. I am under few enough illusions about how capitalism has pillaged the planet and brought it to edge of ruin, BUT that said this book opens up the reader to organised financial corruption at a level and scale that is truly staggering. The book is very well structured and comprehensive, as well as being easy to read. I put it aside a few times just to have a break from the excesses of greed depicted in its pages. But it puts much in perspective, not least the huge and growing disparity in wealth in the world today.
March 11, 2018
I am aware that money laundering goes on. When I think of this I instantly do think of Panama as the first place followed by the Caribbean next. Yet, I haven't thought to much about "business laundering". There is a huge "secret" network of corporations that manage the purchasing, selling, paperwork, logistics, etc. If you want to chance the IRS not knowing your true financial worth then you might go seeking one of these corporations.
Mr. Bernstein takes readers into the dark underbelly of this and other secret worlds. Mr. Bernstein shows with his research the network that exists in the shadows. The research is well done and thoroughly well written. The only thing is that I liked reading this book but I also don't want to just "read" a book on a subject. What I mean is that I want to experience "ahh ha" moments and not feel like I am just reading a history or research paper. Overall, I still did enjoy reading this book. I did learn a lot.
Mr. Bernstein takes readers into the dark underbelly of this and other secret worlds. Mr. Bernstein shows with his research the network that exists in the shadows. The research is well done and thoroughly well written. The only thing is that I liked reading this book but I also don't want to just "read" a book on a subject. What I mean is that I want to experience "ahh ha" moments and not feel like I am just reading a history or research paper. Overall, I still did enjoy reading this book. I did learn a lot.
December 9, 2021
https://www.icij.org
ICIJ is the organization we have to thank for compiling most of the data from the hacks. They have a great website which I recommend you look in to and try your alma mater in the search bar. I found my former college along with many of the colorful characters in this book, in the ranks entities who own offshore accounts.
ICIJ is the organization we have to thank for compiling most of the data from the hacks. They have a great website which I recommend you look in to and try your alma mater in the search bar. I found my former college along with many of the colorful characters in this book, in the ranks entities who own offshore accounts.
December 26, 2022
Eye-opening read that gives an insight into how offshore companies work and how corporations and wealthy individuals have utilised them to. evade taxes. Found it quite dense and sometimes difficult to follow due to the volume of information. Overall enjoyed it as it sheds light into this murky world, just note that this is not a light or easy read!
March 22, 2019
This is the triumphant conclusion to Obermayer’s The Panama Paper’s published in 2016. Then, Obermayer brought the files to ICIJ, or the International Consortium of Investigarice Journalists. The lawyers came up with stories which they mainstream media companies refused to publish at first. Journalists going through the leaked data often with little support from their editors, sometimes supporting themselves by doing odd jobs. Other journalists suffer suppression and one Maltese journalist Caruaba Galizia even died in a car bomb...
In this book, Bernstein detailed the results of the investigation. Mossack Fonseca was the pioneer of the Secrecy World, helping individuals and companies open shell companies. They provide the lawyers and even their staff as nominal directors, some being in charge over 1000 companies! All these are to allow criminal money laundering, bribery and tax avoidance. Eventually, the leak proved to be its downfall, as the dedicated international team of investigative lawyers ploughed through more than 1 terabyte of data to piece together the stories.
The book detailed the Secrecy World’s network of countries such as Panama, British Virgin Islands, States of Delaware and Nevada, Switzerland and Luxembourg had bank secrecy laws to protect the privacy of bank customers. HSBC was singled out as the most important bank with dealings all over the world to launder money. It was fined 1.9 billion dollars. Other banks were soon also under scrutiny and fined billions, and tax haven reforms had started. The prime minister of Iceland lost his job. German citizens volunteered to pay back owed taxes to their government. ICIJ received numerous prizes including a Pulitzer for all the hard work that the journalists put in.
Tax laws are stricter now, but according to Bernstein, money has just been transferred to other counties not in the radar, such as Singapore and States such as Delaware and Nevada. However the climate has certainly changed, as evidence by the requirement of banks in Singapore for us to declare that we are not an ‘American person’ for the purpose of tax reporting.
A solid 5 stars! All the hard work by the dedicated journalists is very important to society indeed. Thank you.
In this book, Bernstein detailed the results of the investigation. Mossack Fonseca was the pioneer of the Secrecy World, helping individuals and companies open shell companies. They provide the lawyers and even their staff as nominal directors, some being in charge over 1000 companies! All these are to allow criminal money laundering, bribery and tax avoidance. Eventually, the leak proved to be its downfall, as the dedicated international team of investigative lawyers ploughed through more than 1 terabyte of data to piece together the stories.
The book detailed the Secrecy World’s network of countries such as Panama, British Virgin Islands, States of Delaware and Nevada, Switzerland and Luxembourg had bank secrecy laws to protect the privacy of bank customers. HSBC was singled out as the most important bank with dealings all over the world to launder money. It was fined 1.9 billion dollars. Other banks were soon also under scrutiny and fined billions, and tax haven reforms had started. The prime minister of Iceland lost his job. German citizens volunteered to pay back owed taxes to their government. ICIJ received numerous prizes including a Pulitzer for all the hard work that the journalists put in.
Tax laws are stricter now, but according to Bernstein, money has just been transferred to other counties not in the radar, such as Singapore and States such as Delaware and Nevada. However the climate has certainly changed, as evidence by the requirement of banks in Singapore for us to declare that we are not an ‘American person’ for the purpose of tax reporting.
A solid 5 stars! All the hard work by the dedicated journalists is very important to society indeed. Thank you.
January 9, 2018
This would be an interesting book if it were fiction but it is a powerful book because it is fact. This is a meticulously researched and well-written story of the complexities of the secret financial economy that exists for the rich, powerful and corrupt. It was an eye opener for me. ... a sobering view of how the world really works.
May 20, 2021
This book contains an incredible amount of information about offshore businesses, in particular the Mossack-Fonseca practices. It is amazing that it is possible to write all these facts (indeed, no "alternative" facts, or "fake" news, but actual facts) in only 300 pages. I find it also stunning that the movie The Laudromat (with Meryl Streep) is so close to a subset of these facts. The opening scene in the Laudromat, with Streep and her husband and a lot of other elderly people on a boat that sinks, comes rather late in Bernstein's book. However, in that small paragraph in which he describes it, I immediately remember the movie scenes. The boat turned out to be insured, but the insurance money was re-insured, the re-insurance money was placed in offshore constructions etcetera. Hence, no penny is there to be paid to the dependents of the boat crash's victims. And this is only one of the many movie scenes that I found back in the book, told in a concise but at the same time comprehensive way. Well-done. Ending the book with the killing of the Maltan journalist Daphne, another sad fact in our century on this globe, sends a message. There is still much work to be done regarding financial secrecy, not only for journalists, but also for politicians and others who can make or strengthen financial laws and regulations.
November 18, 2020
We all know about the uber rich and powerful exploiting global systems to get richer and avoid their tax responsibilities, but wow was it eye opening to see the true extent to which these crooks go to keep their wealth hidden. I've always wanted to read and understand the Panama Papers expose, and when I finally did, it did not disappoint at all. Investigative journalists should be protected at all costs - this is a must read!
January 15, 2020
I think tax avoidance/evasion is the second most important issue of our time. So I wanted to be able to recommend this book highly. Alas, I can't unequivocally recommend it, though I would say it's worth reading if you are unaware, as I am, of a better book on the subject. (I'm sure it's out there, I just don't know about it. But if you do, please let me know.)
I want to get the bad stuff out of the way.
First, there's the title: you gotta think somebody involved in the publication of this book could have come up with something better than "secrecy world". Whether as the title or in the text of the book, the phrase doesn't really capture for me what continues to go on. It's money laundering and tax "avoidance", not just keeping secrets. But this is just nitpicking.
The real problem is what the book covers: the first half of it (or so) mostly covers Mossack Fonseca, an incorporation law firm in Panama which is the source of the "Panama Papers". It's not really about the world of offshore banking at large. But even while mostly tackling just this one company and its subsidiaries, there is both too much and not enough information. There are numerous instances of tax avoidance and some instances of laundering and fraud. But there are just endless examples, none of which are really given the detail they deserve. (The two stories from this book that became major parts of The Laundromat barely get any time in this book.) Bernstein would be better off covering fewer of the stories in more detail, I think.
Also, the descriptions of the schemes could really benefit from visuals. Because Bernstein has been surrounded by this stuff for years, he assumes a similar knowledge and interest on the writer. But money laundering is inherently confusing (that's the point) and having diagrams or other visual aids to show at least examples of schemes would be helpful. (Though Bernstein does his best to explain them.)
Then the book shifts gears into an explanation of how the journalists broke the story. It's much like the documentary The Panama Papers which is more about the journalists than the story. (Bernstein might well have appeared in that movie, since many of the people in that film are in this book.) I think he needed to pick an angle: either this is a mystery about journalists uncovering evidence of tax avoidance and money laundering, or it's a survey of the world of offshore banking. I don't think I the two parts work well together, though I think parts of both of them work well, especially the chapter on the actual publication, which is riveting.
Okay, so, on to the good:
There is a lot of detail here, certainly far more than in the movies I've seen. It is the most comprehensive survey of the offshore banking world I've come across and, in that sense, it's a must read. If you want know why governments always run deficits, at least part of the explanation comes from the rich and corporations not only not paying their fair share, but paying far less than that (sometimes basically nothing). If a person at the poverty line doesn't pay their taxes, the government is out a little bit of money. The impact is far bigger when it's a business or one of the richest people in the country.
Also, at times the writing is really compelling, especially around the reveal of the documents. It took me a while to get used to Bernstein's style, and he's not my favourite writer by any means, but he does a good job building tension at the climax even though I knew what was coming.
But I have now watched two films - a documentary and a black docucomedy - and read a book about the release of the Panama Papers and I still feel like I have not encountered the definitive account, which is frustrating. Maybe there's just too much information and the better approach to this story would be to tell the stories of a few companies or people and then show how it happens all the time (and still happens).
I want to get the bad stuff out of the way.
First, there's the title: you gotta think somebody involved in the publication of this book could have come up with something better than "secrecy world". Whether as the title or in the text of the book, the phrase doesn't really capture for me what continues to go on. It's money laundering and tax "avoidance", not just keeping secrets. But this is just nitpicking.
The real problem is what the book covers: the first half of it (or so) mostly covers Mossack Fonseca, an incorporation law firm in Panama which is the source of the "Panama Papers". It's not really about the world of offshore banking at large. But even while mostly tackling just this one company and its subsidiaries, there is both too much and not enough information. There are numerous instances of tax avoidance and some instances of laundering and fraud. But there are just endless examples, none of which are really given the detail they deserve. (The two stories from this book that became major parts of The Laundromat barely get any time in this book.) Bernstein would be better off covering fewer of the stories in more detail, I think.
Also, the descriptions of the schemes could really benefit from visuals. Because Bernstein has been surrounded by this stuff for years, he assumes a similar knowledge and interest on the writer. But money laundering is inherently confusing (that's the point) and having diagrams or other visual aids to show at least examples of schemes would be helpful. (Though Bernstein does his best to explain them.)
Then the book shifts gears into an explanation of how the journalists broke the story. It's much like the documentary The Panama Papers which is more about the journalists than the story. (Bernstein might well have appeared in that movie, since many of the people in that film are in this book.) I think he needed to pick an angle: either this is a mystery about journalists uncovering evidence of tax avoidance and money laundering, or it's a survey of the world of offshore banking. I don't think I the two parts work well together, though I think parts of both of them work well, especially the chapter on the actual publication, which is riveting.
Okay, so, on to the good:
There is a lot of detail here, certainly far more than in the movies I've seen. It is the most comprehensive survey of the offshore banking world I've come across and, in that sense, it's a must read. If you want know why governments always run deficits, at least part of the explanation comes from the rich and corporations not only not paying their fair share, but paying far less than that (sometimes basically nothing). If a person at the poverty line doesn't pay their taxes, the government is out a little bit of money. The impact is far bigger when it's a business or one of the richest people in the country.
Also, at times the writing is really compelling, especially around the reveal of the documents. It took me a while to get used to Bernstein's style, and he's not my favourite writer by any means, but he does a good job building tension at the climax even though I knew what was coming.
But I have now watched two films - a documentary and a black docucomedy - and read a book about the release of the Panama Papers and I still feel like I have not encountered the definitive account, which is frustrating. Maybe there's just too much information and the better approach to this story would be to tell the stories of a few companies or people and then show how it happens all the time (and still happens).
March 6, 2020
Sharp Reporting
A great elucidation of the secret world of offshore accounts and money laundering. Helps to explain the kleptocracy we find ourselves living in today.
A great elucidation of the secret world of offshore accounts and money laundering. Helps to explain the kleptocracy we find ourselves living in today.
December 26, 2020
In this thriller, the global villains (tax-cheats/corrupt people or companies) are set against the story heroes (journalists/tax authorities). I found the tactics and methods to be the most interesting aspects of the story. While there is something thrilling reading how money is laundered and taxes are evaded, it also brings a visceral reaction when one understands the global implications of this behavior - where institutions are undermined, journalists are intimidated, and injustice reigns.
September 28, 2019
Fascinating Storytelling
I selected this audiobook randomly and knew nothing about the author or the world of secret money. How do the wealthy shield their money and income from taxes with off shore accounts? How does the mafia and drug lords hide their resources? How did this secret world get started in the first place? These questions and much more are answered in SECRECY WORLD by Pulitzer prize winning journalist Jake Bernstein.
Enter the world of secret money in this book and Bernstein has done incredible detailed research to weave these details into fascinating stories. It’s a world that I know nothing about but I’m far better for having listened to SECRECY WORLD from cover to cover. I highly recommend this well-crafted book.
As a trained journalist, I loved where his editor interviewed Bernstein at the end of the audiobook. He apparently had never read the audiobook before and he said if he had it to do over, he would use shorter sentences and less foreign names. This interview is an insightful addition to the audiobook material and something I highly recommend.
W. Terry Whalin is an editor and the author of more than 60 books Straight Talk From the Editor
I selected this audiobook randomly and knew nothing about the author or the world of secret money. How do the wealthy shield their money and income from taxes with off shore accounts? How does the mafia and drug lords hide their resources? How did this secret world get started in the first place? These questions and much more are answered in SECRECY WORLD by Pulitzer prize winning journalist Jake Bernstein.
Enter the world of secret money in this book and Bernstein has done incredible detailed research to weave these details into fascinating stories. It’s a world that I know nothing about but I’m far better for having listened to SECRECY WORLD from cover to cover. I highly recommend this well-crafted book.
As a trained journalist, I loved where his editor interviewed Bernstein at the end of the audiobook. He apparently had never read the audiobook before and he said if he had it to do over, he would use shorter sentences and less foreign names. This interview is an insightful addition to the audiobook material and something I highly recommend.
W. Terry Whalin is an editor and the author of more than 60 books Straight Talk From the Editor
February 7, 2018
Welcome to the Mos Eisley Cantina of money. Drug lords, arms traffickers, mobsters, kleptocrats, money launderers, generic billionaires, and creeps who steal from funds set up for orphans -- all enjoy anonymity (and evade taxes) in the world of off-shore shell companies. Some light was thrown on this underworld when the Panama Papers were released. But the dodges continue (and involve not just billions, but trillions, of dollars). Plenty of politicians, both left and right, take part in the big-bucks fun. And one name that comes up prominently is Donald Trump, who has worked for years with some of the seediest characters while claiming to know nothing about their corruption and illegal activities.
December 20, 2017
This is important work as it exposes something we all need to know about and provides the evidence that may lead to substantial change. That is my hope. Better read than listened to.
January 25, 2020
When one reads a book like SECRECY WORLD (aka LAUNDROMAT), one hopes for an engaging and enlightening, edifying read. One will not be disappointed with this account of the corporate formation business in tax havens, especially by a firm known as MOSSFOM in Panama. This firm created corporate structures to insure secrecy for individuals to evade taxes, launder money, hide wealth from spouses in the event of divorce, hide wealth nefariously obtained from their governments, hedge funds, businesses, etc. MOSSFOM’s business and the world of banking secrecy (as in Switzerland) grew successfully through the nineties and two thousands until a whistleblower leaked terabytes of information to an investigative journalist cooperative, ICIJ, that instigated a worldwide investigation that culminated in The Panama Papers that disclosed hundreds of names with offshore accounts in well known banks in Switzerland and elsewhere. It changed the banking system and brought MOSSFOM down. This is a book with a thrilling story about greed, crime, the mega-wealthy, dirty politicians. It discloses tax evasions by our largest corporations filtering millions through Luxembourg while marketing themselves as great corporate stewards. Who bears the greatest burden in taxes to pay for our infrastructure, schools, police, military, public health, etc.? In some countries the people are impoverished, no such services are provided as government politicians steal the country’s money and stash it in offshore accounts in layers of corporate structures to hide the name of the true owner of the corporation and the millions in a bank. This secrecy world siphons the money rightfully due to citizens of countries, investors in hedge funds, business investors. The more we know, the more the industry can be controlled. This book provides an edifying account of this culture.
January 7, 2020
Concise, fast-paced, the Secrecy World reads like a Grisham bestseller, but sadly none of it is fiction.
I'm not sure what makes me angrier: discovering the length the rich will go to hide their wealth or knowing that there's no stopping them despite all the investigations. Either way, this book airs all the dirty laundry that the extremely wealthy have tried to conceal in the most crooked schemes possible over the past 35 years.
Tax evasion, tax avoidance, tax denial, tax obliteration: you name it, they've done it!
And the sad thing is that no nationality seems exempt from such fraudulent behavior, as if there exists no country and no allegiance when you're rich, only the commitment to protect and increase your money at all costs. No wonder the rich have become richer and the poor poorer, while nations can't afford any kind of social benefits!
Mr. Bernstein explains how, where and why these people care about nothing except themselves and their growing fortunes. He tells it all with a clear and compelling style that I usually associate with bestselling fiction authors. But when you realize this is no fiction, the awareness of how selfish and self-centered these wealthy people really are comes crashing down on you.
I'm not sure what makes me angrier: discovering the length the rich will go to hide their wealth or knowing that there's no stopping them despite all the investigations. Either way, this book airs all the dirty laundry that the extremely wealthy have tried to conceal in the most crooked schemes possible over the past 35 years.
Tax evasion, tax avoidance, tax denial, tax obliteration: you name it, they've done it!
And the sad thing is that no nationality seems exempt from such fraudulent behavior, as if there exists no country and no allegiance when you're rich, only the commitment to protect and increase your money at all costs. No wonder the rich have become richer and the poor poorer, while nations can't afford any kind of social benefits!
Mr. Bernstein explains how, where and why these people care about nothing except themselves and their growing fortunes. He tells it all with a clear and compelling style that I usually associate with bestselling fiction authors. But when you realize this is no fiction, the awareness of how selfish and self-centered these wealthy people really are comes crashing down on you.
October 3, 2020
Helpful. Apparently the Masons are just a chatty club, the Eating Clubs of Princeton or what-not (from Slacker: "Let's put Squeaky Fromme on the one-dollar bill ... "). Like Davos, Skull & Bones, Trilateralism/Bilderbergers, you wouldn't be there to begin with, 'kay? Leave your message at the door. Put it in the drop box. We'll get right round to it! Thanks. :) ;) #yeah
January 10, 2024
This is investigative journalism at its peak. It’s not a fast read and after couple of chapters I gave up on keeping track of names and tried to just understand the operational side of things. The book maintains as close to a neutral tone as possible, doesn’t feel shy in naming high ranking individuals or organizations who all benefited from the tax havens all the while explaining how money gets moved across international borders in questionable ways.
February 20, 2021
Clearly an painstakingly researched book. Eye opening too at times! There was too much in it though, lots of anecdotes and details about meetings, and complicated structures and transactions etc. which made it a but if a trudge at times...
May 19, 2023
Interesting subject matter but so information dense that I didn't find it the easiest to read. The second half was definitely better. I was surprised to learn that Niue used to be a tax haven!
3.5 rounded down.
3.5 rounded down.
March 29, 2020
Part one of this book recounts the rise of the offshore finance industry. From Panama to BVI to Luxembourg to Switzerland, offshore companies are setup to conceal the ultimate beneficial owners, who are surreptitiously controlling these companies through a secret power of attorney with various law firms, who also act as directors to these companies. With identities obfuscated, these structures can be abused by people who would like their transactions to remain secretive for nefarious reasons.
The second half of the book depicts the the unrelenting effort and the sacrifice by ICIJ and other journalists in uncovering the secretive world of offshore financing. Their efforts ultimately led to the Panama Papers and the downfall of various officials in high positions.
The second half of the book depicts the the unrelenting effort and the sacrifice by ICIJ and other journalists in uncovering the secretive world of offshore financing. Their efforts ultimately led to the Panama Papers and the downfall of various officials in high positions.
April 4, 2018
Great book, weird read. It was fascinating yet utterly non engrossing. Took it with me to the hospital for Mackenzie's birth.
March 28, 2018
Secrecy World is a book based on the revelations of The Panama Papers. It was only reasonable to expect someone to write a book that collated many of the stories that were featured in the newspapers at the time. What you might think you’d get in this book is a cohesive picture of what the Panama Papers had to tell us, but what you end up with is something less than that.
Journalists like an angle and Jake Bernstein has decided that his angle is going to be human interest. What this means is that he tells the story of Mossack Fonseca, the Panamanian law firm which had its files hacked. Frankly, I wasn’t much interested in this. Mossfon, as Bernstein abbreviates the firm’s name, is just one of many firms that incorporate shell companies in tax havens. I don’t need to know the detailed history of the company, nor of the hopes and fears of its principals and staff. What I want to know about is the mechanisms by which shell companies nestle inside each other like Russian dolls. Certainly, the book does detail quite a lot of this, but some diagrammes, maps or charts might have been useful here and you don’t get any.
Once you have read many pages dealing with Mossfon – which is the central theme of the book, rather than money-laundering and tax-evasion per se – the book then decides to tell a second non-essential human-interest story. This is the story of the ICIJ, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, of which Bernstein is a member, and how it broke the Panama Papers story. Once again, this to my mind is superfluous. I’m not that interested, any more than I’d want to read a detailed story about how a team of marketeers in an international corporation launched a new range of ready-meals. This is just people at work. The journalists have now become their own story.
The book is also written in a very standard sort of journalistic style, ie, there isn’t really any style. It’s a bit John Grisham. Much is made of Bernstein’s double Pulitzer Prize-winning credentials. I didn’t see much here that would merit these plaudits. This is all a bit of a pity, as Bernstein was very interesting and entertaining talking about his book on Fresh Air (available on podcast), but sadly, the actual book is considerably less interesting. If you want to know about murky goings-on, then Luke Harding’s Collusion or Misha Glenny’s McMafia, both of which I have read recently, are better written, more informative and better reads.
Ultimately, Secrecy World isn’t a bad book, but it’s not one that you have to read unless you mysteriously don’t already know anything at all about the Panama Papers.
Journalists like an angle and Jake Bernstein has decided that his angle is going to be human interest. What this means is that he tells the story of Mossack Fonseca, the Panamanian law firm which had its files hacked. Frankly, I wasn’t much interested in this. Mossfon, as Bernstein abbreviates the firm’s name, is just one of many firms that incorporate shell companies in tax havens. I don’t need to know the detailed history of the company, nor of the hopes and fears of its principals and staff. What I want to know about is the mechanisms by which shell companies nestle inside each other like Russian dolls. Certainly, the book does detail quite a lot of this, but some diagrammes, maps or charts might have been useful here and you don’t get any.
Once you have read many pages dealing with Mossfon – which is the central theme of the book, rather than money-laundering and tax-evasion per se – the book then decides to tell a second non-essential human-interest story. This is the story of the ICIJ, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, of which Bernstein is a member, and how it broke the Panama Papers story. Once again, this to my mind is superfluous. I’m not that interested, any more than I’d want to read a detailed story about how a team of marketeers in an international corporation launched a new range of ready-meals. This is just people at work. The journalists have now become their own story.
The book is also written in a very standard sort of journalistic style, ie, there isn’t really any style. It’s a bit John Grisham. Much is made of Bernstein’s double Pulitzer Prize-winning credentials. I didn’t see much here that would merit these plaudits. This is all a bit of a pity, as Bernstein was very interesting and entertaining talking about his book on Fresh Air (available on podcast), but sadly, the actual book is considerably less interesting. If you want to know about murky goings-on, then Luke Harding’s Collusion or Misha Glenny’s McMafia, both of which I have read recently, are better written, more informative and better reads.
Ultimately, Secrecy World isn’t a bad book, but it’s not one that you have to read unless you mysteriously don’t already know anything at all about the Panama Papers.
July 14, 2019
I badly wanted to love this book. I wanted to toot my digital trumpet and type EAT THE RICH, fortified with paragraphs of evidence of the nefarious dealings of the super wealthy...
...and to be fair, this book does deliver enough reasons to lay out the silverware. While there is no SPECTRE-like conspiracy, we read of a large number of grifters who coalesced to form a somewhat rickety, yet often successful, world of secrecy. Politicians in havens such as the British Virgin Islands, Niue, Delaware and Switzerland deliberately wrote laws with limited formation and disclosure obligations for companies. Other laws permitted bearer shares and hid the ownership of bank accounts. Lawyers identified such havens used them to the advantage of their clients. Bankers asked few questions as to the provenance of funds and valued obfuscation over transparency. Other grifters, including auctioneers of fine arts, dip in and out of narrative as they exploit advantages in information.
Unexpectedly, the inner workings felt less complicated than I expected. While you could argue their intention, the laws in the relevant havens are reasonably brazen in their effect. The legal firms churned out companies with pre-signed forms without any real intellectual input. Financiers laundered money with mirrored buy and sell trades that made little sense in isolation. Stories of incompetence abound, including an over sleeping employee tanking a bank's stocks, a lawyer who collected fees but failed to go through with renewing company registrations, and firms repeatedly frantically backdating documents to present a legitimate face to transactions.
Unfortunately, it is the multitude of stories that is the problem. A large number of threads line each chapter. There are aimply too many names, too many deals, too many ways the money was hidden for me to keep track. There are stories from those chasing the money (for both business and legal enforcement reasons). A large portion of the book is devoted to the collection of journalists trying to understand the information and collaborating on publishing it. Worst of all, there was no one single leak, and keeping track of who provided what ended up defeating me.
This book could have actually done with more pages, and a firmer grip on the narrative. At the risk of obscuring the global nature of the Panama Papers, it would have probably been worthwhile to focus on a smaller number of parties and develop the personalities involved. The author was actually good at humanising a number of characters but there were just too many.
This is a good book. But I wanted it to be great. 3 stars for spurning my love
...and to be fair, this book does deliver enough reasons to lay out the silverware. While there is no SPECTRE-like conspiracy, we read of a large number of grifters who coalesced to form a somewhat rickety, yet often successful, world of secrecy. Politicians in havens such as the British Virgin Islands, Niue, Delaware and Switzerland deliberately wrote laws with limited formation and disclosure obligations for companies. Other laws permitted bearer shares and hid the ownership of bank accounts. Lawyers identified such havens used them to the advantage of their clients. Bankers asked few questions as to the provenance of funds and valued obfuscation over transparency. Other grifters, including auctioneers of fine arts, dip in and out of narrative as they exploit advantages in information.
Unexpectedly, the inner workings felt less complicated than I expected. While you could argue their intention, the laws in the relevant havens are reasonably brazen in their effect. The legal firms churned out companies with pre-signed forms without any real intellectual input. Financiers laundered money with mirrored buy and sell trades that made little sense in isolation. Stories of incompetence abound, including an over sleeping employee tanking a bank's stocks, a lawyer who collected fees but failed to go through with renewing company registrations, and firms repeatedly frantically backdating documents to present a legitimate face to transactions.
Unfortunately, it is the multitude of stories that is the problem. A large number of threads line each chapter. There are aimply too many names, too many deals, too many ways the money was hidden for me to keep track. There are stories from those chasing the money (for both business and legal enforcement reasons). A large portion of the book is devoted to the collection of journalists trying to understand the information and collaborating on publishing it. Worst of all, there was no one single leak, and keeping track of who provided what ended up defeating me.
This book could have actually done with more pages, and a firmer grip on the narrative. At the risk of obscuring the global nature of the Panama Papers, it would have probably been worthwhile to focus on a smaller number of parties and develop the personalities involved. The author was actually good at humanising a number of characters but there were just too many.
This is a good book. But I wanted it to be great. 3 stars for spurning my love
December 4, 2017
Secrecy World reads like a fast-paced thriller with a deeply reported and intricately woven narrative. For anyone curious about this global gilded age we've arrived in and how we got here, the Secrecy World is your road map and Bernstein lays it all out. From the board rooms of Panama to the secret shell companies in the British Virgin Islands and beyond, the reader gets a crash course in how everyone from the Queen of England to multinational corporations avoid paying taxes and hide their cash. The reader also gets a fascinating behind the scenes look at how an international consortium of journalists breaks one of the biggest stories of the decade with the Panama Papers leak.
For many years, I've admired Bernstein's tenacity in getting the story and his first-rate reporting skills, and with this book you won't be disappointed!
Melissa del Bosque
Author of "Bloodlines: The True Story of a Drug Cartel, the FBI and the Battle for a Horse-Racing Dynasty" https://www.melissadelbosque.com/
For many years, I've admired Bernstein's tenacity in getting the story and his first-rate reporting skills, and with this book you won't be disappointed!
Melissa del Bosque
Author of "Bloodlines: The True Story of a Drug Cartel, the FBI and the Battle for a Horse-Racing Dynasty" https://www.melissadelbosque.com/
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