When the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) released the first set of Panama Papers a few weeks ago, it barely included the names of Americans. Now the ICIJ has put all the 11.5 million files related to about 200,000 offshore companies online, and the names of at least 36 Americans have emerged. They have been accused of fraudulently using offshore accounts to evade taxes and carry out other illegal activities.
Americans named in Panama Papers
Mossack Fonseca, the law firm at the heart of the Panama Papers leak, has said that “as a policy we prefer not to have American clients.” Turns out, it had dozens of American clients. Here’s the list of some big-name Americans included in Monday’s release:
- Len Gotshalk: The former Atlanta Falcon football star was able to buy a British Virgin Islands-based shell company through Mossack Fonseca just three days after he was charged in 2010 with indulging into a scheme to inflate prices of tech stocks. In 1994, the SEC sued him for providing “false and misleading information” to investors about an entity involved in oil & gas investments. The shell company he purchased was called Irishmyst Consultants Limited.
- Martin Frankel: The Connecticut financier served 17 years in prison for criminal dealings that caused $200 million of loss to insurance companies. In the past, he had been accused of soliciting women for sadomasochistic sex through classified ads. Frankel is notorious for his lavish lifestyle.
- Andrew Wiederhorn: He had pleaded guilty to two felonies connected to one of the biggest corporate scandals in the history of Oregon.
- Robert Miracle & five friends: The six of them ran a Ponzi scheme through Dressel Investment Ltd, an offshore company set up by Mossack Fonseca. They looted more than $100 million from thousands of unsuspecting middle-class Indonesians. Miracle was sentenced to 13 years in prison for his crime.
- Rebel Holiday: The Virginia-based woman showed up at Mossack Fonseca headquarters in 2009, and presented herself as a successful entrepreneur planning to sell “collectibles” containing some gold, according to the Panama Papers. The law firm helped her set up Mises Technologies in Panama. She has been accused of selling unlicensed securities and misleading investors. Holiday has been banned from selling securities and fined $110,000 by the State Corporation Commission of Virginia.
- Harvey Milam: He is the son of J.W. Milam, one of the killers of Emmett Till in 1955. The 14-year-old child’s brutal murder had sparked America’s modern Civil Rights movement. Harvey Milam has been accused of cheating an insurance company based in the Caribbean island of Nevis.
You can find the full list of Americans named in Panama Papers here. The offshore companies were incorporated in 21 jurisdictions including Nevada in the United States.
