A few days ago, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released a batch of documents dubbed Offshore Leaks. Like the Panama Papers, they help expose the shady yet legal underground world of offshore tax havens, complex trusts, LLCs, public shells, and many other fancy terms you’d hear while inside the Oklahoma City Golf and Country Club locker room.
Here’s a description of the project via the ICIJ website:
The database contains information on almost 320,000 offshore entities that are part of the Panama Papers and the Offshore Leaks investigations. The data covers nearly 40 years – from 1977 through 2015 – and links to people and companies in more than 200 countries and territories.
The real value of the database is that it strips away the secrecy that cloaks companies and trusts incorporated in tax havens and exposes the people behind them. This includes, when available, the names of the real owners of those opaque structures. In all, the interactive application reveals more than 360,000 names of people and companies behind secret offshore structures. They come from leaked records and not a standardized corporate registry, so there may be duplicates. In some cases, companies are listed as shareholders for another company or a trust, arrangement that often helps obscure the flesh-and-blood people behind offshore entities.
[…]ICIJ is publishing the information in the public interest. While many of the activities carried out through offshore entities are perfectly legal, extensive reporting by ICIJ and its media partners for more than four years has shown that the anonymity granted by the offshore economy facilitates money laundering, tax evasion, fraud and other crimes. Even when it’s legal, transparency advocates argue that the use of an alternative, parallel economy undermines democracy because it benefits a few at the expense of the majority.
I’m not going to lie to you, this stuff is way over my head. I prefer my investigative reports to focus around lawmakers hoarding tickets to American Ninja Warrior, hot lesbian Kiss Cam girls, or whether or not Lucas Ross has an odd fascination Milky Way bars. However, thanks to a Twitter tip, we searched the database for Oklahoma. It pulled up the following 14 records:
I browsed through each link. One that stood out was 6305 Waterford Blvd. It’s the registered address for Robert Alexander Hefner III. He’s the patriarch and bread bringer for the Hefner family. His son is Robert Alexander Hefner IV, who as you know, is married to Crazy Carol Hefner, the wannabe socialite whose hobbies include racism, bigotry, xenophobia, and unlocking the secret Olive Garden salad dressing recipe:
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Robert Hefner is a shareholder of something called Snowy River Group Ltd. It was incorporated in the British Virgin Islands in 2007. The Director of the group is somebody named Lee Chong Min. He’s with a Singapore based company called CMIA Capital Partners. This flowchart will help explain how they are all connected:
Yeah, I have no clue what all that means. Let’s dumb things down a bit and look at more Carol Hefner Facebook Posts:
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Anyway, have I mentioned this Offshore Leaks stuff is totally over my head, and that I really have no clue what I’m writing about or how to explain it? Instead of doing research or pulling something out of my ass, can somebody who understands business language explain what’s going on here? I doubt our local media will look into it at all, so we might as well turn to the most reliable news source in Oklahoma City – the TLO Comments Section.
Also, I should probably clarify that we’re not accusing Robert Hefner of doing anything illegal. I’m sure that being a shareholder in a Virgin Islands corporation that’s managed by a group out of Singapore is totally legal, legitimate, and ethical. I’m not sure if this disclaimer will prevent the Hefner family from suing me – or even asking to meet me in a parking lot – but I should probably throw it out there.
are you sure that’s Robert Hefner’s address?
Ha!
That last one was pretty good.
The Panama Papers leak was basically just a leak of millions of documents from a well known “off-shore” law firm in Panama known for helping people hide money and assets from their respective governments. Basically they just provide a tax haven for these individuals in the case that they’d want to hide some of their cash or property. There were a lot of celebs, heads of state, political figures, etc that were shown to have some connection. Some of the stuff can be legit, such as celebs using a shell company to hide their property for anonymity or other wealthy figures hiding assets from criminals. Some people use it just for estate planning and inheritance money.
Some of this, some of that – but ALL avoiding their responsibility to the community to pay their fair share of tax, in a typical ‘F you’ to those who haven’t had the ease of inherited wealth to get them through their incredibly poor lives.
Are you suggesting it’s these people that are the cause of others having incredibly poor lives?
I think, not to step on his point, he’s suggesting that not paying taxes is indeed a drain on society as a whole. You see, the economy requires money to be cycled throughout the system, if the upper tier holds on to all of their money, it is no longer in the economy cycle and the only people losing out are the ones not in the upper tier.
The superwealthy might have some legit reasons for such accounts, mainly for privacy. IRS has been cracking-down on the money laundering and tax evasion aspects. What would be suspicious is if a politician, who was not previously among the superwealthy, shows up on such a list. Could indicate bribes or a lack of confidence in their own country’s economy or banking system. The Prime Minister of Iceland had to resign because of his offshore account.
Why would a superwealthy person have a legit need for greater financial privacy than the privacy that you and I enjoy with normal domestic banking and brokerage services?
Here the author admits a lack of knowledge as to the mechanics of tax evasive offshore accounts… and that’s exactly what the holders of these accounts want… a subversive shadowy means of exploitation… these people constitute the greatest threat to the Amerikan dream as we know it… living off the labors and backs of those who are kept in check by low wages, unaffordable housing and substandard education which leaves few options for liberation… I say burn the rich to keep warm
Frankie says “eat the rich.”
Bad idea. Nothing but bitterness there. No sweetness at all.
The 65 Granada in Shawnee has an interesting car in its driveway on Google Street View.
I think a double secret level 3 audit is in order.
The May Ave address is linked to a Daniel W. Allyn but Google doesn’t have a single thing about him, his company, or what he’s into. Spokeo lists Shawnee as a location for him, so I’m guessing the two Shawnee addresses are his, too. Funny thing is, the addresses don’t even show up at the Pottawatomie County Assesor’s website. As someone else said, there’s an interesting car parked outside the Grenada address (spoiler alert: It’s a Sherriff’s cruiser). Are officials in P. County helping to conceal something? This could all be innocuous coincidence. It could be tax evasion, or worse. Either way, I’m climbing out of this rabbit hole; I don’t want to get “disappeared” down it.
The way that car is parked, would indicate it’s the owner, or somebody that spends considerable amount of time in that house. Amazing find. Better screenshot it before bad ass Shawnee mofos get to Google lol
“bad ass Shawnee mofos” oh yes that’s going in my vocabulary asap.