David Geffen has been released as one of the other names mentioned in the leaked Panama Papers. Geffen is the first American leaked to the press. The previous Prime Minister of Iceland, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, resigned after his name was leaked from the same Panama Papers.
According to an article from The Guardian, the Panama Papers were anonymously obtained from the German newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung, which shared the information with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The ICIJ shared these sources with other investigative journalism companies. The Guardian and BBC are just two examples. The leaked database contains roughly 1.15 million files from the fourth largest offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca, a Panama based law firm with multiple chains around the globe. The Panama Papers are the largest leaked source than the Wikileaks in 2010 and the Edward Snowden leaks in 2013. However, the McClatchy news video states that having these offshore band accounts are not necessarily illegal. But to be fair, it is quite embarrassing for the United States to have a powerful Hollywood music producer on that list of names alongside the worldwide soccer association, also known as FIFA.
“Americans really would be doing this not to hide from taxes, but to hide money they got in other ways that perhaps are less legal,” Kevin Hall explained in his interview with International Business Sounds, “It’s not the average rich guy it’s the rich guy who’s really doing something wrong who seems to be in this data.”
Geffen was the founder of Asylum Records back in 1970’s Hollywood. He is one of the largest powerhouses of producers which produced music for bands such as The Eagles, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Nirvana, and dozens of others. Geffen is also the co-founder of Dreamworks SKG. The other founders for Dreamworkds SKG include Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg.
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