The Wealth Hoarders

The “Wealth Defense Industry” (WDI) helps the rich hang on to their money.

Isabel dos Santos is the richest woman in Africa because she stole from the people of Angola and parked her assets in offshore accounts. Florida fraudster Joseph Rensis scammed working-class victims but sheltered his wealth by placing it in trusts in the Cook Islands. The 2016 release of the Panama Papers revealed that such maneuvers are common among the wealthy; the documents detailed some 214,000 offshore companies in which the rich had stashed their money. It’s impossible to know precisely how much is hidden in tax havens, but researchers agree the sum is in the trillions of dollars – and it accounts for 10% or more of global wealth.

This stealthy system of hidden wealth is a hazard to the world’s economic health because:

• The Wealth Defense Industry smooths the way for the plunder of struggling nations.
• This system lets the richest avoid taxes – and thereby shifts the burden onto everyone else.
• Tax dodgers, embezzlers and kleptocrats thrive in this shadowy world.
• The WDI enables the concentration of wealth and growing economic inequality...