U.S. names starting to surface in Panama Papers leak

Most of the wealthy people implicated so far in the leak of offshore tax documents from Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca have been Russian, Chinese, and other nationalities, but there are also some American names in the 11.5 million documents collectively called the Panama Papers. McClatchy Newspapers, which published a number of prominent U.S. names on Wednesday night, notes that many among "the mega-rich... rely on such companies for all sorts of legal purposes," while others probably have not.

Among the Americans whose names appear in the documents, McClatchy says, are former Citigroup chief Sanford Weill; Hyatt heiress Liesel Pritzker Simmons and her husband, fellow heir Ian Simmons; music and film mogul David Geffen; Jerry W. Slusser, an investment banker and Republican fundraiser; and John Thompson Dorrance IV, whose family created Campbell Soup. Most of those people denied any wrongdoing. USA Today also notes several Americans in the leaked documents who were already convicted or under investigation for tax fraud, including Wall Street financier Benjamin Wey, Russian-born commercial real estate tycoon Igor Olenicoff, convicted Ponzi schemer Robert Miracle, and convicted tax-dodge schemer John Michael "Red" Crim.

McClatchy's Kevin Hall has more on Americans in the Panama Papers:

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"I would assume a lot of the ultra rich are having conversations with their tax lawyers about what their exposure is as a result of this leak," University of Connecticut tax law expert Richard Pomp tells McClatchy. “They know their names are likely to be revealed to the IRS. The question is 'How clean are we?'" Another law expert, Edward Mermelstein, whose firm represents international investors, said that rich Americans are mostly sighing because their exposure is "tiny compared to the diapers being soiled outside the United States."

Wealthy Americans aren't the only ones rethinking the use of offshore shell companies, The Wall Street Journal says, noting that even before the Panama Papers leak, Mossack Fonseca's business had been "tumbling for a decade as global regulators led by the U.S. cracked down on offshore tax havens and money laundering." The super rich are finding other ways to shield their money, like buying up luxury real estate, The Journal adds, but "the Panama Papers, which go back to 1977, are in some ways a trip down memory lane for the business of hiding assets offshore, either for privacy, to avoid taxation or to hide ill-gotten gains."