Ukraine Pres Poroshenko pays high personal price for nation's freedom and democracy

Petro Poroshenko used to be one of the top oligarchs in Ukraine; those few dozens of visionaries who, due to their integrity, intelligence, and hard work managed to divide up the nation's wealth amongst themselves in the glorious (for them) window of opportunity that opened up just as the sun was setting on the Soviet empire.

While the fortunes of the vast majority of Ukrainians were going down the toilet, Poroshenko and his fellow oligarchs were shamelessly enriching themselves. Like his fellow oligarchs, Petro studiously scaffolded his political connections into an ever-growing personal fortune. In 2012 Forbes magazine welcomed him into the ranks of the world's billionaires. A year later his net worth stood at US$1.6 billions.

Alas, there then blew in the "Nuland-Pyatt Spring," the gentle breezes of which wafted through the Maidan in early 2014, grew and grew and grew in intensity until it was a virtual hurricane for freedom and human rights, its virtuous force 5 winds blowing an elected government clear out of the country!

Under a recent law, Ukraine's parliamentarians are now required to self-disclose their net worth. All to do with the never-ending war on corruption, don't you know, and according this story at Deutsche Welle,  Poroshenko has declared a meagre 26 millions!

Wow! From 1,600 millions to 26 millions in a mere two years? That loss is almost Trumpian in scale!

But perhaps we should not feel pity for the man prematurely. Didn't his name come up in those Panama Papers revelations? You don't suppose those shell companies were part of a plan to disappear his assets, do you?

Hmm...

Where's Putin?

Every reasonable person knows why it took over a year for the "Panama Papers" to hit the headlines. Sure, those thousands of Soros minions on the  "investigative team" were getting all their ducks in a row..., but what they were mostly doing was looking for evidence of Putin's perfidy.

Yes, in eleven million documents there just HAD to be evidence of Bad Vlad's malfeasance somewhere... and even though they couldn't find any in a year of searching, have you noticed that practically any headline about the Panama Papers is accompanied by a photo of Putin?

That's what's known in the annals of counter-intel as "the mark of Soros."

Speaking of Soros, where's he at in the land 'o tax evasion?

The Panama Papers; the non-scandal ripe with possibilities

It seems to be big news to a lot of folks that there's many rich people who exploit the fine print of tax regulation to minimize their tax obligations. Nothing new about it at all. Why do you think KC Irving spent his twilight years in Bermuda?

In fact, the Irvings waged a lengthy battle with Canada's tax collectors re: the sale of supertanker loads of oil dropped off from all over the Middle East at their Canaport reception facility in New Brunswick. Those million barrel cargoes were sold to a Bermuda middle man between when they entered the Bay of Fundy and when they disgorged their load at Canaport. As it happened, any profit on that supertanker load of oil accrued to an Irving subsidiary in no-tax Bermuda instead of high-tax New Brunswick.

Which proves nothing more than that the Irvings were ahead of the curve. Nothing in these sensational Panama Papers is, on the face of it, illegal. The reason we have "tax havens" on this planet is, guess what, so rich people can avoid taxes!

Legally!

Hey, guess who writes the tax codes all over the world?... the lawyers and accountants who work for the rich folks!

This is a surprise???

But here's why this non-scandal is pregnant with possibilities. Maybe, just maybe, enough people will be pissed off about this story that they'll be motivated to make some changes.

Tax havens need to be put out of business.