Financial Bolt Holes !

It used to be so easy !   Swiss banks were legendary for their discretion and the anonymity of numbered bank accounts kept fortunes safe from the prying eyes of tax officials.  It all fell apart in the aftermath of the second world war.   When Hitler came to power in Germany many Jewish citizens transferred money to Switzerland, only to die in the death camps.  Some of the Swiss banks refused access to these accounts by relatives - because they demanded to first see a death certificate.

This wall of silence came crashing down when a security guard discovered records from the war years being prepared for incineration - and the Swiss banks began to cooperate with authorities.  World banking disclosure rules came into play, and suddenly a host of small countries scattered across the globe enacted laws that enabled them to become " tax havens " in the eyes of those seeking to minimise tax.

It has become impossible to discover the true owners of " shelf companies " registered in a foreign regime with rigid secrecy laws and many of these are used to launder drug money.  They are also bolt holes for those who choose to hide their wealth because the means of acquiring it would not stand scrutiny - and that includes many public figures.

A treasure trove of such secrets has just been revealed when a leak from a highly respected Panama law firm became public property.   The records of Mossack Fonseca suddenly appeared on the Internet and they list the banking and wealth holding of kings, presidents, prime ministers, sporting stars and captains of industry.   Included are the names of eight hundred Australians, many of who appear regularly in the public realm.

Having an overseas bank account is not proof of illegal activity.  In many cases it is quite legitimate and may involved necessary commercial secrecy, but few will welcome this disclosure which leaves it open to public conjecture.   It will certainly fuel the rumour mill and embarrass many who lead on the world stage.

If nothing else, it illustrates the near impossibility of maintaining secrecy in this electronic age.  Even the full power of sovereign governments have been unable to prevent penetration and the revealing of state secrets.   The names " Assange " and " Snowden " strike fear to heads of state, even though they have become pariahs locked away out of reach by their protectors.

The world has been closely following the efforts of the American FBI to persuade Apple to break the secrecy lock of a terrorists I-Phone.   Apple resisted, but that request was withdrawn when it was learned that internal FBI teckies had managed to break the lock.   It must now be obvious to all users of mobile phones that their secrecy has been compromised.   Another barrier has fallen.

In the distant past, industrial spying involved the use of small cameras by spies trained to infiltrate. It was slow and tedious work - with high risk of getting caught.   Today a mouse click can send an almost unimaginable amount of data speeding across the Internet - without leaving a trace.  It is feared that cyber attacks will become a primary weapon of any new world war.

It seems that the age of absolute reliable secrecy - has ended !