Ecuador's right-wing candidate linked to 49 tax haven companies
Ecuadorean presidential candidate Guillermo Lasso is connected to 49 companies in offshore tax havens, Buenos Aires news daily Página/12 reports, presenting challenges to his campaign ahead of the April 2 runoff election.
The companies, based in Panama, the Cayman Islands and Delaware, have diverse names that hide Lasso's role.
Página/12 reports that between 1999 and 2000, around the same time former Ecuadorean President Jamil Mahuad dollarized the country's economy and Lasso served as Minister of Finance, Lasso's fortune jumped from US$1 million to US$31 million.
The right-wing banker candidate is believed to have boosted his fortune by speculating on government bonds ahead of dollarization, which left millions of Ecuadoreans in poverty.
"The financier tried in recent years to tidy up his businesses in order to enter the political arena," the investigative report says. "However, the magnitude of the offshore companies and their profits could implicate him in tax evasion."
Last month, Ecuador became the first country in the world to pass a plebiscite to ban public officials from having assets or capital in tax havens.
At: http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Ecuadors-Right-Wing-Candidate-Linked-to-49-Tax-Haven-Companies-20170316-0001.html
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Would that it were always so.
I'll tell you though, the fact that he's gotten even this far is a testament to the power of big media and corporate spin. This, after all, is a man already known by his countrymen to have profited off their misery during their last financial crisis.
When Ecuadorean depositors' funds were seized by banks in a 1999 bail-in, the banks compensated anyone wishing to (or needing to) withdraw funds with bonds. These bonds, of course, were soon redeemable at only half their face value because so many depositors were selling them out of fear they would decline even further in worth.
Lasso, through the Bank of Guayaquil, bought as many as he could (at 40-50% of face value), helped push down the value as far as possible to force even more depositors to sell, and then used his influence to prevail on the Central Bank to recall them at full face value.
Suffice it to say, he and his bank made off like bandits. The proceeds were, of course, then laundered out of Ecuador through the above-mentioned offshore accounts.
One can only hope the good people of Ecuador remember this when they go vote. Then again, electing fascist brigands seems to be in style these days.
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