7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2016
Governments around the world face Court upholds total
fallout from offshore accounts report population count in
Iceland’s prime
minister resigns
By DAVID MCHUGH
Associated Press
FRANKFURT, Germany
— Governments around the
world tried Tuesday to contain
the fallout from the publication
of thousands of names of rich
and powerful people who con-
ducted offshore ¿nancial activ-
ity through a Panamanian law
¿rm.
Iceland’s embattled prime
minister has resigned amid a
controversy over his offshore
holdings, a Cabinet minister
said Tuesday as outrage over
the accounts roiled the North
Atlantic island nation.
Prime Minister Sigmun-
dur David Gunnlaugsson is
stepping down as leader of the
country’s coalition govern-
ment, Agriculture Minister Sig-
urdur Ingi Johannsson told Ice-
landic broadcaster RUV.
No replacement has yet been
named, and Iceland’s president
has not yet con¿rmed that he
has accepted the resignation.
China dismissed as “ground-
less” reports that relatives of
current and retired politicians,
including President Xi Jinping,
own offshore companies.
The state media are ignoring
the reports, and search results
for the words “Panama docu-
ments” have been blocked on
websites and social media.
And Ukraine’s president
was accused of abusing his
of¿ce and of tax evasion by
moving his candy business off-
shore, possibly depriving the
country of millions of dollars
in taxes.
The reports are from a global
group of news organizations
working with the Washing-
ton-based International Consor-
Brynjar Gunnarsson/AP Photo
Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson
speaks during a parliamentary session in Reykjavik. Gun-
nlaugsson resigned today after facing growing calls for
him to step down because of reported offshore financial
dealings by him and his wife that opposition lawmakers
say show a significant conflict of interest with his job.
tium of Investigative Journalists.
They have been processing the
legal records from the Mossack
Fonseca law ¿rm that were ¿rst
leaked to the German Sueddeut-
sche Zeitung newspaper.
Shell companies aren’t by
themselves illegal. People or
companies might use them to
reduce their tax bill legally, by
bene¿ting from low tax rates in
countries like Panama, the Cay-
man Islands and Bermuda. But
the practice is frowned upon,
particularly when used by pol-
iticians, who then face criticism
for not contributing to their
own countries’ economies.
Because offshore accounts
and companies also hide the
names of the ultimate own-
ers of investments, they can be
used to illegally evade taxes or
launder money.
Mossack Fonseca says it
obeys all laws relating to com-
pany registrations and does not
advise people how to evade
taxes.
The ¿rm said in a statement
that “our industry is not partic-
ularly well understood by the
public, and unfortunately this
series of articles will only serve
to deepen that confusion.
“The facts are these: while
we may have been the vic-
tim of a data breach, nothing
in this illegally obtained cache
of documents suggests we’ve
done anything wrong or illegal,
and that’s very much in keep-
ing with the global reputation
we’ve worked hard to build
over the past 40 years of doing
business the right way. “
Members of the Group of
20 — which includes China —
have agreed on paper to tighten
laws relating to shell compa-
nies and make sure authori-
ties can ¿nd out who the real
owners are. Actual legislation
at the national level has lagged
behind the promises, however.
The appearance of offshore
accounts in political scandals is
far from new. Shell companies
played a role in the corruption
scandal involving the Petro-
bras oil company in Brazil. The
U.S. Justice Department said
in an indictment last year that
offshore accounts were used
to mask the transfer of bribes
to of¿cials at FIFA, the global
soccer federation.
China’s Foreign Ministry
spokesman Hong Lei said he
would not discuss the reports
further and declined to say
whether the individuals named
would be investigated.
“For these groundless
accusations, I have no com-
ment,” Hong told reporters at
a regularly scheduled news
conference.
Sueddeutsche
Zeitung,
working with NDR and WDR
public television, reported
Monday that 14 German banks
had used Mossack Fonseca’s
services to set up 1,200 letter-
box companies for clients.
The report said use of off-
shore company registrations
had spiked after the European
Union introduced regulations
in 2005 requiring countries
to exchange tax information
on physical persons, but not
for companies. Many of the
accounts, however, have since
been closed.
The EU has since tightened
its rules on offshore companies
under its Fourth Anti-Money
Laundering Directive, which
is being phased in as national
governments pass local laws to
comply by June 26, 2017. The
new rules tighten requirements
for companies to keep accurate
information on their real own-
ers and to make that available
to authorities.
electoral districts
By MARK SHERMAN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A
unanimous Supreme Court
ruled Monday that states can
count everyone, not just eligi-
ble voters, in deciding how to
draw electoral districts.
The justices turned back a
challenge from Texas voters
that could have dramatically
altered political district bound-
aries and disproportionately
affected the nation’s growing
Latino population.
The court ruled that Texas’
challenged state Senate dis-
tricting map, using total pop-
ulation, complied with the
principle of “one person, one
vote,” the requirement laid
out by the Supreme Court in
1964 that political districts be
roughly equal in population.
The issue, though, was
what population to consider:
everyone or just eligible
voters.
The challengers said the
districts had vastly different
numbers when looking at eli-
gible voters, in violation of the
Constitution.
“Jurisdictions, we hold,
may design state and local
legislative districts with
equal total populations; they
are not obliged to equalize
voter populations,” Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg said,
summarizing her opinion for
the court.
Ginsburg said that “history,
our decisions and settled prac-
tice in all 50 states and count-
less local jurisdictions point in
the same direction.”
Two rural Texas voters
challenged the use of total
population data in drawing
state Senate districts because
they said it inÀates the voting
power of city dwellers at their
expense.
In Texas, and other states
with large immigrant popula-
tions, urban districts include
many more people who are
too young, not citizens or oth-
erwise ineligible to vote. Civil
rights groups said forcing
states to change their method
of constructing districts would
have damaged Latino political
inÀuence.
The court stopped short
of saying that states must use
total population. And it also
did not rule on whether states
are free to use a different mea-
sure, as Texas asked.
Ginsburg said the court was
not resolving whether states
may use voter population.
Richard Hasen, an expert
in election law at the Univer-
sity of California at Irvine law
school, said, “A contrary rul-
ing would have shifted power
to Republican, rural districts,
and away from Democratic
urban areas.”
Edward Blum, whose Proj-
ect on Fair Representation
backed the lawsuit, said he was
disappointed in the outcome,
but predicted that “the issue
of voter equality in the United
States is not going to go away.”
Though the justices were
unanimous in upholding
Texas’ use of total population,
Justices Clarence Thomas and
Samuel Alito declined to join
Ginsburg’s opinion.
Thomas said the Constitu-
tion gives the states the free-
dom to draw political lines
based on different population
counts. Referring to the 1964
case of Reynolds v. Sims,
he said the high court “has
never provided a sound basis
for the one-person, one-vote
principle.”
Scientists urge action to combat changing ocean chemistry
The Associated Press
SEATTLE — Global car-
bon dioxide emissions are
rapidly altering ocean chem-
istry along the West Coast
and urgent regional action
is needed, a panel of ocean
scientists said in a report
released Monday.
The group warned that
failing to respond to ocean
acidi¿cation, which comes
from added carbon absorbed
by oceans, will have wide-
spread negative ecological
consequences for the West
Coast.
California, Oregon, Wash-
ington and the province of
British Columbia in 2013
brought together 20 scientists
to come up with management
tools to address ocean acidi¿-
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ASTORIAN
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cation and hypoxia, or waters
with extremely low oxygen
levels.
Global carbon emissions
are the dominant cause of
ocean acidi¿cation, accord-
ing to scientists from the
three states and province.
While it is a global prob-
lem that will require global
solutions, West Coast lead-
ers should develop regional
strategies to reduce carbon
dioxide emissions, the group
said.
The scientists outlined
other actions these govern-
ments could take, including
exploring using seagrass to
remove carbon dioxide from
seawater, improving the moni-
toring network and identifying
areas where local pollutants
can make problems worse.
“There has been an attitude
that there is not much we can
do about this locally, but that
just isn’t true,” said Francis
Chan, an Oregon State Uni-
versity marine ecologist and
who co-chaired the panel. “A
lot of the solutions will come
locally and through coordi-
nated regional efforts.”
Because of the way the
3aci¿c Ocean circulates, the
LISTINGS
A - Charter Astoria/ Seaside - L - Charter Long Beach
West Coast is exposed to
unusually high volumes of
seawater at elevated acidity
levels, according to Richard
Feely with 1OAA’s 3aci¿c
Marine Environmental Labo-
ratory in Seattle.
Responding to the report,
Washington Gov. Jay Ins-
lee said in a statement that
he’s ready to work with West
Coast leaders on the issue.
Evening listings
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