Erik Voorhees, CEO of ShapeShift.io, and Charlie Shrem, Founder of the Bitcoin Foundation, have been named in the Panama Papers Leak. From embezzlement to evading sanctions
The Panama Papers , as they have been dubbed, are 11.5 million leaked documents that contain financial information of more than 214, 488 entities associated with the Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca .
The leaked documents illustrate how wealthy individuals, including public officials, have been able to hide their financial information for often, but by no means always, rather nefarious reasons.
While the use of tax havens such as Panama is not illegal, some of the shell corporations named have been used for illegal purposes, including fraud, embezzlement of state funds, tax evasion, and evading international sanctions.
Before reading too much into someone’s appearance, it is important to consider the site’s disclaimer: “There are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts. We do not intend to suggest or imply that any persons, companies or other entities included in the ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database have broken the law or otherwise acted improperly.” Voorhees and Shrem in focus
When the full papers were released to the public by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), many were quick to do some investigation of their own.
Reddit user, /u/raithe1337 , soon posted to the /r/Bitcoin subreddit with his discovery of Voorhees and Shrem’s names appearing in the ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database.
Erik Voorhees appears twice , once under his full name, Erik Tristan Voorhees , while Charlie Shrem , who is currently serving a two-year prison sentence for aiding and abetting the operation of an unlicensed money-transmitting business related to the Silk Road in Lewisburg, PA, appears once . Voorhees was quick to address concerns in the Reddit thread, saying, “I’ll just nip this one in the bud… Charlie and […]
