already this has really caused a lot of effects we're talking about a money stashed in the british virgin islands and you know it's not illegal to set up a company in the british virgin islands there are a mammoth of reasons why you could be doing so personal reasons to keep your wealth discreet however where when we're talking about possible criminal offenses such as tax evasion or tax avoidance that certainly would be coming to light and already there's been some embarrassment we're looking at the front wall and close friend for example also his campaign manager during the presidential elections and now he had been forced to to reveal his in the name of his a chinese business partner and to knowledge that he has offshore investments also and this is a embarrassment afonso alone because for us a lot is so staunchly against a clamping down on tax savings also we've seen a number of the politicians saying that they may already be thinking of leaving their posts because of this investigation we see russian oligarchs names public public officials from the u.s. from the u.k. basically around the worl

places like the british virgin islands, promising they will never reveal the identities of the owners of the companies. the fact that we have been able to start naming names is going to shatter the confidence of rich people that they can hide their money. >> it could in fact be the most comprehensive project of its kind. how did it come about? >> it came about because the director of the icij in washington, which is a network of investigative journalists -- he obtained a hard drive -- a computer hard drive with more than 200 gigabytes of data in it. this data is the internal records of the key in corporation agencies that set up the secret companies, and inside that vast, mass of electronic material, it has enabled the group of journalists working together to unearth the names of some of the people behind those companies. >> thanks very much for the information. >> ok. >> now for a closer look at the possible next steps in this story, we are joined by a financial expert at the tax justice network. a lot of these offshore accounts are simply using existing loopholes so the people that

void scheme being laid bare by millions of leaked e-mails coming from the british virgin islands. also hungry for humane treatment of the no food. brings attention back to the controversial prison and america's continued use of it as a human rights black hole. of bird slaughter poultry markets closed down and shares falling on fears caused by six bird flu deaths in china. we investigate whether the panic is being blown out of. life or moscow this is. your news from all around the world and we start this hour with news just in that an earthquake measuring six point two has been detected in north korea there's been no confirmation yet whether it has any connection to the reclusive nation's recent threat to test another nuclear device meanwhile north korea has asked all foreign embassies in pyongyang to evacuate in lieu of rising tensions on the risks on the peninsula. in follows reports the north has armed a second ballistic missile with an unknown payload on the eastern coast of the country and washington and south korea meanwhile say they're taking all precautions dispatching more

been left are rather red faced in a new tax haven scandal this one though originating in the british virgin islands a collective of journalists as i began publishing member millions of leaked emails exposing the offshore ties of the world's elite to the sunny caribbean islands. from financial advisory partners says fact whistleblowing is becoming an effective trend. let's use france as an example if you look at what's going on there you have the president who's a pushing for a seventy five percent tax on millionaires well some of his body. and close colleagues are getting their money offshore so i think you almost have to rely on the sort of twenty first century vigilantes to really get the true information it's easy to say one thing you know corporate billionaires and fat cats and all of that it's another to actually see it in writing go to two point five million accounts and see who's hiding what so i think you're going to see a further end of that kind of vigilante and secondly it'll be interesting to see what happens in the euro zone most of all i mean you have riots in several countries right

sun sea and banks with billions of hidden dollars a new tax avoidance scandal erupts in the british virgin islands coming up we are four of the world's most influential have been caught red handed and sitting vast fortunes from the prying eyes of taxman back at home. the first second chinese city has begun calling birds in a wave of panic about a possible avian flu outbreak the fears of also spread to neighboring countries six people have died out of the sixteen infected so far figures fall from the epidemic these crazy pilbeam looks now at who might hope to benefit from any bird flu hype panic is already spreading across the globe over fears of a bird flu epidemic in china twenty thousand birds were slaughtered at one local market japan has but health warnings on people coming into the country from china hong kong says slumped in chinese airline stocks in an attempt to restrict travel vietnam bones poultry imports from china and taiwan raises quarantine level alerts while u.s. and china are already looking into creating a vaccine for this specific type of bird flu drug producers already poised to

the banks with billions of hidden dollars a new tax avoidance scandal of rocks in the british virgin islands we report on some of the world's most influential people who have been caught red handed concealing their vast fortune. but for now the focus but globe. event in scope the twelve forum was kicked off to much fanfare in china and as europe and america struggle to boost their flagging economies national leaders and big names in business of gathered to talk about how to give emerging markets a shot in the arm a local correspondent alexander to cast off reports from china. when people hear it can all make for the first thing that comes to mind is this no escape in doubles but this is not changing as the repertoires of the so-called asian tigers has shifted the focus east towards when it comes to the world's economic development established twelve years ago the ball forum had its main focus in asia but it left the door open for other countries to join in the years later in two thousand and thirteen we have top ranking government officials and business leaders from all over europe and ameri

considering they're fighting off shores right now yet have territories such as cyprus and british virgin islands. it does have a touch of double standard policy about if those nations have an opportunity for shutting down those offshore havens they certainly should have done so. who do you think is primarily responsible for the fact that offshore schemes are being conducted right in front of the regulators eyes do you think it's the regulators themselves the banks isn't it with. the scale and scope of the two thousand and seven two thousand a crisis in the context of a globalized world was impossible to predict the magnitude of the crisis took everyone by surprise the crisis has taken its toll on every economy the u.s. is presently struggling with a budget deficit the u.k. is saddled with an enormous deficit complete with negative economic growth none of those countries had anticipated that these economic ills would overlap in such a way that it would inflict such a severe downturn on them one could argue that it was economists who had failed to give us an early warning or that it was the regula

identities of more than 130,000 people with secret accounts in places like the caymans and the british virgin islands. the documents expose a complex system of fraud and anyon who puts their money into a tax haven is probably trying to hide something. why else would you spend a lot of money setting up an account unless you have something to investigative team that sifted through the millions of past 15 months. the laundry list of suspected tax evaders includes a deceased german playboy a p p, a provincial governor phihi dictator. the amount of money tucked away in offshore accounts is believed to be astronomical. according to estimates by the tax justice network, it could be as high as 25 trillion euros enough to buy every individual in the european union a brand- new, top-of-the-line mercedes. politicians are already reacting to the news. the greek government has announced it will investigate hundreds of offshore accounts. in germany the finance ministry has requested access to the files>> earlier, i spoke with the "guardian's" executive with the report, d asasasasasasasasasasasasasasasasasasaselus

seeing its time running out for millions of leaked e-mails have exposed the client list of the british virgin islands politicians superstars top businessmen worldwide all being implicated cyber security expert and a whole soul who's a campaign manager of the u.k. pirate party points out of the irony that some of those with the offshore accounts were the ones actively promoting austerity. some of these people appear to be in positions where they wouldn't necessarily want to be associated with sticking a lot of money onto an office into a offshore tax was clearly a disconnect between what people are saying in terms of taxes and austerity especially and what they're actually doing in terms of their personal finances and clearly there is some regulation needed this may well change that having this kind of information out and may well cause this to be a much bigger political issue than it has been for a long time it's something that you obviously have to deal with when it becomes public and for most people everybody's known that offshore tax havens exist but haven't really understood the amounts of money

businessmen worldwide left red faced by a new tax haven scandal originating this time in the british virgin islands millions of leaked e-mails expose offshore ties of the world's elite to the sunny caribbean islands cyber security expert and the halls all whose campaign manager for the u.k. pirate party points out the irony of those with tax haven accounts actively promoting austerity. some of these people appear to be in positions where they wouldn't necessarily want to be associated with sticking a lot of money onto an office into an offshore tax and it was clearly a disconnect between what people are saying in terms of taxes and austerity especially more than actually doing in terms of their personal finances have there been discussions about using this. to take a look at the whole area in the whole industry with a view of regulating it and clearly there is some regulation needed this may well change that having this kind of information have and may well cause this to be a much bigger political issue than has been for a long time it's something that you obviously have to deal with when it become

businessmen worldwide have been left red faced in a new tax haven scandal originating in the british virgin islands a collective of journalists has begun publishing millions of leaked emails exposing the offshore tiny's of the world's elite to the sunny caribbean islands will for more perspective on this let's talk to cyber security expert and wholesome is a campaign manager of the u.k. pirate party so andy many influential figures from russian oligarchs politicians celebrities from around the world they really will be very embarrassed by this how could such sensitive information be leaked in this way. well the resourcing so far suggest as somebody posted a hard disk i'm sending rather a lot of information and rather all the stellar information as it seemed to people implicated are at the top of society essentially this comes back down to people having access to data within the organizations where it's javert presumably having a reason whether it's personal or it's logical. the kind of levels of well this parity or similar that we're seeing and decided that this information should go to people who

considering they're fighting off shores right now yet have territories such as cyprus and british virgin islands. it does have a touch of double standard policy about if those nations have an opportunity for shutting down those offshore havens they certainly should have done so. who do you think is primarily responsible for the fact that offshore schemes are being conducted right in front of the regulators eyes do you think it's the regulators themselves the banks. the media the scale and scope of the two thousand and seven two thousand a crisis in the context of a globalized world was impossible to predict the magnitude of the crisis took everyone by surprise the crisis has taken its toll on every economy the u.s. is presently struggling with a budget deficit the u.k. is saddled with an enormous deficit complete with negative economic growth none of those countries had anticipated that these economic ills would overlap in such a way that it would inflict such a severe downturn on them one could argue that.

considering they're fighting off shores right now yet have territories such as cyprus and british virgin islands.

let's look at the british virgin islands, home to half a million offshore companies. that's about 40% of the offshore companies on the planet. you can buy a ready-made shell company or create your own secret company from scratch in about three days, for just over $1,000. you may be asked to produce documents to establish your identity and they might check your name in a database, to see if you're a terrorist. but don't worry, while the system may catch the big fish, it still lets scores of fraudsters and criminals slip through the net. >> so, it shouldn't surprise us to learn that the united states collects less in taxes as a share of its economy than all but two other industrialized countries. only chile and mexico collect less. chile and mexico. right now a powerful group of ceo's, multi-millionaires and billionaires are calling on congress to fix the debt. and their enablers in both parties are glad to oblige. okay. but why not fix the debt by raising more taxes from those who can afford to pay? close the loopholes. shut down the tax havens. cancel the mitt romney

now most accounts are in the british virgin islands.ic fund-raiser. the wife of commodities trader mark rich. also on the list is the daughter of imeda marcos. and spanish baroness carmen thyssen-born now the overseas accounts are not necessarily illegal. these people may have done nothing wrong. this adds to the growing problems of offshoring. we had cyprus where people lost the money. so there's $21 trillion in offshore wealth, but, carl, it is getting a lot harder to hide. >> and no indication as to what the motivation was for parking the money offshore. >> no, and just to have an offshore account is not illegal, but after the romney situation it has a whiff of doing something wrong when you do that. we're going to look deeper into whether the accounts were legal. >> interesting. thanks, robert. still ahead, worried that the rally is losing steam? david rosenberg has ten very specific reasons why the market is looking overbought. back in a minute. ♪ [ female announcer ] you're the boss of your life. in charge of long weekends and lon

countries everywhere from the bahamas, puerto rico, panama, brazil, costa rica, russia, british vir ion -- virgin islands, uruguay and on and on. two pages of countries with high murder rates and yet here's the united states, below all of them. you know what all these other countries have in common? all of their countries have banned guns 100% from their citizens. so this validates what carol from lawrie city said to me in her i mail, when you take guns away from individuals, crime rates actually go up because the criminals will have the guns and the law-abiding citizens won't be able to protect themselves. i thought that was a really good point there that she made. here's a comment, an email from vicki from clinton, missouri. she said, i would like you to know i do not support more regulations on any guns, accessories or ammunitions. these items are only tools some people choose to use as weapons against others. i feel the second amendment gives me the freedom to own and operate any firearm that i choose. i am a hunter. and if needed, would use my firearms for protection from harm. i feel that more atte