Last year, we posted about the Pandora Papers in posts like South Dakota rivals notoriously opaque Europe & Caribbean jurisdictions in financial secrecy and Pandora's box in South Dakota: "My concern is that … we become like Switzerland or Panama" and Oversight? Noem turns down national media spotlight at House Ways and Means Committee.
Now we learn from the Mitchell Republic's Christopher Vondracek in South Dakota's GOP leadership skeptical of trust industry revelations in Pandora Papers:
Republican legislative leaders expressed heavy skepticism on Thursday, Feb. 10, about an explosive report published last fall that suggested trusts in South Dakota were shielding the money of wealthy, international con men.
"I don't buy the report that was presented last fall," said House Majority Leader Kent Peterson, R-Salem. "It's a great industry in South Dakota. It's fantastic jobs."
The so-called Pandora Papers last year revealed that international moguls have stored their money in South Dakota-based trust companies, enabled by the state's generous pass-through laws. The most critical look came in an Oct. 4 article by The Washington Post with the assistance of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, who reviewed 11.9 million confidential documents, which, "come mostly from the Sioux Falls office of Trident Trust, a global provider of offshore services."
The state's top political brass, from U.S. Sen. John Thune to Gov. Kristi Noem , issued defenses of the industry or cast doubt on the reporting. But scrutiny has remained from national and international media about ties between the secretive industry and tony foreigners, including family members of an Dominican Republic sugar magnate .
Legislative leaders have, until Thursday, largely been silent on the topic.
Pressed by reporters at a Thursday, Feb. 10, news conference about the absence of a perennial bill brought the a governor's task force on the trust industry, Senate Majority Leader Gary Cammack, R-Union Center, said he was assured by the industry that they vet potential clients to safeguard against bad actors.
"We just had a presentation from some of the folks in the trust industry, and after that presentation, I have every confidence in the world that sort of thing is not happening in South Dakota," said Cammack. . . .
Well then. Read the rest of their views at the Mitchell Republic to learn there's nothing to see here folks. Move along.
Screengrab: from the video image at the Washington Post. "A trove of secret files details the financial universe where global elite shield riches from taxes, probes and accountability. (Sarah Hashemi, Luis Velarde/The Washington Post). Read more at the Washington Post in Foreign money hides in U.S. trusts. Some of it is tainted.
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