Oh, the things you can learn from the Panama Papers. Did you know that documenting ownership of a shell company through bearer stocks is even a real thing?

Yes, it is actually possible to organize your offshore company with the ownership documented with bearer stocks. Join me as I dive into the fine details of a WSJ article.
4/6 – Wall Street Journal – Panama Papers: Hiding Cash Has Become Crummy Business – Even Switzerland has joined the crackdown on hiding money. Prosecutors there leaked information on the Malaysian scandal. That’s a whole other story that I won’t go into. The point is Swiss prosecutors are going after money launderers and embezzlers. Swiss prosecutors. You know, from Switzerland. Land-of-the-numbered-account Switzerland.
More detail from the article:
The offshore “business” has been shrinking for a long time. Article says the firm of Mossack Fonseca & Co saw a two-thirds decline in the number of companies they incorporated between 2005 and 2015, dropping from 13,287 to 4,341 in a decade.
Article says the Panama Papers say the law firm’s clients have incorporated 16,323 companies over the last three years but have closed up 28,777 in the same time. That’s a net shrinkage of over 12,000.
The company represented around 6,000 businesses in 2005 whose ownership was evidenced using bearer shares. Currently they represent 170. That’s a drop of 97% in a decade in the number of clients using bearer shares.
Bearer shares. Did you know that was even a thing? Before I get to that, let me describe bearer bonds.
Bearer bonds
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