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Innovation in Learning

A A ENGLISH IN VIDEO

The Panama Papers

Lesson code: LP4L-IFFB-9GDG-7 ADVANCED

1 Warm-up
What do you know about the recent Panama Papers scandal?

2 Key vocabulary
What do you think the words and phrases below mean? In pairs, match them to their correct meaning.

1. a data leak a. a corporate entity that has disguised its ownership

2. offshore banking b. a report in the media that reveals something that will harm
somebody's reputation
3. an anonymous company c. being honest and open, not secretive
4. a money trail d. depositing funds into a bank that is located in another country
in order to avoid paying tax
5. an exposé e. evidence that money was passed between two or more parties
6. transparency f. hiding the fact that an amount of money has been made
illegally by putting it into legal bank accounts or businesses
7. money laundering g. the unauthorized transfer of classified information from a
computer or datacenter to the outside world

3 Before you watch

You are going to watch Robert Palmer of the anti-corruption group Global Witness talk about the
Panama Papers scandal. What do you think he's going to say? Use some of the words above. Then
watch the video.
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The Panama Papers
Innovation in Learning

A A A A ENGLISH IN VIDEO

4 What do you remember?

Choose the best answer for each question.

1. What happened to the Prime Minister of Iceland as a result of the data leak?
a. He resigned.
b. He tried to explain himself.
c. He lost $2 billion.

2. Why should ordinary people care about the scandal according to the speaker?
a. It's entertaining like a spy thriller.
b. There is less money for public services.
c. Important people aren't paying their taxes.

3. Why has there been less coverage of the issue in the United States?
a. because the media are not interested in these scandals
b. because of the US elections
c. because no well-known Americans were included in the leak

4. How did Global Witness try to find out how to hide money from the tax authorities?
a. They sent an undercover investigator to US law firms.
b. They contacted offshore companies.
c. They did some research on the internet.

5. How does the European Union plan to tackle the problem?

a. by making it more difficult to transfer money out of the EU
b. by imposing more severe punishments for tax evasion
c. by creating central registers of companies showing who really owns and controls companies

5 Words in the video

Look at the transcript of the talk. Find a word or phrase which means ...

1. unintended consequence of an event (plural noun, P3)

2. claims that someone has done something illegal or wrong (plural noun, P3)
3. very confusing (adjective, P6)
4. important and famous (adjective, P7)
5. storing something in a secret place (verb -ing, P7)
6. pretended to be (verb + preposition, P9)
7. firmly establishes something (verb, P10)
8. unhappiness and feeling no hope for the future (idiom, P11)
9. a look at something for a short time (noun, P13)
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The Panama Papers
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6 Phrasal verbs
In the transcript, there are six underlined phrasal verbs. Complete each definition with the infinitive
form of one of the phrasal verbs.

1. : to achieve less than someone or something else

2. : to cheat someone by making them pay too much money for something
3. : to become involved in a situation, often without wanting to
4. : to accept somebody (as a client)
5. : to make somebody go to an organisation
6. : to start to become less secretive

Now make a sentence for each phrasal verb.

7 Talking point
Discuss any of the questions below.

1. Is tax evasion a problem in your country?

2. Do you think a lot of well-known figures are hiding their money?
3. Are you concerned about offshore banking?

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The Panama Papers - Transcripts
Innovation in Learning

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3- Before you watch

1 (0:12) [On April 3, 2016 we saw the largest data leak in history.] [The Panama Papers exposed rich
and powerful people] [hiding vast amounts of money in offshore accounts.] [What does this
mean?] [We called Robert Palmer of Global Witness to explain.]
2 (0:31) This week, there have been a whole slew and deluge of stories coming out from the leak of 11
million documents from a Panamanian-based law firm called Mossack Fonseca. The release of
these papers from Panama lifts the veil on a tiny piece of the secretive offshore world. We get
an insight into how clients and banks and lawyers go to companies like Mossack Fonseca and
say, "OK, we want an anonymous company, can you give us one?" So you actually get to see
the emails, you get to see the exchanges of messages, you get to see the mechanics of how
this works, how this operates.
3 (1:12) Now, this has already started to have pretty immediate repercussions. The Prime Minister of
Iceland has resigned. We've also had news that an ally of the brutal Syrian dictator Bashar
Al-Assad has also got offshore companies. There's been allegations of a $2 billion money trail
that leads back to President Vladimir Putin of Russia via his close childhood friend, who
happens to be a top cellist. And there will be a lot of rich individuals out there and others who
will be nervous about the next set of stories and the next set of leaked documents.
4 (1:51) Now, this sounds like the plot of a spy thriller or a John Grisham novel. It seems very distant
from you, me, ordinary people. Why should we care about this? But the truth is that if rich and
powerful individuals are able to keep their money offshore and not pay the taxes that they
should, it means that there is less money for vital public services like healthcare, education,
roads. And that affects all of us.
5 (2:23) Now, for my organization Global Witness, this exposé has been phenomenal. We have the
world's media and political leaders talking about how individuals can use offshore secrecy to
hide and disguise their assets -- something we have been talking about and exposing for a
decade.
6 (2:46) Now, I think a lot of people find this entire world baffling and confusing, and hard to understand
how this sort of offshore world works. I like to think of it a bit like a Russian doll. So you can
have one company stacked inside another company, stacked inside another company, making
it almost impossible to really understand who is behind these structures. It can be very difficult
for law enforcement or tax authorities, journalists, civil society to really understand what's
going on.
7 (3:19) I also think it's interesting that there's been less coverage of this issue in the United States. And
that's perhaps because some prominent US people just haven't figured in this exposé, in this
scandal. Now, that's not because there are no rich Americans who are stashing their assets
offshore. It's just because of the way in which offshore works, Mossack Fonseca has fewer
American clients. I think if we saw leaks from the Cayman Islands or even from Delaware or
Wyoming or Nevada, you would see many more cases and examples linking back to
Americans.
8 (3:59) In fact, in a number of US states you need less information, you need to provide less
information to get a company than you do to get a library card. That sort of secrecy in America
has allowed employees of school districts to rip off schoolchildren. It has allowed scammers to
rip off vulnerable investors. This is the sort of behavior that affects all of us.
9 (4:29) Now, at Global Witness, we wanted to see what this actually looked like in practice. How does
this actually work? So what we did is we sent in an undercover investigator to 13 Manhattan
law firms. Our investigator posed as an African minister who wanted to move suspect funds
into the United States to buy a house, a yacht, a jet. Now, what was truly shocking was that all
but one of those lawyers provided our investigator with suggestions on how to move those
suspect funds. These were all preliminary meetings, and none of the lawyers took us on as a
client and of course no money moved hands, but it really shows the problem with the system.
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The Panama Papers - Transcripts
Innovation in Learning

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10 (5:17) It's also important to not just think about this as individual cases. This is not just about an
individual lawyer who's spoken to our undercover investigator and provided suggestions. It's
not just about a particular senior politician who's been caught up in a scandal. This is about
how a system works, that entrenches corruption, tax evasion, poverty and instability. And in
order to tackle this, we need to change the game. We need to change the rules of the game to
make this sort of behavior harder.
11 (5:51) This may seem like doom and gloom, like there's nothing we can do about it, like nothing has
ever changed, like there will always be rich and powerful individuals. But as a natural optimist, I
do see that we are starting to get some change.
12 (6:06) Over the last couple of years, we've seen a real push towards greater transparency when it
comes to company ownership. This issue was put on the political agenda by the UK Prime
Minister David Cameron at a big G8 Summit that was held in Northern Ireland in 2013. And
since then, the European Union is going to be creating central registers at a national level of
who really owns and controls companies across Europe.
13 (6:34) One of the things that is sad is that, actually, the US is lagging behind. There's bipartisan
legislation that had been introduced in the House and the Senate, but it isn't making as much
progress as we'd like to see. So we'd really want to see the Panama leaks, this huge peek into
the offshore world, be used as a way of opening up in the US and around the world.
14 (6:59) For us at Global Witness, this is a moment for change. We need ordinary people to get angry at
the way in which people can hide their identity behind secret companies. We need business
leaders to stand up and say, "Secrecy like this is not good for business." We need political
leaders to recognize the problem, and to commit to changing the law to open up this sort of
secrecy.
15 (7:30) Together, we can end the secrecy that is currently allowing tax evasion, corruption, money
laundering to flourish.

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Review your flashcards at least 3-5 times a week for 20 minutes to keep the material fresh in your memory.
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The Panama Papers - Key
Innovation in Learning

A A A A ENGLISH IN VIDEO

1- Warm-up

Encourage a short discussion. Ask any appropriate follow-up questions. Note: The Panama Papers are a leaked
set of 11.5 million confidential documents that provide detailed information about more than 214,000 offshore
companies listed by the Panamanian corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, including the identities of
shareholders and directors of the companies. The documents show how wealthy individuals, including public
officials, hide their money from public scrutiny. At the time of publication, the papers identified five then-heads
of state or government leaders from Argentina, Iceland, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, and the United Arab Emirates; as
well as government officials, close relatives, and close associates of various heads of government of more than
forty other countries. The first news reports based on the papers, and 149 of the documents themselves, were
published on April 3, 2016. (Wikipedia)

2- Key vocabulary

Set a time limit, e.g. 5 minutes. Students work individually and check in pairs. Monitor the exercise and help any
struggling students by eliminating easy answers, getting them to guess the ones they don't know and/or providing
sample sentences.
1. g 2. d 3. a 4. e 5. b 6. c 7. f

3- Before you watch

Brainstorm ideas from the students and then play the whole video.

4- What do you remember?

Play the video again if necessary. Pause where appropriate to allow students to write down the answers. Students
can check in pairs.
1. a 2. b 3. c 4. a 5. a

5- Words in the video

Hand out a copy of the transcript to the students. Students can work individually and check in pairs. Set a time
limit.

1. repercussions 2. allegations 3. baffling

4. prominent 5. stashing 6. posed as
7. entrenches 8. doom and gloom 9. peek

6- Phrasal verbs

Students can work individually and check in pairs. Set a time limit.

1. lag behind 2. rip (sb) off 3. to be caught up in

4. take (sb) on 5. send (sb) in 6. open up
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Review your flashcards at least 3-5 times a week for 20 minutes to keep the material fresh in your memory.
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