I think the Panama papers might be somehow connected to the banking part of the Patriot Act. The US government says that in order to combat financing terrorism and money laundering, US citizens must now disclose their assets in foreign financial institutions, if those assets amount to over ten grand. If you don't disclose, fines can be a major part of the money in the account, plus something on top of that. Basically, unheard of penalties. People may not want to come clean, so the US is threatening to put severe financial penalties on the US held assets of those foreign banking institutions that don't reveal their US citizen accounts. Foreign banks often have a lot of money invested in the US. Even the swiss banks are complying. It's like the US wants to fight terrorism by using terrorism. It may sound kind of good with the anti-terrorism pitch, and nobody feels sorry for the big cats hiding lots of money from tax responsibilities, etc., but little guys simply living overseas with not much are also getting caught up in the sweep. Giving up their citizenship is what some feel compelled to resort to so to keep their privacy, and of course the US government will charge for doing that as well. You can't even walk away without still getting it up the you know where.
