![]() This is everywhere, and just being aware of it - I think if you're being inoculated to think that way or look at things that way, that's better than being oblivious or ignorant. Whenever you think about, well, who owns this block? Who owns the real estate in my neighborhood? Who owns the real estate where I go shopping? It's sort of like the dark matter of our socio-economic life, these companies that behave like this. Part two is to look around you and realize to what extent we are all touched by it. And do a little dive into how they think it should be addressed. One, well, in terms of policy you might want to think about supporting people who believe this is an issue that needs to be addressed. When people ask me what is the take away here, especially after the denouncement, and what are we supposed to glean from all this, I guess my response is two-fold. I think the numbers say that something like 40% of real estate in London is owned by entities of individuals that are based outside of the United Kingdom. But I know they have at least two cases being developed right now in the United Kingdom. I don't think that's a piece of legislation you could ever get off the ground in the United States. It's an interesting thing I think, to go after people who would appear to have vast resources and no real story of how they acquired these resources. I like this thing that they're doing in the United Kingdom now, this unexplained wealth order. So, it's a very complex system that is going to be very difficult, I think, to unwind or monitor in any meaningful way just because of the volume of that activity. At some point when they're talking about a drug lord that they had created a company for, Mossack says, let's be clear, a banker sent them to us, and before that, a lawyer sent them to the banker. I think then you have to back up a step and sort of look at these facilities like HSBC and these giant banks, who, at some point, are probably part of this project. From their point of view, their argument would be: we need to spend all of our money and all our time investigating all of these people and all of these entities. When you're doing the kind of volume that Mossack Fonseca were doing, diligence becomes a problem. There are guidelines about diligence: who’s creating these companies? Where does the money come from? But it's all very etched in jello. Soderbergh: I guess the real question at the heart of this is, as they say very boldly, they were not breaking the law informing these companies. Sarachan: Do you remember when this story broke? Since the subject matter is somewhat arcane, how did your understanding of the subject evolve as you began work on this film? Where finally, in the end, they have to dispense with the mansplaining, and Meryl takes over. Soderbergh: I described it to someone once as the ultimate mansplaining movie. Sarachan: What made you want to make Mossack and Fonseca a blinged-out kind of Greek chorus for the film? ![]() I want to make a movie about how this works and what's attractive about it to people who have a lot of wealth.Īctors Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas in "The Laundromat" Claudette Barius/Netflix ![]() We just have to figure out what our angle is because I don't want to make a movie about the journalists who broke the story. And then Scott Burns, the writer, came to me and said I think this is interesting. I think just the sheer volume was what struck me. And yet, they had a seemingly endless list of people and companies who were indulging in this kind of secret behavior. The fact that Mossack and Fonseca were not even, by law-firm standards of those who do this kind of work, very big. I think what I was struck by, and what a lot of people were struck by, was just the scale of it. I was aware that people used shell corporations and offshore companies to move their money around and keep it hidden. When this story appeared in the news out of the blue, I certainly wasn't surprised that this kind of activity was going on. I'm interested in what people will do or have to do or want to do to make money. Steven Soderbergh: I think if you looked at some of the projects that I've worked on, I'm interested in systems, and I'm interested in power.
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