https://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/global-investigation-tax-havens-offshore/

  • twitter [any]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    South Dakota has been a sick fascination of mine for a while, between its genocidal treatment of indigenous peoples historic and present, and the way the state Republican party openly runs the government like a crime family (that attorney general is not the first public figure to openly murder someone and walk free because the state apparatus is protecting him and none of the citizens even give a shit in the first place). I think it is a lowkey contender for most cartoonishly evil and corrupt US state, beating out even Texas, Florida and Delaware. And it gets away with all of this by being so small it can fly under most people's radars.

    Hearing that it's become the happening new tax haven is disappointing but also not surprising.

      • twitter [any]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        No one's ever written it all down in one place because like I said, South Dakota is basically invisible to the national news, and the state news is full of bootlickers. A lot of the financial fuckery that's coming to light now began with Governor Janklow teaming up with Citibank in the 80s to provide a deregulated haven for the credit card industry. There is an article in a state paper that covers some of the history, albeit from a deceptively rosy jobs-and-money-and-growth-oh-my perspective: https://www.argusleader.com/story/stu-whitney/2015/04/04/whitney-real-story-behind-citibank/25296111/

        Janklow, coincidentally, also loved killing civilians with cars just like the current AG.

        Looking at the Pandora Papers, it looks like the South Dakota finserv industry went into overdrive trying to attract new clients after places like the Bahamas started coming under public scrutiny.

        Some of the current governor's greatest hits include criminalizing pipeline protests, unilaterally overturning marijuana legalization, loaning the National Guard out as private mercenaries, waging a legislative war against transgender people, and censoring indigenous history from school curriculums.

    • richietozier4 [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      that attorney general is not the first public figure to openly murder someone and walk free because the state apparatus is protecting him and none of the citizens even give a shit in the first place

      Wait, what?

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      I think it is a lowkey contender for most cartoonishly evil and corrupt US state, beating out even Texas, Florida and Delaware. And it gets away with all of this by being so small it can fly under most people’s radars.

      Same game with a lot of the northwestern states - Idaho, Wyoming, Montana - which have become little more than corporate fiefs. The small population and large land area make them easy to control. These states have the modern equivalent of Company Towns.