Panama Papers reveal middlemen between Canada and offshore secrets

Fred Sharp helped register 1,167 offshore entities from his Vancouver office

Names and details from the Panama Papers — including the identities of at least 625 Canadians — are being made public at 2 p.m. ET today by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Check back here for a searchable database.

A former lawyer whose business handled 1,167 offshore companies. A man who lied his way through a top job at the Alberta legislature and a dizzying stint as an offshore financial guru before landing in prison for fraud. A Toronto company that says it doesn't do the offshore bidding of any Canadians, but set up a Caribbean company for a Montrealer now charged in a $290-million US stock swindle.

These are among the most prolific Canadian offshore operators in the enormous trove of leaked financial data known as the Panama Papers, according to analysis by CBC and the Toronto Star, which have exclusive access to the files in Canada.

Their names — as well as some confidential details on the nearly 2,000 offshore entities they've sprouted over the years, in far-flung jurisdictions like the Seychelles and Niue — will become public this afternoon.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the Washington-based organization co-ordinating the global media team reporting on the leaked records, is making a key part of the Panama Papers data available online. The material consists of lists of clients and their offshore companies dating back to 1977 from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, one of the biggest creators of offshore corporations in the world.

• Panama Papers names go public
• RBC to turn over files on Panama Papers clients to taxman

But beyond the headlines, the Canadians' stories offer a rare insider glimpse at the often murky world of offshore havens, where legitimate business dealings share an uneasy coexistence alongside the machinations of scam artists, money launderers, rogue states and the politically corrupt.

"I don't think most people understand — or why should they? — how does the offshore world work," said Kim Marsh, a former RCMP commander for global organized crime and now a private-sector expert on international money laundering and corruption.

The First PC Virus in the world 1986

Brain -1986

In 1986, students at the University of Delaware began experiencing strange symptoms: temporary memory loss, a lethargic drive, and fits of rage. This wasn’t just any old flu—it was the world’s first personal computer virus. Known as Brain, the bug destroyed memory, slowed the hard drive, and hid a short copyright message in the boot sector, introducing the world to two soon-to-be hacker celebrities.

At the time, coders Basit and Amjad Farooq Alvi were just 17 and 24, respectively, running a computer store in Lahore, Pakistan. When they discovered that customers were circulating illegal copies of software they’d written, the brothers decided to retaliate. Brain was their attempt to scare pirates straight, but, as the creators tell it, the virus was never intended to be malicious. In a 2011 interview with F-Secure, a Finnish anti-virus company, the brothers called the bug a “friendly virus,” one that “was not made to destroy any data.” Why else would they have stamped the virus code with their names, their phone numbers, and the address of their shop?

“The idea was that only if the program was illegally copied would the virus load,” Amjad said in a Pakistani TV interview a few years ago. The Alvis also had an ingenious method for keeping track of how far the virus had spread. “[We] had a ‘counter’ in the program, which could keep track of all copies made and when they were made.”

OUTBREAK

The brothers claim they never knew that Brain would grow into a monster beyond their control. But a 1988 TIME magazine article reveals a more complicated truth: As concerned as they were with piracy of their own software, that didn’t stop them from making and selling bootleg copies of other expensive programs, such as Lotus 1-2-3. In fact, the ethics of their computer vigilantism are a little murky. Computer software isn’t copyright protected in Pakistan, Basit has argued in interviews, so therefore it’s not piracy for people to trade bootleg disks.

Under that rationale, the brothers sold clean bootleg copies to Pakistanis—and virus-infected versions to American students and backpackers. When Americans flew home and attempted to copy the programs, they ended up infecting every floppy disc subsequently inserted into their computers, even discs that had nothing to do with the original program.

Shortly after the University of Delaware outbreak, Brain began popping up at other universities, and then at newspapers. The New York Times reported that a “rogue computer program” had hit the Providence Journal-Bulletin, though the “damage was limited to one reporter losing several months of work contained on a floppy disk.”

While there was never any legal action, the media response was explosive. Basit and Amjad began receiving calls from all over the world. They were as surprised as anyone that their little experiment had traveled so far. After all, unlike today’s computer viruses, which spread at lightning speed, Brain had to transmit itself the old-fashioned way—through human carriers toting around 5.25-inch floppy discs.

But the binary genie was out of the bottle. Today, there are more than a million viruses vying to infect your computer; it’s estimated that half of all PCs are or have been infected. Consumers shell out more than $4 billion per year for software to fight these digital dragons.

As for the brothers, the virus hasn’t been bad for business. Their company, Brain Net, is now the largest Internet service provider in Pakistan. While they maintain that they never meant to hurt anyone, they have nevertheless embraced Brain as a device that exposed the global nature of piracy. “The virus could not have spread unless people were copying the software illegally,” Amjad said during his Pakistani TV interview.

The brothers, who told reporters that they stopped selling contaminated software sometime in 1987, are still based at the same address in Lahore—the one stamped into Brain’s code

First refrigerator in the world

Before mechanical refrigeration systems were introduced, people cooled their food with ice and snow, either found locally or brought down from the mountains. The first cellars were holes dug into the ground and lined with wood or straw and packed with snow and ice: this was the only means of refrigeration for most of history.

Refrigeration is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space, or from a substance, to lower its temperature. A refrigerator uses the evaporation of a liquid to absorb heat. The liquid, or refrigerant, used in a refrigerator evaporates at an extremely low temperature, creating freezing temperatures inside the refrigerator. It's all based on the following physics: - a liquid is rapidly vaporized (through compression) - the quickly expanding vapor requires kinetic energy and draws the energy needed from the immediate area - which loses energy and becomes cooler. Cooling caused by the rapid expansion of gases is the primary means of refrigeration today.

The first known artificial refrigeration was demonstrated by William Cullen at the University of Glasgow in 1748. However, he did not use his discovery for any practical purpose. In 1805, an American inventor, Oliver Evans, designed the first refrigeration machine. The first practical refrigerating machine was built by Jacob Perkins in 1834; it used ether in a vapor compression cycle. An American physician, John Gorrie, built a refrigerator based on Oliver Evans' design in 1844 to make ice to cool the air for his yellow fever patients. German engineer Carl von Linden, patented not a refrigerator but the process of liquifying gas in 1876 that is part of basic refrigeration technology.

When and Where Was the First Car Accident?

That depends on how you define a “car.” In 1869, Irish scientist Mary Ward was riding in a steam-powered automobile built by her cousins. As they rounded a bend in the road, Ward was thrown from her seat and fell in the vehicle’s path. One of the wheels rolled over her and broke her neck, killing her instantly.

Ohio City, Ohio claims the first accident involving a gasoline-powered auto, a little closer to what most of us think of as a car today. In 1891, engineer James Lambert was driving one of his inventions, an early gasoline-powered buggy, when he ran into a little trouble. The buggy, also carrying passenger James Swoveland, hit a tree root sticking out of the ground. Lambert lost control and the vehicle swerved and crashed into a hitching post. Both men suffered minor injuries.

The first recorded pedestrian fatalities by car came a few years later. In 1896, Bridget Driscoll stepped off of a London curb and was struck and killed by a gas-powered Anglo-French model car driven by Arthur Edsall. While the car had a top speed of four miles per hour, neither Edsall nor Driscoll—who witnesses described as “bewildered” by the sight of the vehicle and frozen in place—were able to avoid the collision. Edsall was arrested, but the death was ruled an accident and he was not prosecuted. The coroner who examined Driscoll’s body is famously quoted as saying that he hoped “such a thing would never happen again.” (That same year, a bicyclist was killed by an automobile in New York City.)

The first pedestrian death in the U.S. occurred on September 13, 1899 (not a Friday). Henry Bliss, according to contemporary accounts, was either disembarking from a New York City streetcar or helping a woman step out when he was struck by an electrically-powered taxi cab. He died from injuries to his head and chest the next morning.

The first driver fatality from a collision (not counting Ward’s unfortunate ejection) happened in 1898, when Englishman Henry Lindfield and his son were driving from Brighton to London. Near the end of their trip, Lindfield lost control of the car while going down a hill. They crashed through a fence and Lindfield was thrown from the driver’s seat before the car ran into a tree and caught his leg between them. His son was not hurt and ran for help. At the hospital, surgeons found the leg was crushed below the knee and decided to amputate it. After the operation, Lindfield remained unconscious and died the following day.

The one famous first in this field I can’t seem to track down is the first collision between two cars, gas-powered or otherwise. If anyone knows anything about that or has any leads on that, speak up.

Wildfire rages through Canadian city, forcing mass evacuation

Fire raged unchecked through the Canadian city of Fort McMurray overnight as authorities raced to complete the evacuation of its population of 80,000, fearful that hot, dry winds forecast for Wednesday would further fan the flames.

About 44,000 people were estimated to have fled the city by late on Tuesday on traffic-chocked roads, and the province of Alberta requested military help to bring the blaze under control and airlift others from fire- and smoke-filled streets.

"I'm afraid that huge parts of my home town... may burn tonight and will continue to burn," Brian Jean, leader of Alberta's official opposition party, told CBC Radio, saying his own home was in the immediate path of the flames.

The fire in the heart of Canada's oil sands region broke out southwest of the city on Sunday, shifting aggressively with the wind to breach city limits on Tuesday, when its size was estimated at 26.5 square kilometers (6,540 acres).

It destroyed one residential neighborhood in the southeast, and others were severely damaged or under threat, Chief Darby Allen of Fort McMurray's fire department said.

The blaze also temporarily closed off the main southern exit from the city, Highway 93, prompting many residents to flee north toward the oil sands camps.

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley described the evacuation as the biggest in the province's history.

Officials said army and air force assistance would take two days to arrive, and they expected to face another day of battling the flames on Wednesday, when relatively low humidity, hot temperatures and high winds were in the forecast.

"We may, to some extent, still be in fire extinguishment mode," Fire Chief Allen told a news conference on Tuesday night. "I think, based on the conditions ... we're going to face a day that's fairly similar to today."

Nine air tankers, more than a dozen helicopters and about 150 firefighters were deployed to combat the flames, officials said.

Suncor Energy, whose oil sands operations are closest to the city, said its main plant 25 km (16 miles) to the north was safe, but it was reducing crude production in the region to allow employees and families to get to safety.

ONE BIRTH, NO CASUALTIES

Officials said around 8,000 evacuees had reached a reception center outside Fort McMurray, while Premier Notley told reporters that authorities were working to set up more emergency accommodation.

No casualties had been reported, the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo said early on Wednesday on Twitter, and its mayor Melissa Blake said at least one baby was born at a lodging for energy workers being used as an evacuation site.

"My thoughts are with people affected by the fire in Fort McMurray tonight," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted on Tuesday. "Stay safe and remember to follow evacuation orders."

Suncor said evacuees were welcome at its Firebag oil sands facility, while Canadian Natural Resources Ltd said it was working to ensure any affected CNRL workers and their families could use its camps.

Shell Canada said it would open its oil sands camp to evacuees and was looking to use its airstrip to fly out non-essential staff and accommodate displaced residents.

Representatives of Syncrude, CNOOC subsidiary Nexen Energy and pipeline company Enbridge all said their operations were unaffected.

A number of flights from Fort McMurray airport were canceled on Tuesday.

The fire is the second major one in the oil sands region in less than a year. Last May, wildfires led to the evacuation of hundreds of workers, and a 9 percent cut in Alberta's oil sands output as Cenovus Energy and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd called shutdowns at some of their projects.

Alberta could be in for long and expensive wildfire season this year as it is much drier than normal after a mild winter with lower-than-average snowfall and a warm spring.

Fort McMurray is located about 430 km northeast of Alberta's capital, Edmonton. Most oil sands facilities are to the north and east of the city.

(Additional reporting by Euan Rocha and Allison Martell in Toronto, Julie Gordon in Vancouver, Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Writing by Amran Abocar; Editing by Nick Macfie and John Stonestreet)