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Finance Nerd

@Finance_Nerd_

Aug 3 • 10 tweets • 4 min read • Read on X

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The rich don’t hide money. They hide ownership.

The $100M mansion? A shell owns it.

The $500M yacht? A trust in Panama.

The cash? A foundation “hired” them to spend it.

Here’s how the ultra-wealthy vanish millions and why no one can stop them:

First, what is a shell company?

A shell company is a legal entity that exists only on paper.

No employees. No operations. No office.

Its job?

To hold assets without revealing the true owner.

Perfect for the ultra-rich.

Why use a shell?

Because ownership = liability.

With a shell:

• You don’t "own" the mansion, the company does
• You don’t "earn" the profit, the shell does
• You don’t "exist" on the paperwork, a proxy does

You control the assets, but your name disappears.

The wealthy layer shells like Russian dolls.

Example:

• Shell A owns an apartment
• Shell A is owned by Shell B
• Shell B is owned by a trust
• The trust is controlled by a foundation
• The foundation lists a nominee (not the real owner)

That’s 5 legal firewalls.

Where are these companies based?

Often in secrecy havens like:

• British Virgin Islands
• Delaware
• Wyoming
• Panama
• Seychelles

These jurisdictions don't ask who owns the company.

They just register and protect it.

Here’s how this vanishes millions:

A billionaire moves profits from their company to a shell in the Cayman Islands

That shell invests in a trust

The trust donates to a foundation

The foundation hires the billionaire as a consultant

Now the billionaire gets the money tax-free

The Panama Papers leak in 2016 exposed over 214,000 offshore entities.

They linked shell companies to:

• Heads of state
• Celebrities
• CEOs
• Cartels
• Arms dealers
• Dictators

And yet, only a fraction were ever prosecuted.

These shells let you move money without scrutiny.

Governments can freeze personal bank accounts but not corporate ones.

If a shell in the Caymans owns your yacht, and another in Dubai owns the bank account…

No court in your country can touch them.

New laws are trying to stop it.

• U.S. Corporate Transparency Act (2021) now requires beneficial ownership disclosures

• EU now mandates ownership registries

• OECD pushing for global reporting standards

But the ultra-rich are always 2 steps ahead.

The bottom line:

You can’t seize what you can’t find.

And you can’t tax what no one owns.

If the average person makes money, the system sees it.

If the rich do, it disappears.

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More from @Finance_Nerd_

Finance Nerd

@Finance_Nerd_

Aug 2

Bill Gates gave away $50B and somehow got richer.

It was not generosity.

It was a well-planned structure:

• Trust
• LLC
• Foundation

Together, they form the ultimate shield.

Here’s how the rich donate, dodge taxes, and disappear their wealth (legally):

This setup isn’t just tax-advantaged.

It’s designed to:

• Avoid estate taxes
• Protect assets from lawsuits
• Shield ownership from the public

At the center is a triangle:

Trust → LLC → Foundation

Let’s break it down...

Step 1: The Trust

A wealthy individual (the “grantor”) creates an irrevocable trust.

That means once the assets go in, they no longer legally own them.

The trust does.

This makes it very hard for courts, creditors, or the IRS to touch.

Read 8 tweets

Finance Nerd

@Finance_Nerd_

Aug 1

John D. Rockefeller was the richest man in history.

From 1881 to 1924, he wrote 38 personal letters to his son.

Buried in them are timeless lessons about money, power, and life.

Here are the 15 most important things he wanted his son to know:

1. Discipline beats brilliance

“Success comes from keeping your nose to the grindstone, steadily working.”

Rockefeller didn’t worship genius, he worshipped consistency.

2. Power is quiet

He avoided publicity and rarely gave interviews.

Let the results speak. Words are wind.

3. Avoid debt like disease.

“I would rather be a man who saved a dollar than one who owes one.”

He taught his son to live below his means even while owning empires.

Read 10 tweets

Finance Nerd

@Finance_Nerd_

Jul 25

In 1822, Gregor MacGregor pulled off the greatest scam in history.

He invented a fake country, sold 8 million acres of it, and convinced hundreds to move there.

Here’s the unbelievable story of the greatest con artist ever:

History is full of scams, but few can match the audacity of Gregor MacGregor, a Scottish conman who sold an entire fake country to unsuspecting investors in the 1820s.

Born in Scotland in 1786, MacGregor’s early life was steeped in ambition and manipulation.

He bought his way up the ranks of the British Army, using his first wife’s wealth.

After leaving the army, MacGregor fabricated stories about his military service, claiming connections with nobility and exaggerating his achievements.

Read 12 tweets

Finance Nerd

@Finance_Nerd_

Jul 22

Your money isn’t real.

97% of it is just numbers in a bank’s computer created out of thin air.

Banks don’t lend you money, they create it when you take a loan.

And when you repay it, that money disappears.

This is the greatest illusion in modern finance. Let me explain...

In the UK, only 3% of money exists as cash.

The other 97%? It’s created by commercial banks when they issue loans.

When a bank lends you money, it doesn't transfer existing cash.

It creates new money by simply typing numbers into a computer.

This means:

• Every mortgage, car loan, or credit card transaction = new money
• When you repay that loan, the money disappears
• The bank keeps the interest as profit.

Since banks create money through lending, they control who gets it.

Read 11 tweets

Finance Nerd

@Finance_Nerd_

Jul 18

In 2008, Iceland’s economy collapsed.

Everyone expected a disaster.

But instead of bailing out banks, they jailed bankers and protected their people.

Here’s how Iceland turned its collapse into one of the greatest economic comebacks in history:

In 2008, the world was gripped by a financial meltdown.

Iceland, a small island nation with just over 300,000 people, was at the center of the chaos.

Its three largest banks, Glitnir, Kaupthing, and Landsbanki, had debts ten times the size of Iceland’s GDP.

Before the crash, Iceland’s banks had borrowed heavily to expand internationally, accumulating massive foreign debt.

A booming economy gave way to risky investments and lax regulations.

When Lehman Brothers collapsed in the US, Iceland’s banking system imploded.

Read 10 tweets

Finance Nerd

@Finance_Nerd_

Jul 15

Japan's economy is a mystery:

• Debt at 250% of GDP
• Growth near zero for 30+ years
• Yet no economic collapse

Here’s how Japan broke every economic rule and still survived:

In the 1980s, Japan was an unstoppable force.

• Real estate prices in Tokyo exceeded Manhattan 4x
• The Nikkei hit 39,000
• Japanese companies were buying up U.S. icons (like Rockefeller Center)

But it was all built on a speculative asset bubble, fueled by cheap credit.

In 1990, the bubble burst.

• Stock market crashed ~60%
• Real estate lost ~80% of its value
• Banks were crippled with bad loans
• Growth evaporated

This triggered the “Lost Decades”, years of economic stagnation Japan never truly escaped.