Financial Transparency Coalition

Ten years ago today, the New York Times reported the words of U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill who, in testimony:

"dismissed as meaningless a document, based on government data, presented by the senator, Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, indicating that fewer than 6,000 of more than 1.1 million offshore accounts and businesses were properly disclosed and therefore legal. Pressed by Senator Levin about whether the disparity between reported offshore accounts and their actual numbers was significant, Mr. O'Neill replied: ''I find it amusing.''

The scale of it was startling, even then:

"His testimony, to the...