Reactions to the Panama Papers
This article lists some of the reactions and responses from countries and other official bodies regarding the leak of legal documents related to offshore tax havens from the law firm Mossack Fonseca, called the Panama Papers.
Overview
This article lists some of the reactions and responses from countries and other official bodies regarding the leak of legal documents related to offshore tax havens from the law firm Mossack Fonseca, called the Panama Papers.
Argentina
Argentine President Mauricio Macri is listed as head of a trading company based in the Bahamas that he did not disclose during his tenure as Mayor of Buenos Aires; it is not clear whether disclosure of non-equity directorships was then required under Argentine law. On April 7, 2016, federal prosecutor Federico Delgado began a formal investigation into Macri's involvement with Fleg Trading Ltd., the company registered in Panama for which President Macri was listed as director. Judge Sebastián Casanello was asked to start the file on the inquiry. The initial petition was made by Neuquén representative Darío Martínez. Martínez claims Macri could be guilty of perjury due to omissions made in his sworn statement. Martínez also referenced another offshore company, Kagemusha SA (named after Akira Kurosawa's 1980 film), which had been established in 1981 and to which President Macri also had connections. On 20 September 2017, the civil judge Andrés Fraga determined that in the company Fleg Trading Ltd, of the Bahamas, Mauricio Macri only accepted the position of director for which he was appointed to the sole and only effect of designating a replacement and resigning, and that in Kagemusha he did not even accept tacitly the position of director for which he was appointed by Francisco Macri. The ruling adds that neither of the two companies he was a shareholder, that he did not receive any dividends or profits, did not participate in the business decisions or in any business, nor was he the owner or co-owner of any current bank account of the companies. The family of Argentine football player Lionel Messi announced that they will file a complaint after reports accused him of assembling a tax evasion network in Panama. The family denied Messi had been involved and called the accusations slanderous. They said that the company referred to in the Panama Papers was inactive and that Messi had declared all income from image rights before and after proceedings with the Argentine Tax Agency.
Armenia
On April 4, 2016 Hetq Online reported that according to the Panama Papers, Major-General of Justice and head of the Armenia's Compulsory Enforcement Service Mihran Poghosyan was connected to three Panama-registered companies (Sigtem Real Estates Inc., Hopkinten Trading Inc. and Bangio Invest S.A., being the sole owner of Sigtem and Hopkinten). On April 8, Armenian Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center filed a petition with the Ethics Committee for High Level Officials, requesting an investigation of Poghosyan. Members of the families of Poghosyan's uncles Grigor and Mikhail Haroutyunyan were also mentioned in connection with his business.
Australia
In 2016, the Australian Taxation Office announced that it is investigating 800 individual Australian taxpayers on the Mossack Fonseca list of clients and that some of the cases may be referred to the country's Serious Financial Crime Task Force.
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev did not respond to repeated requests for comments. According to ICIJ website, "The family of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev leads a charmed, glamorous life, thanks in part to financial interests in almost every sector of the economy. ... [Aliyev's daughter] Arzu, has financial stakes in a firm that won rights to mine for gold in the western village of Chovdar and Azerfon, the country's largest mobile phone business. Arzu is also a significant shareholder in SW Holding, which controls nearly every operation related to Azerbaijan Airlines ("Azal"), from meals to airport taxis. Both sisters and brother Heydar own property in Dubai valued at roughly $75 million in 2010; Heydar is the legal owner of nine luxury mansions in Dubai purchased for some $44 million."
Bangladesh
According to numerous media outlets, two conglomerates and thirty-two Bangladeshi shareholders are listed. Top business personalities include Muhammed Aziz Khan, Mohiuddin, and Samson H. Chowdhury. Awami League Presidium member Kazi Zafarullah and his wife Nilufar Zafar are said to be in the list. On April 7, 2016, The Anti Corruption Commission Bangladesh launched an inquiry to obtain details of the businesses and individuals and said that tax evaders would be brought to trial and punished.
Brazil
Politicians from seven parties in Brazil were named as clients of a Panama-based firm at the center of a massive data leak over possible tax evasion. The leaked files included politicians from Brazil's largest party, the PMDB, which broke away from President Dilma Rousseff's coalition in 2016. Political figures from the PSDB, the most prominent opposition party in the country, was also mentioned in the leaks, as well as others from the PDT, PP, PSB, PSD and the PTB parties. No politicians from Rousseff's Workers' Party were mentioned in the leaks. A research in the Panama papers, from a group of Dutch journalists from the daily newspaper Trouw, has shown that TV Globo is cited "many times" in a money laundering investigation of the De Nederlandsche Bank which revealed that for years the media outlet conducted several "irregular financial transactions" through tax havens in order to pay broadcast rights for the Copa Libertadores.
British Virgin Islands
In the British Virgin Islands Mossack Fonseca were subjected to a 6-month investigation by the regulator, the British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission. At the end of the investigation they were fined US$440,000 for breaches of regulations countering terrorist financing regulations and against money laundering. The fine was the highest ever levied by the regulator, and just short of the maximum fine that they had power to impose.
Canada
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has denied any involvement with the leak, saying "I have entirely and completely been transparent about mine and my family’s finances. That is something I learned early on that Canadians expect from their leaders." The Government has ordered the Canada Revenue Agency to find copies of the Panama Papers, in order to find any Canadians that used offshore accounts to avoid taxes. The Royal Bank of Canada CEO David McKay announced that the bank set up a team that will look back through four decades of documentation for ties to Mossack Fonseca. CEO Bill Downe of the Bank of Montreal also defended, saying "Canadian banks have 'dramatically' beefed up anti-money laundering controls over the last seven to 10 years." He also stated that any link between Canadian businesses and the Panama Papers would have originated a long time ago, before the time when Canadian banks took action to stop money laundering.
China
Relatives of highly placed Chinese officials including seven senior leaders and former senior leaders of Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party have been named, including former Premier Li Peng's daughter Li Xiaolin, former Communist Party General Secretary Hu Yaobang's son Hu Dehua and Deng Jiagui, the brother-in-law of current General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping. Deng had two shell companies in the British Virgin Islands while Xi was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, but they were dormant by the time Xi became General Secretary of Communist Party (paramount leader) in 2012. Others named include the son and daughter-in-law of propaganda chief Liu Yunshan and the son-in-law of Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli. China's government is suppressing mentions of the Panama Papers on social media and in search engines results. China's Communist party reportedly has told news organizations to delete all content related to the Panama Papers leak. Considering the material to be a concerted foreign media attack on China, internet information offices were immediately given verbal orders to delete reprinted reports on the Panama Papers, and not to follow up on related content without exceptions. Hong Lei, the spokesman of China's Foreign Ministry, responded that he had "no comment" for "such groundless accusations" at an April 5 news conference. China is in the third year of an anti-corruption campaign launched by Xi which has punished more than 300,000 party officials for financial misdeeds and created many enemies for Xi. Chinese authorities have blocked almost all information about the Panama Papers on Chinese media and the Internet. A screenshot showed that the authority had forced all websites to delete content about the Panama Papers. Foreign websites such as Wikileak, China Digital Times have been blocked in mainland China. Official media, like The Global Times reported the resignation of Prime Minister of Iceland, but the media never mentioned that the Panama Papers caused the resignation. On Weibo, a Twitter-like social media in China, almost all content about the Panama Papers was deleted. Because Xi's brother-in-law had been named, and the Panama Canal is well known, Weibo users started to use "brother-in-law", "Canal Papers", and other such tags to avoid Weibo's censor. Because of the censorship in mainland China, few Chinese people know of the Panama Papers.
Colombia
The National Directorate of Taxes and Customs launched an investigation into all 850 clients of Mossack Fonseca Colombia, a subsidiary of Mossack Fonseca that was established in 2009. In 2014, Colombia had placed Panama onto its blacklist of tax havens.
Cyprus
Central Bank of Cyprus officially declared: "With regard to press reports citing leaked documents, known as the Panama Papers, the Central Bank of Cyprus announces that it is assessing the information to the extent that it may concern the Cypriot banking system and taking, where necessary, appropriate action." A Cypriot online paper said "The Cyprus link stems from the fact that Fonseca runs an office in Cyprus and, more specifically, in Limassol. In a chart, the leaks name Cyprus as a tax haven (countries that offer little or no tax), although it has a corporate tax rate of 12.5%, the same as Ireland."
Wikipedia contributors · Reactions to the Panama Papers · revision 1382519451 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Plain text extracted and formatting adapted; tags derived from linked topics.