What are the Panama Papers?
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Company emails, extracts of which were published in an investigation by the U.S.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and other media organizations, were “taken out of context” and misinterpreted, he added.
Leaked files also mentioned Cameron’s late father, Ian Cameron, who used one of the most secretive tools of the offshore trade after he helped set up a fund for investors.
But Corbyn called for an independent investigation and said: “I think the prime minister, in his own interest, ought to tell us exactly what’s been going on”.
Cameron said he paid tax on the dividends and had nothing to hide.
Mossack Fonseca says it obeys all laws relating to company registrations and does not advise people how to evade taxes. The two did not immediately respond despite efforts to contact them.
Most of the services the offshore industry provides can be used for legal objective and are by law-abiding customers.
The Justice Department is reviewing the leaked for evidence of possible criminal wrongdoing that might have a link to the United States or to its financial system. State media have ignored the reports and searches of websites and social media for the words “Panama documents” were blocked.
China today dismissed as “groundless” allegations that eight of its ruling Communist Party officials including President Xi Jinping’s brother-in-law used off-shore tax heavens while the official media here alleged that “powerful” western forces were behind the “Panama Papers”.
Investigators around the world, including in Australia, the Netherlands, El Salvador and Costa Rica, have all announced probes following the leak.
Messi wasn’t the only public figure to get caught up in reports on the tax fraud leak.
Mr Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the reports were down to “journalists and members of other organisations actively trying to discredit Putin and this country’s leadership”.
The office of Argentine President Mauricio Macri confirmed a report by La Nacion newspaper that a business group owned by Macri’s family had set up Fleg Trading Ltd.in the Bahamas.
Shell companies aren’t by themselves illegal. These companies have the outward appearance of being a legitimate business but in reality are just empty shells. But the prime minister insisted he had never hidden money overseas.
A Las Vegas-based subsidiary of law firm Mossack Fonseca is listed as the registered agent for 1,026 firms incorporated over the past decade and a half, many of which have since been dissolved or are no longer active.
The bank DNB said it regrets having helped about 40 customers open offshore companies in the Seychelles with the help of Mossack Fonseca. Mossack Fonseca cut ties to the Makhlouf family after being contacted by authorities in the Virgin Islands who were investigating the family, Le Monde reported.
Ramon Fonseca, co-founder of the firm, told CNN that the information published about the firm was false. It also has claimed the documents were taken in an external hack.
There was also pressure in Britain on Prime Minister David Cameron, who had previously called for measures to stop “the super-rich elite dodging taxes”. A number of countries have bilateral Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEA) with tax havens, which enable their governments to enforce domestic tax laws by exchanging, on request, relevant tax information.
Panama has already warned it could retaliate against France if it makes good on a promise to put the country back on France’s blacklist of “tax havens” – a status that would cause transactions in Panama to be viewed as likely tax-dodging gambits.
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Macri said “there was nothing unusual about the operation” and that it was declared to tax authorities.
