The investigation carried out is touted as the largest probes in history.
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The 11.5 million files were leaked to a German newspaper, Suddeutsche Zeitung, which then worked with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and more than 100 media partners, including the Guardian, the BBC and others, to sift and research the contents. The Kremlin responded angrily on Monday to reports alleging that Putin’s close associates were involved in secret offshore transactions totaling $2 billion.
To be clear, creating an offshore company is not illegal.
“In fact there is a lot of information on other politicians, on representatives of other professions, [the information] linked to the heads of state as well as governments of other countries but probably hardly anyone can dispute the fact that the world’s media, both print and digital, quite inexplicably focused mainly on our country and our president”.
Although President Vladimir Putin’s name is not mentioned in the documents, his close friend Sergei Roldugin, a cellist, features prominently as a facilitator of deals worth at least $2 billion, making him possibly “the world’s wealthiest musician”, the Financial Times says.
Xi has led a high-profile anti-graft drive in China, targeting the excessive wealth accumulated by Communist Party cadres. “They will also continue to perform the functions which are now carried out by riot police units, SWAT, etc.”, he added, RT reported. The firm, Mossack Fonseca, has denied wrongdoing.
“Tax havens are where there is nondisclosure of information”, Key said.
The Czech Center for Investigative Journalism said leaked documents from the Panamanian law firm show that 283 Czech citizens are associated with offshore companies.
Never one to shy away from the spotlight, Russian President Vladimir Putin has very publically labelled the Panama Papers revelations an attack on himself and the country. “Anything that brings Russian Federation back to the 1990s”, said Baunov, referring to the withholding of salaries and a slump in living standards.
Panama’s president, Juan Carlos Varela, said his country would cooperate with “whatever government and whatever investigation” resulted from the scandal. Shell companies also appear to have been set up in the British Virgin Islands.
“I am not a businessman, I don’t have millions”, the maestro told The New York Times in a 2014 interview.
Intriguingly, Peskov’s wife has been quoted as having no knowledge that she ran the company, despite a leaked document saying that its goal was to “buy investment assets to benefit its beneficiary” – namely her.
President Francois Hollande promised on Monday that French tax authorities will investigate the disclosures of the Panama Papers and that legal proceedings will follow.
“The real question is how sustainable these levels of embezzlement are; already the squabbles within the elite and between the regions is becoming noticeable”, Galeotti told TheDCNF, “and that is likely to prove one of the most powerful challenges to the Putin system: how a structure that relied on buying everyone off when the money was plentiful copes when the funds are running low”.
A massive leak of tax documents on April 03, 2016 has put some of the major personalities in the world under fire.
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“The files show that these fixers and middlemen protect themselves and their clients by concealing suspect transactions”.
