On April 3rd, millions of leaked documents published suggesting that 140 politicians and officials from around the globe, including 72 former and current world leaders, have connections with secret “offshore” companies to escape tax scrutiny in their countries.
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Earlier Tuesday, President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, who cut short a USA visit to return to Reykjavik to deal with the crisis, had refused to grant Gunnlaugsson’s request to dissolve parliament and call new elections.
Icelandic national broadcaster RUV reported Gunnlaugsson would be replaced as prime minister by Sigurour Ingi Johannsson, the fisheries and agriculture minister.
Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson stepped down over revelations in leaked papers on offshore finance.
“I have not considered quitting because of this matter nor am I going to quit because of this matter”, Gunnlaugsson told parliament.
The documents revealed Gunnlaugsson and his wife bought the offshore company in 2007, which he didn’t declare when entering parliament in 2009.
But Mr Grimsson said he first wanted to consult leaders of the Independence Party, which has been in the ruling coalition with Mr Gunnlaugsson’s Progressive Party since 2013.
Gunlaugsson has denied any wrongdoing.
An Iceland government spokesman has said the claims against Iceland’s collapsed banks held by the firm owned by the prime minister’s wife – in which he also temporarily held a stake – totalled more than 500 million Icelandic crowns ($4.1 million).
When asked by Swedish and Icelandic television journalists about Wintris before the publication of the leaks, Gunnlaugsson stormed out, saying that the journalists had obtained the interview “under false pretenses”.
Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson has resigned this morning – the first major political casualty of the so-called Panama Papers.
Earlier, he told Iceland’s TV2 on Monday that he felt “betrayed and disappointed” by the accusations and wouldn’t step down.
“Iceland can not be the only Western European democratic country with a political leadership in this position”, he said.
Gunnlaugsson has said previously that he has done nothing wrong or illegal, although it appears that he violated Icelandic law by failing to disclose his family’s holding.
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The Panama Papers are a huge cache of leaked files which name individuals allegedly linked with a law firm which specialises in shell companies for the purposes of avoiding tax payments.
