During a visit in Birmingham, Mr Cameron was asked to confirm that “you and your family have not derived any benefit in the past and will not in the future” from the offshore fund set up by Ian Cameron referred to in the papers leaked from Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca.
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“The prime minister owns no shares…”
The investigators claim he owned millions of dollars of Icelandic bank bonds during the financial crisis, when the country’s entire financial system collapsed and its lenders had to be bailed out.
Six big global banks are named in the report: HSBC; UBS; Société Générale; the Royal Bank of Canada; Commerzbank; and Credit Suisse.
Though the prime minister denied ever hiding money overseas, pressure on his government had mounted, with egg-throwing protesters gathering in the streets Monday and fresh demonstrations planned Tuesday. Its staff is made up of lawyers, accountants or secondary workers who are simply paper pushers who sign documents and allow their names to appear on the letterhead.
Britain’s Guardian newspaper said the documents showed a network of secret offshore deals and loans worth $2 billion led to close friends of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin has dismissed the allegations as “a series of fibs” aimed at discrediting Putin ahead of elections.
Chinese media have largely avoided reporting on the leaks and social media have been scrubbed of references to them, with foreign news broadcasters such as the BBC blacked out when they report on the issue.
Earnest avoided a question asking if the administration would scrutinize the financial dealings of some world leaders with offshore holdings, including Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri, whom President Obama met with last month, and King Salman of Saudi Arabia, whom Obama plans to visit this month.
ICIJ said more than 500 banks, their subsidiaries and branches registered almost 15,600 shell companies with the firm.
ICIJ’s Fitzgibbon highlighted an offshore company alleged by the U.S. Treasury Department to have supplied oil and fuel to the Syrian government as “one of the most striking examples of harm that can be done through shell companies”. Asia’s developing and emerging economies, in particular, struggle with the corruption and governance-problems that can be worsened by wealthy elites using offshore entities to hide wealth. The law firm’s leaked internal files contain information on 214,000 offshore companies connected to people in 200 countries and territories.
Mossack Fonseca has around 40 offices globally, including several in mainland China and others in countries and regions identified as tax havens by the European Commission, such as the Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Seychelles, and Anguilla.
One of the law firm’s founders, Ramon Fonseca, told AFP the leaks were “a crime, a felony” and “an attack on Panama”.
CNN is unable to independently verify the reports and is seeking comment from the most prominent figures mentioned.
“This Conservative government has done more than any Labour government or any previous government to tackle tax evasion, to tackle tax avoidance, to get money into the exchequer that is owed to the public”, he responded.
He is in Japan this week to meet the Japanese prime minister and business leaders.
Jonathan Riley, head of tax at Grant Thornton, said his firm believed HMRC could be “overwhelmed” by the “Panama Papers” and would be better off outsourcing the investigation.
New Zealand’s tax agency said it was working closely with its tax treaty partners to obtain full details of any New Zealand tax residents who may have been involved in arrangements facilitated by Mossack Fonseca.
Mossack Fonseca is already subject to investigations in Germany and Brazil, where it is part of a huge money laundering probe that has threatened to topple the current government.
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France announced on Tuesday it would put the Central American nation back on its blacklist of uncooperative tax jurisdictions.
