“Panama Papers” – approx. 11.5 million documents that leaked from the office Mossack Fonseca in Panama – show how the rich and famous hide from tax authorities money in tax havens. A number of governments have already announced an investigation and zero tolerance for cheaters.
Mossack Fonseca is one of the world’s largest institutions offering customers the establishment and operation of companies in the so-called offshore. tax havens. Panamanian law firm has established more than 200 thousand. such front companies (shell companies), which only manage the heaviest money, hiding, who owns them. Confirmed that the documents are authentic, and the leak is the work of hackers.
According to the media, these documents from the years 1977-2015, disclosed on Sunday, among others, through the International Consortium of investigative journalists (ICIJ), they suggest that 140 politicians and other personalities official from around the world, including 12 current and former heads of state and family or circle of friends 60 further has connections with secret offshore companies.
It lists, among others, Chinese President Xi Jinping with the family, the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister of Iceland Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Malaysia Najib bin Abdul Razak, the family of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, the former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
BBC writes on suspicion of the existence of a group including close associates of President Vladimir Putin, parającej launderers to multibillion scale. The caking Putin’s fortunes friends had to help RCB bank based in Cyprus providing “huge unsecured loans” – reported “Guardian”. The Bank is associated with the state Russian bank VTB.
The opposition Russian “Novaya Gazeta” writes that the owner of the companies registered in tax havens, with assets of billions of dollars, can be considered a well-known cellist Sergei Rołdugina, a close friend of Putin .
“Sueddeutsche Zeitung”, who writes about “the greatest journalistic leak in history,” encountered in “Panama Papers” for members of various mafia organizations, as well as football stars as Leo Messi, 350 large banks and hundreds of thousands of ordinary people.
the British media suggest that the “Panama Papers” there is not only the name of the late father of Prime Minister David Cameron, as well as the names of members of the House of Lords on behalf of the conservative Party, the former conservative MPs and donors .
Italian weekly magazine “L’Espresso” informs that “Panama Papers” appears about 1,000 Italians, including Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, head of the airline Alitalia. The services of the Panamanian law firm also had to use two Italian banks UniCredit and Ubi Banca.
The list posted on the website of ICIJ is also the name of a former mayor of Warsaw and former MEP Pawel Piskorski.
Zbigniew Ziobro: too early to present decisions
According to the Prime Minister Beata Awl in the face of “Panama Papers “European institutions should primarily deal with the seal of the tax system. We are still in the government working on this and, among others, This is just one of the foundations of repair of the tax system, which we carry out – stressed the head of government. The Minister of Justice, Attorney General Zbigniew Ziobro said analyzing documents leaked to the media. too early to present decisions – what they are, but certainly the matter will be the subject of our analysis, evaluation – he said. In turn, the General Inspector of Financial Information, Deputy Finance Minister Wieslaw Jasinski told reporters that it has decided to initiate the procedure analysis on Polish themes “Panama Papers” based on the law on the prevention of money laundering and financing of terrorism. He stressed that the analytical procedure applies to all persons mentioned in the media in connection with the leak. situations where the person politically exposed (…) use of tax havens for the purpose of concealing their assets, are widely recognized in the world. In Poland, it will be – Jasinski said.
British service tax already asked for copies of documents to ICIJ. Also the Austrian Ministry of Finance announced that quickly analyze data from a Panamanian law firm; examines whether the two mentioned in the leak banks – Raiffeisen Bank International and Hypo Landesbank Vorarlberg – respect the rules and procedures to prevent money laundering. Swedish financial supervision informed of the suspicion that the banking group Nordea helped some customers in opening accounts in tax havens.
The Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority has expressed concern that media reports that the Norwegian bank DNB helped clients in establishing companies offshore Seychelles, may undermine confidence in the banking sector. Announced ask for explanations to the board of the bank. The analysis of documents for tax evasion have also announced the Ministry of Finance of the Netherlands. Firm Mossack Fonseca was for five years the Dutch office closed last year.
The Australian tax office informed about the conduct of investigations into more than 800 wealthy Australians whose data appear in the “Panama Papers”. In the Czech Republic they informed that there are also 283 names of Czech citizens, who used as a tax haven primarily Seychelles. But the richest Czech Peter Kellner and his wife are the owners of several companies in the Virgin Islands, and another Czech entrepreneur billionaire Daniel Krzetinsky also has a company in that country. Now deny that they were guilty of any abuse.
The political consequences of the leak of documents
The disclosure of the leak has already consequences political. Ukraine Radical Party stated that initiates the procedure for impeachment of the president, Petro Poroshenko. who must explain to the establishment of companies in tax havens at a time when he held no longer the office of the Head of State and not exchanged placed in these assets in their declarations of assets.
In August 2014, the president, whose fortune is estimated at almost 869 million dollars, registered in the British Virgin Islands company called Prime Asset Partners Ltd. In the same year Poroshenko registered two more companies: Cyprus and the Netherlands. Their capital amounts to little more than 3 thousand. dollars. And although in itself is not illegal, the opposition decided that enough uprawdopodabnia allegations of corruption against the president. He says that for all responsible people who gave the management of your business.
In Iceland, the opposition demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson, who was supposed to be a shareholder in the company in the British Virgin Islands, before the shares transferred to his wife. Premier ruled out resignation from office. Matter of finances Prime Minister has addressed one of the parliamentary committees.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “Panama Papers” are aimed mainly at Putin and the stability of Russia. “The main object of this misinformation is our president, especially in the context of the upcoming parliamentary elections and in the more distant perspective, I mean the presidential election in two years – said Peskov. – Putinofobia the West reached such a level that simply can not be right to talk about Russia, about all its activities and achievements. “
French President Francois Hollande said that the leak of documents from Panama is good news because it will increase tax revenues. I can assure you that (…) will be initiated the investigation, the case will be opened and will be rolled processes – he said. He pointed out that in 2015 about 20 billion flowed from France to tax havens, and of this amount already recovered 12 billion euros. The international community must “act immediately and adopt provisions which prohibit the creation of such anonymous companies” – called Transparency International in a statement.
(mn)
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