The Panama Papers relating to more than 200,000 offshore accounts have been posted online.
The huge database belonging to Mossack Fonseca law firm became accessible on the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) website offshoreleaks.icij.org.
The documents have shown how some wealthy people use offshore companies to evade tax and avoid sanctions.
The papers were leaked by a source simply known as “John Doe”. The company denies any wrongdoing.
Last week Mossack Fonseca issued a “cease and desist ” order to prevent the database being made public but the organization that has the documents, the ICIJ, appears to be going ahead.
The papers have revealed the hidden assets of hundreds of politicians, officials, current and former national leaders, celebrities and sports stars.
They list more than 200,000 shell companies, foundations and trusts set up in more than 20 tax havens around the world.
Among those whose affairs have come under scrutiny include, Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia, Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine and Mauricio Macri of Argentina, UK PM David Cameron along with Argentinean soccer star Lionel Messi, actor Jackie Chan and Spanish movie director Pedro Almodovar.
Iceland’s PM Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson resigned after the matter came to light.
Mossack Fonseca says it has never been accused or charged with criminal wrongdoing. It says it is the victim of a hack.
Offshore companies are not illegal but their function is often to conceal both the origin and the owners of money, and to avoid tax payments.
Some 2.6 terabytes of information – 11.5 million documents – was originally given to the German newspaper, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, by “John Doe” more than a year ago.
The ICIJ insists that today’s online database is not be a data dump of the kind used by the WikiLeaks organization.
The ICIJ said: “The database will not include records of bank accounts and financial transactions, emails and other correspondence, passports and telephone numbers. The selected and limited information is being published in the public interest.”
On May 9, 300 economists signed a letter urging world leaders to end tax havens, saying they only benefited rich individuals and multinational corporations, while boosting inequality.
Although the name John Doe is used, the gender of the source has not been revealed.
Panamanian police have raided the headquarters of Mossack Fonseca, the law firm at the center of a massive data leak known as “Panama Papers”.
Prosecutors said the operation had been carried out at the company’s offices in Panama City “without incident or interference”.
The leaked “Panama Papers” have shown how some wealthy people use offshore companies to evade tax and avoid sanctions.
Mossack Fonseca has denied wrongdoing. The company says it is the victim of a hack and that the information is being misrepresented.
Panama’s President Juan Carlos Varela has promised to work with other countries to improve transparency in its offshore financial industry.
Police carried out the raid along with officials from an organized crime unit. Officers set up a perimeter around the headquarters while prosecutors entered the offices to search for documents.
Afterwards, the attorney general’s office said the aim had been “to obtain documentation linked to the information published in news articles that establish the use of the firm in illicit activities”.
The statement added that searches would also take place at Mossack Fonseca’s subsidiaries.
Panama’s government promised an investigation soon after news reports emerged more than a week ago based on more than 11 million documents from the company.
Mossack Fonseca tweeted that it “continues to co-operate with authorities in investigations made at our headquarters”.
Many other countries are probing possible financial crimes by the rich and powerful in the aftermath of the leak.
The company partner Ramon Fonseca says it had been hacked by servers based abroad and has filed a complaint with the Panamanian attorney general’s office.
Ramon Fonseca served as a minister in Juan Carlos Valera’s government but stepped aside earlier this year after separate allegations linked Mossack Fonseca to the corruption scandal engulfing the Brazilian state oil company Petrobras.
Mossack Fonseca offices in El Salvador have been raided by police, the attorney general’s office says.
The Panama law firm is at the center of a recent massive data leak, known as the Panama Papers.
Documents and computer equipment were seized from the Mossack Fonseca office, officials said on Twitter.
The attorney general’s office said the Mossack Fonseca sign had been removed a day earlier and quoted an employee as saying the company was moving.
The leak showed how some wealthy people use offshore companies to evade tax.
The raid was overseen by El Salvador’s Attorney General Douglas Melendez.
Mossack Fonseca’s El Salvador branch was able to provide “back office” functions for the company’s clients all over the world, according to a document posted on Twitter by the attorney general’s office.
Local news website El Faro reported that Salvadorans had used Mossack Fonseca to buy property in the country without declaring the purchases to the Salvadoran authorities.
Mossack Fonseca has denied it has done anything wrong and says the information is being presented out of context.
Mossack Fonseca offices in El Salvador have been raided by authorities, the attorney general’s office says.
The Panama law firm is at the center of a recent massive data leak, known as the Panama Papers.
Documents and computer equipment were seized from the Mossack Fonseca office, officials said on Twitter.
The attorney general’s office said the Mossack Fonseca sign had been removed a day earlier and quoted an employee as saying the company was moving.
The leak showed how some wealthy people use offshore companies to evade tax.
The raid was overseen by El Salvador’s Attorney General Douglas Melendez.
Mossack Fonseca’s El Salvador branch was able to provide “back office” functions for the company’s clients all over the world, according to a document posted on Twitter by the attorney general’s office.
Local news website El Faro reported that Salvadorans had used Mossack Fonseca to buy property in the country without declaring the purchases to the Salvadoran authorities.
Mossack Fonseca has denied it has done anything wrong and says the information is being presented out of context.
Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri has pledged to assert his innocence when he appears before a federal prosecutor to explain his financial dealings.
An investigation began on April 7 after it transpired Mauricio Macri was mentioned in the Panama Papers, leaked files of law firm Mossack Fonseca.
According to local media reports, Mauricio Macri was listed as director of an offshore company in the Bahamas.
In a TV address, President Mauricio Macri vowed to prove he had done nothing wrong.
He said he wanted to co-operate fully with any inquiry.
“I know there are some people concerned about these allegations in the Panama Papers that have come out and involve me,” the president said.
“I want to say one more time that I am very calm, I have complied with the law, I have told the truth and I have nothing to hide.”
Mauricio Macri said that he had made clear in his initial declaration that he did not have any shares and did not receive any payment for acting as a director of offshore companies.
He said that on April 8 he would be submitting a judicial “declaration of certainty” so that prosecutors can see he is telling the truth.
Mauricio Macri’s office has insisted that he had no shares in the company in question and never received any income from it.
Argentina’s national tax authority and anti-corruption office will be asked to provide information to the inquiry.
Prosecutor Federico Delgado said he wanted to determine if Mauricio Macri had “omitted, with malicious intent” mentioning his reported role in the Bahamas-registered offshore company Fleg Trading.
La Nacion, one of the newspapers examining some of the leaked documents, reported that Mauricio Macri was listed as a director of Fleg Trading from 1998 until 2009.
He did not list the company in his 2007 financial declaration, when he became mayor of Buenos Aires or in his 2015 declaration when he became president.
On April 5, Mauricio Macri’s office confirmed that a business group owned by the president’s family had set up an offshore company through the law firm at the centre of the Panama Papers scandal.
However, the president’s office argued that because he had never received any income from it there had been no reason to mention it in the financial declarations.
Mauricio Macri campaigned on a promise to combat corruption.
Panama Papers are a leaked set of 11.5 million confidential documents that has lifted the lid on how the rich and powerful use tax havens to hide their wealth.
The files were leaked from one of the world’s most secretive companies, a Panamanian law firm called Mossack Fonseca.
The documents show how wealthy individuals, including public officials, hide their money from public scrutiny.
At the time of publication, the papers identified five then-heads of state or government leaders from Argentina, Iceland, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, and the United Arab Emirates as well as government officials, close relatives, and close associates of various heads of government of more than forty other countries.
Among the documents are details about:
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko
Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri
Iceland’s PM Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson, who had an undeclared interest linked to his wife’s wealth. He has now resigned
Three of four children of Pakistan’s PM Nawaz Sharif
The late father of UK Prime Minister David Cameron
The brother-in-law of China’s President Xi Jinping
Panama Papers scandal also touches soccer’s world governing body, FIFA.
The leaked documents have been passed to German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which then shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
Mossack Fonseca says it has operated beyond reproach for 40 years and never been accused or charged with criminal wrong-doing.
Panama’s President Juan Carlos Varela has announced his country is creating an international panel to help improve transparency in its offshore financial industry.
The announcement follows the leak of millions of documents from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, showing it helped some clients evade tax and avoid sanctions.
Several countries are probing possible financial crimes by the rich and powerful in the aftermath of the leak.
In a TV address, President Juan Carlos Varela said Panama would work with other countries over the revelations.
“The Panamanian government, via our foreign ministry, will create an independent commission of domestic and international experts,” he said.
Photo PA News
The panel would examine working practices and propose measures that could be shared to strengthen the transparency of the financial and legal systems.
Correspondents say President Varela is eager to defend his country against a “media attack” by wealthy countries that he says are unfairly stigmatizing him following the leak.
Mossack Fonseca, for its part, says that it has been the victim of a hack.
The company’s partner, Ramon Fonseca, insisted the leak was not an “inside job”.
Mossack Fonseca had been hacked by servers based abroad.
It has now filed a complaint with the Panamanian attorney general’s office.
Mossack Fonseca has accused media organizations reporting the leak of having “unauthorized access to proprietary documents and information taken from our company” and of presenting this information out of context.
The revelations have already sparked political reaction in several countries where high-profile figures have been implicated.
On April 5, Iceland’s PM Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson resigned after the documents showed he owned an offshore company with his wife but had not declared it when he entered parliament.
Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson says he sold his shares to his wife and denies any wrongdoing.
It follows the naming of ex-secretary general Gianni Infantino – now president of world soccer’s governing body FIFA – in papers leaked from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.
Meanwhile, a FIFA official also named in the papers – Juan Pedro Damiani – has resigned.
Gianni Infantino has denied wrongdoing while the European soccer’s governing body says it is helping police.
Photo Getty Images
While working for UEFA, Ganni Infantino co-signed a TV rights deal in 2006 with two businessmen who have since been accused by the FBI of bribery.
Cross Trading – owned by Hugo Jinkis and his son Mariano – bought TV rights for UEFA Champions League football in 2006 for $111,000 and immediately sold them to Ecuadorian broadcaster Teleamazonas for $311,170.
The company also paid $28,000 for the rights to the UEFA Super Cup, selling those to Teleamazonas for $126,200.
The contract came to light after 11 million documents were leaked from Mossack Fonseca.
A statement from Switzerland’s Office of the Attorney General (OAG) said a “co-operative search” of the Nyon building took place “for the purpose of securing evidence”.
It said its criminal proceedings were connected to the acquisition of television rights and were “directed against persons unknown, meaning that for the time being, no specific individual is being targeted”.
The statement added: “The suspicion is based on the result of findings that have emerged from other proceedings, as well as the corresponding financial analyses carried out by the OAG.
“Current publications in the media subsequently revealed still other elements that made it possible to complement the existing findings in a decisive manner.
“The final impetus was provided, in particular, by confirmation on the part of UEFA that it had concluded contracts with Cross Trading SA.”
The leaked Panama Papers have revealed that international banking giants are helping clients to avoid tax by using complicated offshore arrangements.
HSBC, Credit Suisse and the Royal Bank of Scotland-owned Coutts Trustees have denied allegations.
The revelations in are based on more than 11 million documents leaked from the law firm Mossack Fonseca.
They name lenders said to have helped to set up structures making it hard for tax officials to pinpoint money flows.
They also name institutions alleged to have helped companies that were subject to international sanctions.
Rami Makhlouf is the cousin of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and has reported wealth of $5 billion.
Photo EPA
In 2008 the US Treasury imposed sanctions on him because it deemed him to be a “regime insider” and someone who “manipulated the Syrian judicial system and used Syrian intelligence officials to intimidate his business rivals”.
Mossack Fonseca continued to front six businesses – including one company called Drex Technologies – for Rami Makhlouf after the restrictions were put in place.
The files also show the Swiss branch of HSBC provided financial services for the company.
In 2010, two years after the sanctions were imposed, HSBC wrote to Mossack Fonseca saying it believed Drex Technologies was a company of “good standing”.
An internal email from Mossack Fonseca’s compliance department also suggests HSBC staff dealing with Drex Technologies knew who Rami Makhlouf was.
The email, dated February 17, 2011, says: “We have contacted HSBC who stated that they are very aware of the fact that Mr. Makhlouf is the cousin of the President of Syria.
“The HSBC compliance department of the bank not only in Geneva but also in their headquarters in London know about Mr. Makhlouf and confirm that they are comfortable with him.”
In response HSBC said: “We work closely with the authorities to fight financial crime and implement sanctions.
“Our policy is clear that offshore accounts can only remain open either where clients have been thoroughly vetted (including due diligence, ‘Know Your Customer’, source of wealth, and tax transparency checks), where authorities ask us to maintain an account for the purposes of monitoring activity, or where an account has been frozen based on sanctions obligations.”
The Panama leaks has revealed that more than 500 banks, including their subsidiaries and branches, registered nearly 15,600 shell companies with Mossack Fonseca.
Credit Suisse chief executive Tidjane Thiam said: “We do not condone structures for tax avoidance. Whenever there is a structure with a third party beneficiary we insist to know the identity of that beneficiary.”
Tidjane Thiam added: “We as a company, as a bank only encourage the use of structures when there is a legitimate economic purpose.”
A spokesman for Coutts Trustees said the bank followed the highest standards when complying with regulation.
He added: “We require all clients to be tax compliant as a condition of receiving our products and services and take a risk-based approach to identify and prevent tax evasion that relies upon extensive anti-money laundering systems and controls, including the requirement to understand the source of clients’ wealth.
“The provision of trust and administration services is an entirely legitimate and key aspect of wealth management and succession planning.”
Iceland’s PM Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson has resigned after the Panama Papers leaks shed an embarrassing spotlight on the world of offshore finance.
The so-called Panama Papers leaked from Mossack Fonseca showed Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson owned an offshore company, Wintris, with his wife.
Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson was accused of concealing millions of dollars’ worth of family assets.
The agriculture minister is to take Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson’s place.
Photo Getty Images
Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson is one of dozens of high-profile global figures caught up in the huge Mossack Fonseca leak.
Pressure for Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson to quit had intensified since the leaked material was first published on April 3.
News of Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson’s resignation came from Agriculture Minister Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson, who announced he would be taking over.
Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson is deputy leader of the governing Progressive party.
The Panama Papers show that Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson and his wife bought Wintris in 2007.
He did not declare an interest in the company when entering parliament in 2009. He sold his 50% of Wintris to his wife, Anna Sigurlaug Palsdottir, for $1 (70p), eight months later.
Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson says no rules were broken and his wife did not benefit financially.
The offshore company was used to invest millions of dollars of inherited money, according to a document signed by Anna Sigurlaug Palsdottir in 2015.
Court records show that Wintris had significant investments in the bonds of three major Icelandic banks that collapsed during the financial crisis which began in 2008.
Some of Icelanders’ anger is believed to stem from the perceived conflict of interest.
Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson was involved in negotiations about the banks’ future and had characterized foreign creditors who wanted their money back as “vultures”, while Wintris itself was a creditor.
He had kept his wife’s interest in the outcome a secret.
A spokesman for the prime minister said on April 4 that Anna Sigurlaug Palsdottir had always declared the assets to the tax authorities and that, under parliamentary rules, Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson did not have to declare an interest in Wintris.
Iceland’s PM Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson has asked President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson to dissolve parliament after allegations he concealed millions of dollars worth of investments in an offshore company.
The prime minister faced growing pressure over documents showing he and his wife owned offshore company Wintris.
A big protest was held in front of parliament in Iceland on April 4.
Dozens of high-profile global figures are named in a huge leak from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.
PM Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson put his request to President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson after the opposition proposed a no-confidence motion.
However, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson is reported to be delaying a decision until he has spoken to the main political parties.
After refusing to resign on April 4, Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson appeared to come under increasing pressure from within his governing coalition too.
Photo Getty Images
The prime minister took to Facebook on April 5 to outline his latest position.
“I told the leader of the Independence Party that if the party’s parliamentarians think they cannot support the government in completing joint tasks, I would dissolve parliament and call a general election,” Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson wrote.
The so-called Panama Papers leaked from Mossack Fonseca show that Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson and his wife bought Wintris in 2007.
He did not declare an interest in Wintris when entering parliament in 2009.
Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson sold his 50% of Wintris to his wife, Anna Sigurlaug Palsdottir, for $1, eight months later.
The prime minister says no rules were broken and his wife did not benefit financially.
The offshore company was used to invest millions of dollars of inherited money, according to a document signed by Anna Sigurlaug Palsdottir in 2015.
The leaked documents, published on April 3, show that Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson was granted a general power of attorney over Wintris – he could manage the company “without any limitation”.
His wife had a similar power of attorney.
Court records show that Wintris had significant investments in the bonds of three major Icelandic banks that collapsed during the financial crisis which began in 2008.
As prime minister, Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson has been involved in negotiations about the banks which could affect the value of the bonds held by Wintris.
Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson kept his wife’s interest in the outcome a secret.
A spokesman for the prime minister said on April 4 that Anna Sigurlaug Palsdottir had always declared the assets to the tax authorities and that, under parliamentary rules, Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson did not have to declare an interest in Wintris.
Eleven million documents have been leaked from one of the world’s most secretive companies, Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.
The confidential documents have revealed how the rich and powerful use tax havens to hide their wealth.
They show how Mossack Fonseca has helped clients launder money, dodge sanctions and evade tax.
The company says it has operated beyond reproach for 40 years and has never been charged with criminal wrong-doing.
The documents show links to 72 current or former heads of state in the data, including Iceland’s PM Sigmundur Gunnlaugson, who had an undeclared interest linked to his wife’s wealth and is now facing calls for his resignation.
The files also reveal a suspected billion-dollar money laundering ring involving close associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Gerard Ryle, director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), said the documents covered the day-to-day business at Mossack Fonseca over the past 40 years.
The documents also shed light on how Mossack Fonseca offered financial services designed to help business clients hide their wealth.
One wealthy client, American millionaire and life coach Marianna Olszewski, was offered fake ownership records to hide money from the authorities. This is in direct breach of international regulations designed to stop money laundering and tax evasion.
An email from a Mossack Fonseca executive to Marianna Olszewski in January 2009 explains how she could deceive the bank: “We may use a natural person who will act as the beneficial owner… and therefore his name will be disclosed to the bank. Since this is a very sensitive matter, fees are quite high.”
In a statement, Mossack Fonseca said: “Your allegations that we provide structures supposedly designed to hide the identity of the real owners, are completely unsupported and false.
“We do not provide beneficiary services to deceive banks. It is difficult, not to say impossible, not to provide banks with the identity of final beneficiaries and the origin of funds.”
The data also contains secret offshore companies linked to the families and associates of Egypt’s former President Hosni Mubarak, Libya’s former leader Muammar Gaddafi and Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.
It also reveals a suspected billion-dollar money laundering ring that was run by a Russian bank and involved close associates of Vladimir Putin.
The operation was run by Bank Rossiya, which is subject to US and EU sanctions following Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
The documents reveal for the first time how the bank operates.
Money has been channeled through offshore companies, two of which were officially owned by one of the Russian president’s closest friends.
Concert cellist Sergei Roldugin has known Vladimir Putin since they were teenagers and is godfather to the president’s daughter Maria.
On paper, Sergei Roldugin has personally made hundreds of millions of dollars in profits from suspicious deals.
Documents from Sergei Roldugin’s companies state that: “The company is a corporate screen established principally to protect the identity and confidentiality of the ultimate beneficial owner of the company.”
Mossack Fonseca data also shows how Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson had an undeclared interest in Iceland’s failed banks.
Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson has been accused of hiding millions of dollars of investments in his country’s banks behind a secretive offshore company.
Leaked documents show that Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson and his wife bought offshore company Wintris in 2007.
Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson did not declare an interest in the company when entering parliament in 2009. He sold his 50% of Wintris to his wife for $1, eight months later.
He is now facing calls for his resignation. He says he has not broken any rules, and his wife did not benefit financially from his decisions.
The offshore company was used to invest millions of dollars of inherited money, according to a document signed by Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson’s wife Anna Sigurlaug Pálsdóttir in 2015.
Mossack Fonseca says offshore companies are available worldwide and are used for a variety of legitimate purposes.
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