This article lists some of the reactions and responses from countries and other official bodies regarding the leak of legal documents related to offshore tax havens from the law firm

Mossack Fonseca Mossack Fonseca & Co. () was a Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider.Panama Papers.

Government reactions and investigations

Argentina

Presidente Macri en el Sillon de Rivadavia (cropped)

Argentine President

Mauricio Macri Mauricio Macri (; born 8 February 1959) is an Argentine businessman and politician who served as the President of Argentina from 2015 to 2019. He has been the leader of the Republican Proposal (PRO) party since its founding in 2005. He previo ...

is listed as head of a trading company based in the Bahamas that he did not disclose during his tenure as

Mayor of Buenos Aires , image = R larreta.jpg , alt = Mayor of Buenos Aires , incumbent = Horacio Rodríguez Larreta , incumbentsince = 10 December 2015 , style = No courtesy, title or style , residence = Buenos Aires ...

; it is not clear whether disclosure of non-equity directorships was then required under Argentine law. On April 7, 2016, federal prosecutor Federico Delgado began a formal investigation into Macri's involvement with Fleg Trading Ltd., the company registered in Panama for which President Macri was listed as director. Judge Sebastián Casanello was asked to start the file on the inquiry. The initial petition was made by

Neuquén Neuquén (; arn, Nehuenken) is the capital city of the Argentine province of Neuquén and of the Confluencia Department, located in the east of the province. It occupies a strip of land west of the confluence of the Limay and Neuquén river ...

representative Darío Martínez. Martínez claims Macri could be guilty of perjury due to omissions made in his sworn statement. Martínez also referenced another

offshore company The term "offshore company" or “offshore corporation” is used in at least two distinct and different ways. An offshore company may be a reference to: * a company, group or sometimes a division thereof, which engages in offshoring business pr ...

, Kagemusha SA (named after Akira Kurosawa's 1980 film), which had been established in 1981 and to which President Macri also had connections. On 20 September 2017, the civil judge Andrés Fraga determined that in the company Fleg Trading Ltd, of the Bahamas, Mauricio Macri only accepted the position of director for which he was appointed to the sole and only effect of designating a replacement and resigning, and that in Kagemusha he did not even accept tacitly the position of director for which he was appointed by Francisco Macri. The ruling adds that neither of the two companies he was a shareholder, that he did not receive any dividends or profits, did not participate in the business decisions or in any business, nor was he the owner or co-owner of any current bank account of the companies. The family of Argentine football player

Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés Messi (; born 24 June 1987), also known as Leo Messi, is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Paris Saint-Germain and captains the Argentina national team. Widely regarded as one of the ...

announced that they will file a complaint after reports accused him of assembling a tax evasion network in Panama. The family denied Messi had been involved and called the accusations slanderous. They said that the company referred to in the Panama Papers was inactive and that Messi had declared all income from image rights before and after proceedings with the Argentine Tax Agency.

Armenia

On April 4, 2016 '' Hetq Online'' reported that according to the Panama Papers, Major-General of Justice and head of the Armenia's Compulsory Enforcement Service Mihran Poghosyan was connected to three Panama-registered companies (Sigtem Real Estates Inc., Hopkinten Trading Inc. and Bangio Invest S.A., being the sole owner of Sigtem and Hopkinten). On April 8, Armenian Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center filed a petition with the Ethics Committee for High Level Officials, requesting an investigation of Poghosyan. Members of the families of Poghosyan's uncles Grigor and Mikhail Haroutyunyan were also mentioned in connection with his business.

Australia

In 2016, the

Australian Taxation Office The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is an Australian statutory agency and the principal revenue collection body for the Australian Government. The ATO has responsibility for administering the Australian federal taxation system, superannuatio ...

announced that it is investigating 800 individual Australian taxpayers on the Mossack Fonseca list of clients and that some of the cases may be referred to the country's Serious Financial Crime Task Force.

Azerbaijan

Ilham Aliyev par Claude Truong-Ngoc juin 2014

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...

i President Ilham Aliyev did not respond to repeated requests for comments.Panama Papers: Ilham Aliyev from Azerbaijan in the spotlight of a global corruption scandal
. '' Panorama''. April 4, 2016. According to ICIJ website, "The family of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev leads a charmed, glamorous life, thanks in part to financial interests in almost every sector of the economy. ... liyev's daughterArzu, has financial stakes in a firm that won rights to mine for gold in the western village of Chovdar and Azerfon, the country's largest mobile phone business. Arzu is also a significant shareholder in SW Holding, which controls nearly every operation related to Azerbaijan Airlines ("Azal"), from meals to airport taxis. Both sisters and brother Heydar own property in Dubai valued at roughly $75 million in 2010; Heydar is the legal owner of nine luxury mansions in Dubai purchased for some $44 million."

Bangladesh

According to numerous media outlets, two conglomerates and thirty-two Bangladeshi shareholders are listed. Top business personalities include Muhammed Aziz Khan, Mohiuddin Monem, and

Samson H. Chowdhury Samson H. Chowdhury ( bn, স্যামসন এইচ চৌধুরী; 25 September 1925 – 5 January 2012) was a Bangladeshi business magnate. He was the chairman of Square Pharmaceuticals. Personal life Samson H. Chowdhury was born o ...

. Awami League Presidium member

Kazi Zafarullah Kazi Zafarullah (born April 1947) is a Bangladeshi industrialist and politician, a member of the ruling party, the Bangladesh Awami League's 12-member Presidium, its central working committee, and a former MP from Faridpur-5. Early life Zafa ...

and his wife Nilufar Zafar are said to be in the list. On April 7, 2016, The

Anti Corruption Commission Bangladesh The Anti Corruption Commission ( bn, দুর্নীতি দমন কমিশন) ''often abbreviated:'' ACC ( bn, দুদক) is the principal government agency against corruption in Bangladesh. History The Anti Corruption Commissio ...

launched an inquiry to obtain details of the businesses and individuals and said that tax evaders would be brought to trial and punished.

Brazil

Politicians from seven parties in Brazil were named as clients of a Panama-based firm at the center of a massive data leak over possible tax evasion. The leaked files included politicians from Brazil's largest party, the

PMDB The Brazilian Democratic Movement ( pt, Movimento Democrático Brasileiro, MDB) is a Brazilian political party. It is considered a "big tent party" and it is one of the parties with the greatest representation throughout the national territory, ...

, which broke away from President

Dilma Rousseff Dilma Vana Rousseff (; born 14 December 1947) is a Brazilian economist and politician who served as the 36th president of Brazil, holding the position from 2011 until her impeachment and removal from office on 31 August 2016. She is the first ...

's coalition in 2016. Political figures from the

PSDB The Brazilian Social Democracy Party ( pt, Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira, PSDB), also known as the Brazilian Social Democratic Party or the Party of Brazilian Social Democracy,. is a political party in Brazil. As the third largest par ...

, the most prominent opposition party in the country, was also mentioned in the leaks, as well as others from the PDT, PP, PSB, PSD and the PTB parties. No politicians from Rousseff's Workers' Party were mentioned in the leaks. A research in the Panama papers, from a group of Dutch journalists from the daily newspaper Trouw, has shown that TV Globo is cited "many times" in a money laundering investigation of the De Nederlandsche Bank which revealed that for years the media outlet conducted several "irregular financial transactions" through tax havens in order to pay broadcast rights for the Copa Libertadores.

British Virgin Islands

In the British Virgin Islands Mossack Fonseca were subjected to a 6-month investigation by the regulator, the

British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission The BVI Financial Services Commission is an autonomous regulatory authority responsible for the regulation, supervision and inspection of all the British Virgin Islands financial services including insurance, banking, trustee business, company ...

. At the end of the investigation they were fined US$440,000 for breaches of regulations countering terrorist financing regulations and against money laundering. The fine was the highest ever levied by the regulator, and just short of the maximum fine that they had power to impose.

Canada

Canadian Prime Minister The prime minister of Canada (french: premier ministre du Canada, link=no) is the head of government of Canada. Under the Westminster system, the prime minister governs with the confidence of a majority the elected House of Commons; as such ...

Justin Trudeau Justin Pierre James Trudeau ( , ; born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who is the 23rd and current prime minister of Canada. He has served as the prime minister of Canada since 2015 and as the leader of the Liberal Party since 2 ...

has denied any involvement with the leak, saying "I have entirely and completely been transparent about mine and my family’s finances. That is something I learned early on that Canadians expect from their leaders." The Government has ordered the

Canada Revenue Agency The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA; ; ) is the revenue service of the Canadian federal government, and most provincial and territorial governments. The CRA collects taxes, administers tax law and policy, and delivers benefit programs and tax cre ...

to find copies of the Panama Papers, in order to find any Canadians that used offshore accounts to avoid taxes. The Royal Bank of Canada CEO David McKay announced that the bank set up a team that will look back through four decades of documentation for ties to Mossack Fonseca. CEO Bill Downe of the Bank of Montreal also defended, saying "Canadian banks have 'dramatically' beefed up anti-money laundering controls over the last seven to 10 years." He also stated that any link between Canadian businesses and the Panama Papers would have originated a long time ago, before the time when Canadian banks took action to stop money laundering.

China

Relatives of highly placed Chinese officials including seven senior leaders and former senior leaders of

Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party The Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, formally known as the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and known as the Central Bureau before 1927, is the decision-making body of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). ...

have been named, including former Premier

Li Peng Li Peng (; 20 October 1928 – 22 July 2019) was a Chinese politician who served as the fourth Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1987 to 1998, and as the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, Ch ...

's daughter Li Xiaolin, former

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

General Secretary

Hu Yaobang Hu Yaobang (; 20 November 1915 – 15 April 1989) was a high-ranking official of the People's Republic of China. He held the top office of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1981 to 1987, first as Chairman from 1981 to 1982, then as Gene ...

's son Hu Dehua and

Deng Jiagui Deng Jiagui (born 1951; 邓家贵) is a Chinese businessman, and brother-in-law of Xi Jinping, who is current General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and paramount leader of China since 2012. Deng Jiagui is a Canadian citizen and res ...

, the brother-in-law of current

General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party The general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party () is the head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Since 1989, the CCP general secretary has been the paramount leader ...

Xi Jinping Xi Jinping ( ; ; ; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, ...

. Deng had two shell companies in the British Virgin Islands while Xi was a member of the

Politburo Standing Committee The Politburo Standing Committee (PSC), officially the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, is a committee consisting of the top leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Histori ...

, but they were dormant by the time Xi became General Secretary of Communist Party ( paramount leader) in 2012. Others named include the son and daughter-in-law of propaganda chief

Liu Yunshan Liu Yunshan (; ; born July 1947) is a retired Chinese politician. He was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, the top decision-making body of the CCP, between 2012 and 2017; he was broadly tasked with the wo ...

and the son-in-law of Vice-Premier

Zhang Gaoli Zhang Gaoli or Chang Kao-li ( zh, 张高丽; ; born 1 November 1946) is a retired Chinese politician. He served as the senior Vice Premier of the State Council between 2013 and 2018 and as a member of the Chinese Communist Party Politburo ...

. China's government is suppressing mentions of the Panama Papers on social media and in search engines results. China's Communist party reportedly has told news organizations to delete all content related to the Panama Papers leak. Considering the material to be a concerted foreign media attack on China, internet information offices were immediately given verbal orders to delete reprinted reports on the Panama Papers, and not to follow up on related content without exceptions. Hong Lei, the spokesman of China's Foreign Ministry, responded that he had "no comment" for "such groundless accusations" at an April 5 news conference. China is in the third year of an anti-corruption campaign launched by Xi which has punished more than 300,000 party officials for financial misdeeds and created many enemies for Xi. Chinese authorities have blocked almost all information about the Panama Papers on Chinese media and the Internet. A screenshot showed that the authority had forced all websites to delete content about the Panama Papers. Foreign websites such as Wikileak,

China Digital Times China Digital Times (CDT; ) is a US-based 501(c)(3) organization that runs a bilingual news website covering China. The site focuses on news items which are blocked, deleted or suppressed by China's state censors. History The website was started ...

have been blocked in mainland China. Official media, like

The Global Times The ''Global Times'' () is a daily tabloid newspaper under the auspices of the Chinese Communist Party's flagship newspaper, the ''People's Daily'', commenting on international issues from a Chinese ultra-nationalistic perspective. The publi ...

(''Huanqiu Shibao'') reported the resignation of

Prime Minister of Iceland The prime minister of Iceland ( is, Forsætisráðherra Íslands) is Iceland's head of government. The prime minister is appointed formally by the president and exercises executive authority along with the cabinet subject to parliamentary suppo ...

, but the media never mentioned that the Panama Papers caused the resignation. On Sina Weibo, a

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

-like social media in China, almost all content about the Panama Papers was deleted. Because Xi's brother-in-law had been named, and the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a condui ...

is well known, Weibo users started to use "brother-in-law", "Canal Papers", and other such tags to avoid Weibo's censor. Because of the censorship in mainland China, few Chinese people know of the Panama Papers.

Colombia

The National Directorate of Taxes and Customs launched an investigation into all 850 clients of Mossack Fonseca Colombia, a subsidiary of

Mossack Fonseca Mossack Fonseca & Co. () was a Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider.Central Bank of Cyprus officially declared: "With regard to press reports citing leaked documents, known as the Panama Papers, the Central Bank of Cyprus announces that it is assessing the information to the extent that it may concern the Cypriot banking system and taking, where necessary, appropriate action."Angelos Anastasiou (April 4, 201
Cyprus implicated in Panama papers
Cyprus Mail, retrieved April 5, 2016. A Cypriot online paper said "The Cyprus link stems from the fact that Fonseca runs an office in Cyprus and, more specifically, in

Limassol Limassol (; el, Λεμεσός, Lemesós ; tr, Limasol or ) is a city on the southern coast of Cyprus and capital of the district with the same name. Limassol is the second largest urban area in Cyprus after Nicosia, with an urban population ...

. In a chart, the leaks name Cyprus as a tax haven (countries that offer little or no tax), although it has a corporate tax rate of 12.5%, the same as Ireland."

Czech Republic

In October 2021, Andrej Babis was campaigning for another term as the country’s prime minister and was ahead in the polls. A week before the first vote, on October 3, the Pandora Papers revealed that Babis used a tax haven shell company to buy a French chateau. Czech law requires dislosure of such a purchase, which he failed to do, despite that he was running as a populilst who often spoke out against corruption among the country's elites. He ended up losing the election.

European Union

Many senior EU figures have been implicated in the Panama Papers scandal. The European Commissioner for Taxation,

Pierre Moscovici Pierre Moscovici (, ; born 16 September 1957) is a French politician who served as the European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs from 2014 to 2019. He previously served as Minister of Finance from 2012 to 2 ...

, has said that the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

as a whole had a "duty" to prevent the kind of tax avoidance uncovered in the Panama Papers scandal. Moscovici told reporters the use of offshore companies to hide what he called "shocking amounts" of financial assets from tax authorities was "unethical". He estimated that the tax shelters resulted in an annual loss of some €1 trillion in public finances, adding that the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

attempted to tighten tax rules across the union since November 2014 due to the "LuxLeaks" tax avoidance scandal (also revealed by the ICIJ), and hoped the extent of the Panama Papers revelations would spur countries to action. In a 2013 letter unearthed by the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...

'' to then-president of the European Council,

Herman Van Rompuy Herman Achille, Count Van Rompuy (; born 31 October 1947) is a Belgian politician, who served as the prime minister of Belgium from 2008 to 2009 and then as the first permanent president of the European Council from 2009 to 2014. A politicia ...

, the

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern ...

David Cameron said that offshore trusts should not automatically be subject to the same transparency requirements as shell companies. Some analysts suggested that these actions may affect the outcome of the referendum on UK membership of the EU.

Egypt

Alaa Mubarak Alaa Mohammed Hosni El Sayed Mubarak ( ar, علاء محمد حسني السيد مبارك; ) (born 26 November 1960 in Cairo) is an Egyptian businessman and the elder of two sons of Hosni Mubarak, the former President of Egypt who serve ...

, son of former president

Hosni Mubarak Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak, (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011. Before he entered politics, Mubarak was a career officer in ...

, was cited as owning, through holding companies, real estate properties in London.

France

French financial prosecutors opened a probe, and President François Hollande declared that tax evaders would be brought to trial and punished. Also as a result, France restored Panama to its tax havens list, from which it had recently been removed.

Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean Louis Marie Le Pen (, born 20 June 1928) is a French far-right politician who served as President of the National Front from 1972 to 2011. He also served as Honorary President of the National Front from 2011 to 2015. Le Pen graduated fro ...

, founder and long-time leader of the right-wing Front National is mentioned in the documents, along with several aides of his daughter Marine Le Pen, the current party leader.

Iceland

On April 5, 2016,

Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson announced his resignation. Reykjavík City Council Member Júlíus Vífill Ingvarsson resigned earlier in the day. Shortly after initial reports of Sigmundur Davíð's resignation, the Prime Minister's office in Iceland issued a statement to the international press saying that Sigmundur Davíð had not resigned, but rather stepped aside for an unspecified amount of time and would continue to serve as the Chairman of the

Progressive Party Progressive Party may refer to: Active parties * Progressive Party, Brazil * Progressive Party (Chile) * Progressive Party of Working People, Cyprus * Dominica Progressive Party * Progressive Party (Iceland) * Progressive Party (Sardinia), Ita ...

. In the fall of 2017, Sigmundur Davíð left the Progressive Party and created a populist party called the Centre Party. The Centre Party received 10.9% of the vote in the Icelandic parliamentary election held in October 2017.

India

Indian Prime Minister The prime minister of India (IAST: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the ...

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament fro ...

ordered an inquiry, and subsequently the Indian government announced that it was constituting a special multi-agency group comprising officers from the investigative unit of the Central Board of Direct Taxes and its Foreign Tax and Tax Research division, the

Financial Intelligence Unit Financial intelligence (FININT) is the gathering of information about the financial affairs of entities of interest, to understand their nature and capabilities, and predict their intentions. Generally the term applies in the context of law enfo ...

and the

Reserve Bank of India The Reserve Bank of India, chiefly known as RBI, is India's central bank and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It is responsible f ...

. The list contains names of more than 500 prominent Indian actors, politicians and businessmen who have allegedly stashed money in offshore entities in

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

. Some of them include

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

megastar Amitabh Bachchan and his daughter-in-law actress

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan Aishwarya Rai Bachchan ( Rai; born 1 November 1973) is an Indian actress who is primarily known for her work in Hindi and Tamil films. The winner of the Miss World 1994 pageant, she has established herself as one of the most popular celebriti ...

, DLF promoter KP Singh, Apollo Tyres chairman Onkar Kanwar,

Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited (TAFE) is an Indian agricultural machinery manufacturer based in Chennai, India. TAFE is the third-largest tractor manufacturer in the world and the second largest in India by volume. Description TAFE – ...

chairman

Mallika Srinivasan Mallika Srinivasan (born 1959) is an Indian industrialist and is the Chairman and Managing Director of Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited, a tractor major incorporated in 1960 at Chennai, India. She is also the Chairperson of the Public Enterp ...

and

Iqbal Mirchi Mohammad Iqbal Memon (25 April 1950 – 14 August 2013), known as Iqbal Mirchi, was an Indian underworld figure, known as the right-hand man of India's most wanted criminal, Dawood Ibrahim. Mirchi was often called a drug baron for his thriving ...

, an Indian drug lord.

Indonesia

Finance Minister, Bambang P.S. Brodjonegoro, immediately responded quickly to the leaked data of tax evasion "Panama Papers" by instructing the Directorate General of Taxation (DGT) to follow up the findings. Leaked investment data originating from Panama law firm, Mossack Fonseca, attracted Bambang's attention because they can be a source of new information about the potential tax that has not been traced. "I've asked Mr Ken (Dwijugiasteadi), Director General of Taxation, please let's study the data known as Panama Papers", he said at the headquarters of the DGT, Tuesday (5/4). Finance Minister once said there is potential for the property of the taxpayer around Rp 4,000 trillion, which has not been affected by the tax. He specifies, around Rp 1,400 trillion, is a property that is not taxed, and remitted to the DGT, while the remaining Rp 2,700 trillion, a rich Indonesian deposits in banks abroad.

Israel

Some 600 Israeli companies and 850 Israeli shareholders are listed. Among the Israeli names found in the leaked documents are: top attorney Dov Weissglass, who was the bureau chief of the late prime minister Ariel Sharon; Jacob Engel, a businessman active in the African mining industry; and Idan Ofer, a member of one of Israel's wealthiest families, according to '' Haaretz''. Tareq Abbas, a son of Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, was also revealed to hold $1 million in shares of an offshore company associated with the Palestinian Authority. Weissglass' name appears as a sole owner of one of four companies set up by his business partner Assaf Halkin. The company, Talaville Global, was registered in the

British Virgin Islands ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = Territorial song , song = " Oh, Beautiful Virgin Islands" , image_map = File:British Virgin Islands on the globe (Americas centered).svg , map_caption = , mapsize = 290px , image_map2 = Bri ...

in May 2012, according to ''Haaretz'', and seven months later, all of its shares were mortgaged against a loan from a

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

bank. Weissglass and Halkin told ''Haaretz'' that the company "was registered for the purpose of receiving a loan from the bank in order to invest in European properties. The bank would only allow a loan to a corporation... hecompany activity is reported to the tax authorities in Israel. The required tax on the said activity is paid in Israel."

Italy

On April 6, 2016 Italy's Procura of Turin ordered

Guardia di Finanza The ''Guardia di Finanza'' (G. di F. or GdF) () (English: literal: ''Guard of Finance'', paraphrased: ''Financial Police'' or ''Financial Guard'') is an Italian law enforcement agency under the authority of the Minister of Economy and Finance. ...

to further investigate the 800 Italians contained in the Panama Paper's documents.

Mexico

Aristóteles Núñez, who is in charge of the government's tax administration,

Servicio de Administración Tributaria The Tax Administration Service ( es, Servicio de Administración Tributaria, SAT) is the revenue service of the Mexican federal government. The government agency is a deconcentrated bureau of the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit, Mexic ...

, said that people involved in the Panama Papers case can still make tax declarations and pay taxes on their investments. Being Mexican and having foreign investments or bank accounts is not a crime, but having income and not declaring it is illegal. If the concealment of income from Panama Papers-related investments is categorized as tax evasion, fines of up to 100% of the omitted tax payment can result, as well as three months to nine years imprisonment for a "tax crime". According to ''Forbes'', " Hinojosa and other prominent Mexicans, mostly businessmen with close ties to the government, including at least one member of the Forbes billionaires list, were the subject of extensive articles published on line by '' Proceso'' and ''Aristegui Noticias Sunday'' to coincide with the ICIJ posting of the Panama Papers."Mexican Government Contractor Who Built First Lady's Mansion Is Exposed In The Panama Papers
. April 4, 2016.

New Zealand

New Zealand's Inland Revenue Department said that they were working to obtain details of people who have

tax residence The criteria for residence for tax purposes vary considerably from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and "residence" can be different for other, non-tax purposes. For individuals, physical presence in a jurisdiction is the main test. Some jurisdictio ...

in the country who may have been involved in arrangements facilitated by Mossack Fonseca.

Gerard Ryle Gerard Ryle (born 1965) is an Irish-Australian investigative reporter who has written on subjects including politics, financial and medical scandals, and police corruption. From 2011, he has been director of the International Consortium of Inve ...

, director of the

International Consortium of Investigative Journalists The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Inc. (ICIJ), is an independent global network of 280 investigative journalists and over 140 media organizations spanning more than 100 countries. It is based in Washington, D.C. with ...

, told Radio New Zealand on April 8, 2016 that New Zealand is a well-known tax haven and a "nice front for criminals".

Norway

The

Norwegian Tax Administration The Norwegian Tax Administration ( no, Skatteetaten) is a government agency responsible for resident registration (''National Population Register'') and tax collection in Norway. The agency is subordinate to the Ministry of Finance and is based a ...

expects to demand access to information from

DNB Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

(Norway's largest financial services group) about approximately 30 companies formed by DNB that are owned by Norwegians, 20 of whom are living in Norway. 200 Norwegians are on the client list of Mossack Fonseca.

Pakistan

The three children of prime minister

Nawaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (Urdu, Punjabi: ; born 25 December 1949) is a Pakistani businessman and politician who has served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms. He is the longest-serving prime minister of Pak ...

, Maryam, Hussein and Hassan, are shown as owning four companies among them. Maryam Nawaz denied all such charges via her official

account in a series of tweets, saying: Samina Durrani, the mother-in-law of chief minister Shebaz Sharif from his second marriage and Ilyas Mehraj, his brother-in-law from his first marriage are also included in the documents. The leaks resulted in a high-profile case against the prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, in the

Supreme Court of Pakistan The Supreme Court of Pakistan ( ur, ; ''Adālat-e-Uzma Pākistān'') is the apex court in the judicial hierarchy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Established in accordance to thePart VIIof the Constitution of Pakistan, it has ultimate a ...

which returned a 3-2 verdict in favor of further investigation into the Sharif family's businesses. A Joint investigation Team was formed by the Supreme Court in May 2017 to probe the family's assets in this regard. It will have to render its report before the court within 60 days of its first session. On July 28, 2017, as per results of the investigation, Supreme Court of Pakistan disqualified the Prime Minister of Pakistan from holding the public office also permanently disqualified and corruption case referred to NAB of Pakistan

Panama

The Procuraduría de la Nación announced that it will open an investigation concerning the international journalistic investigation "Panama papers", where Mossack Fonseca is involved. Minister of the Presidency, Alvaro Alemán categorically rejects that Panama is considered a tax haven and ruled that no permit is used the country as a "scapegoat", thus reacting to the scandal "Panama Papers" and the subsequent re-registration by France in the list of tax havens. Alemán criticized vigorously the statements made by the Secretary General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) José Ángel Gurría and Minister of Finance of France, Michael Sapin and considered as disrespectful and irresponsible, especially when publications speak of a total of 21 jurisdictions, but only lash out at Panama. Alemán explained that talks have started with the French ambassador in Panama, with whom the issue will be discussed preliminarily and establish avenues of understanding to clarify the situation being implicated the country. Eduardo Morgan, from the Panamanian firm Morgan & Morgan accuses the OECD of being behind the campaign to avoid competition that Panama represents for the interests of other countries. The Panama Papers are a very serious issue for Panama because it affects in an "unfair" manner the country's image and is not the result of an investigation, but is a "hack". This was stated on April 5, by Adolfo Linares, president of the Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture of Panama (Cciap). The Colegio Nacional de Abogados de Panama (CNA) urged the Panamanian government to sue anyone who has affected the country's image with the massive leak of documents linking the Panamanian firm Mossack Fonseca with the creation of companies to move capital evading taxes. Political analyst Mario Rognoni said that Panama is the most affected in the whole scandal 'Panama Papers'. He said the world is pointing to Panama as a tax haven and will depend on the policies adopted by the authorities. On the government of President Juan Carlos Varela, he believes he might be involved if he tries to cover up the responsibility of those involved. Economist Rolando Gordon said this hurts the country that has just emerged from the gray list of FATF. The US could ask Panama to modify the law, he said. He explained that at this time is seen as a scandal, but will each country, especially Panama to conduct investigations and determine whether it is true that illegal or improper acts were committed. Panama's Lawyers Movement listed as a 'cyber bullying or international cyberterrorism' scandal called 'Panama Papers'. In a press conference, the guild primarily condemned the attack on the country brand 'Panama'. Fraguela Alfonso, president of the movement, said there is no doubt that this is a direct attack on the country's financial system.'I invite all organized forces of the country to create a great crusade for the rescue of the country's image, "he said.He said that Panama is not a tax haven and Panamanian corporations are widely used by the Panamanians.The law firm Rubio, Alvarez, Solis & Abrego also reacted and in a press release detailing that "in recent decades Panama has been in the financial and most important services in Latin America and the world plazas. Product of it all kinds of attacks on our service system 'are encouraged.' The establishment of an offshore company is legal. The lawyer and excontralor of the Republic Alvin Weeden explained that its illegal when the product created or sold to others is used for money laundering or arms smuggling, terrorism, and tax evasion. This case was published on Twitter: 'Its like you create an atomic bomb, you sell it to another country and detonate them in another country'.

Russia

The '' Süddeutsche Zeitung'', which made the papers public, has described the connections of various individuals listed in the papers to Russian President

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

. According to the newspaper, the release of the papers confirms the previous descriptions of Russia as a

kleptocratic Kleptocracy (from Greek κλέπτης ''kléptēs'', "thief", κλέπτω ''kléptō'', "I steal", and -κρατία -''kratía'' from κράτος ''krátos'', "power, rule") is a government whose corrupt leaders (kleptocrats) use politica ...

"Mafia state" run by Putin and his inner circle. Vladimir Putin does not appear in any of the records but the names of many of his associates do, such as construction billionaires

Arkady Arkady (russian: Арка́дий, Arkadiy) is a Slavic masculine given name, ultimately derived from the Greek name Αρκάδιος, meaning “from Arcadia”. The Latin equivalent is Arcadius. Notable people with the name include: People: *Ar ...

and Boris Rotenberg, as well as the professional musician Sergei Roldugin and business magnate

Alisher Usmanov Alisher Burkhanovich Usmanov (russian: Алишер Бурханович Усманов; born 9 September 1953) is an Uzbek-born Russian businessman and oligarch. By 2022, Usmanov had an estimated net worth of $19.5 billion and was among the w ...

. The papers also list billionaire Gennady Timchenko, Putin's press secretary's spouse, his cousin, Putin's former

KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...

colleagues, and several oligarchs as owning offshore shell companies. In 2011 Putin had criticized offshore companies as "unpatriotic". The documents leaked indicated that Sergei Roldugin, a professional cellist described by Novaya Gazeta as

's best friend and the godfather of his eldest daughter, had acquired assets worth at least $100 million, including a 12.5% stake in Video International, Russia's largest television advertising firm. It was also revealed that Roldugin had acquired these assets in what the ''

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

'' described as "suspicious deals". Putin spokesperson

Dmitry Peskov Dmitry Sergeyevich Peskov ( rus, Дмитрий Сергеевич Песков, p=pʲɪˈskof; born 17 October 1967) is a Russian diplomat and the press secretary for Russian President Vladimir Putin.Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

and the Panama Papers were part of a conspiracy against Russia, orchestrated by the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

, the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

and others.— * * * * President Putin has denied "any element of corruption" over the Panama Papers leaks, saying his opponents are trying to destabilise Russia. Initially, aside from few independent outlets, Russian media entirely ignored the leak. ''Channel 1'' and ''Rossiya 1'', both state owned, did not mention the Panama Papers at all on April 4, when the story broke. When an opposition politician asked why the media was ignoring the story, Dmitry Kiselev, head of ''

Rossiya Segodnya MIA Rossiya Segodnya (; ) is a media group owned and operated by the Russian government, created on the basis of RIA Novosti. The group owns and operates Sputnik, RIA Novosti, inoSMI and several other entities. The head of the organisation is ...

'', refused to discuss or comment. To the extent that some coverage was given to the story it was often done in the middle of the night, and focused exclusively on international celebrities rather than the links to Putin's circles found in the papers. Coverage of the leak began to appear after Peskov's reaction, but generally focused on Peskov's comments rather than discussing the information in the Panama Papers.

Saudi Arabia

The Crown Prince

Muhammad bin Nayef Muhammad bin Nayef Al Saud ( ar, محمد بن نايف آل سعود, translit=Muḥammad bin Nāyif Āl Su‘ūd; born 30 August 1959), colloquially known by his initials MBN or MbN, is a former Saudi Arabian politician and businessman who serv ...

has also been named in association with the Papers.

Singapore

The

Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a part of the government in most countries that is responsible for matters related to the finance. Lists of current ministries of finance Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Finance (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Finance and Ec ...

and

Monetary Authority of Singapore The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is the central bank and financial regulatory authority of Singapore. It administers the various statutes pertaining to money, banking, insurance, securities and the financial sector in general, as well ...

said in a statement that "Singapore takes a serious view on tax evasion and will not tolerate its business and financial centre being used to facilitate tax related crimes. If there is evidence of wrongdoing by any individual or entity in Singapore, we will not hesitate to take firm action."

Sweden

The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (FI) said on April 4, 2016 it would launch an investigation into the actions of

Nordea Nordea Bank Abp, commonly referred to as Nordea, is a European financial services group operating in northern Europe and based in Helsinki, Finland. The name is a blend of the words "Nordic" and "idea". The bank is the result of the successive m ...

, one of the largest financial institutions in the Nordic countries, after Panama Papers revealed the company's Luxembourg office had helped to set up nearly 400 offshore companies for its clients. Later FI informed that they will investigate also the other three big banks in Sweden:

Handelsbanken Svenska Handelsbanken AB is a Swedish bank providing banking services including traditional corporate transactions, investment banking and trading as well as consumer banking including insurance. Handelsbanken is one of the major banks in Sweden ...

, SEB and Swedbank. Nordea cut all ties with Mossack Fonseca following an interview with Nordea CEO

Casper von Koskull Casper von Koskull (born September 1960) is a Finnish banker, former president and CEO of Nordea, Nordea Bank Abp, the Nordic financial services group operating in Northern Europe, since 1 November 2015, when he succeeded Christian Clausen. He is ...

on SVT on April 4. The FI has pointed out that there are "serious deficiencies" in how Nordea monitors money laundering and has given the bank two warnings. In 2015 Nordea had to pay the largest possible fine – over 5 million EUR.

Thailand

The '' Bangkok Post'' said that the "... Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) is seeking information from its foreign counterparts regarding twenty-one Thai nationals reportedly included in a list of people worldwide using a Panama-based law firm apparently specializing in money laundering and tax evasion. It is not clear how or why AMLO is investigating only twenty one. The Panama Papers include at least 780 names of individuals based in Thailand and another fifty companies based in Thailand. Some are foreigners or foreign-owned companies but 634 individual addresses in Thailand appear in the documents that have surfaced to date, including the CEOs of giant companies

Bangkok Land Bangkok Land Public Company Limited () is a real estate company in Thailand. It is best known as the developer of Muang Thong Thani, a large residential development in Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and ...

and Phatra Finance.

Tunisia

The Tunis trial court prosecutor ordered a judicial inquiry opened into the Panama Papers and the Tunisian political figures suspected of hiring the firm. A judge from the Financial Judiciary Pole that is a Tunisian specialized court in financial crimes was assigned to the case. The

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

Assembly of the Representatives of the People The Assembly of the People's Representatives ( ar, مجلس نواب الشعب ', french: Assemblée des représentants du peuple; ARP) is Tunisia's legislative branch of government. The unicameral Assembly replaced the Constituent Assembly and ...

established a parliamentary commission of inquiry as well

Ukraine

Petro Porochenko par Claude Truong-Ngoc juin 2014

When Ukrainian President

Petro Poroshenko Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko ( uk, Петро́ Олексі́йович Пороше́нко, ; born 26 September 1965) is a Ukrainian businessman and politician who served as the fifth president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019. Poroshenko se ...

ran for office in 2014, he pledged to sell his candy business ( Roshen) if elected, but leaked documents indicate that on August 21, 2014 he instead had Mossack Fonseca set up offshore holding company Prime Asset Partners Ltd in the

and moved his company there, roughly two months after the election. The move had the potential to save him millions of dollars on his Ukrainian taxes. Records in Cyprus show him as the firm's only shareholder. Anti-corruption group

Transparency International Transparency International e.V. (TI) is a German registered association founded in 1993 by former employees of the World Bank. Based in Berlin, its nonprofit and non-governmental purpose is to take action to combat global corruption with civil ...

believes that the "creation of businesses while serving as president is a direct violation of the constitution". Also, journalists from the

Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) is a global network of investigative journalists with staff on six continents. It was founded in 2006 and specializes in organized crime and corruption. It publishes its stories through ...

believe that with the move Poroshenko committed two other illegalities, starting a new business while in office and failing afterwards to report it on his disclosure statements. Poroshenko denied any wrongdoing and a spokesman said the offshore company had no active assets and was a legitimate corporate restructure aimed at helping to sell Poroshenko's Roshen group. Analysts in Ukraine responded that the secretive way Poroshenko set up these accounts was certain to undermine trust in him, his party and Ukraine itself. The news about Poroshenko's offshore business came as his government campaigned against offshore companies. Oleh Lyashko, leader of the Radical Party, urged lawmakers to begin impeachment proceedings, And even some of his allies backed calls for a parliamentary commission to investigate the allegations. In the

Ukrainian Parliament The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ( uk, Верхо́вна Ра́да Украї́ни, translit=, Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy, translation=Supreme Council of Ukraine, Ukrainian abbreviation ''ВРУ''), often simply Verkhovna Rada or just Rada, is the ...

, relations between the Poroshenko bloc and the People's Front party of Prime Minister

Arseniy Yatsenyuk Arseniy Petrovych Yatsenyuk ( uk, Арсеній Петрович Яценюк ; born 22 May 1974) is a Ukrainian politician, economist and lawyer who served as Prime Minister of Ukraine twice – from 27 February 2014 to 27 November 2014 and f ...

had over previous months already soured, with mutual accusations of corruption. The allegations threw gasoline on long-running allegations of corruption and impropriety on Poroshenko's behalf, which are thought to be a large reason, although not the chief one, why Poroshenko lost his reelection bid.

United Arab Emirates

ICIJ, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' and ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' have reported that

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

President

Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan ( ar,  خليفة بن زايد بن سلطان آل نهيان‎; 7 September 1948 – 13 May 2022) was the second president of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of Abu Dhabi, serving from ...

owns London real estate worth more than £1.2 billion through a structure of some thirty shell companies Mossack Fonseca set up for him in the

and administer for him, using them to manage and control the luxury properties in London. By December 2015, Mossack Fonseca held nearly all of the shares in those companies in trust structures on his behalf, with the President and his wife, son and daughter the trust beneficiaries.

United Kingdom

According to ''

'', "More than £170bn of UK property is now held overseas. ... Nearly one in 10 of the 31,000 tax haven companies that own British property are linked to Mossack Fonseca." British property purchases worth more than £180 million were investigated in 2015 as the likely proceeds of corruption — almost all bought through offshore companies. Two-thirds of the purchases were made by companies registered in four British Overseas Territories and Crown dependencies which operate as tax havens –

Jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label= Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west France. It is the l ...

, Guernsey, the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...

and the

(BVI) – according to

Land Registry Land registration is any of various systems by which matters concerning ownership, possession, or other rights in land are formally recorded (usually with a government agency or department) to provide evidence of title, facilitate transactions, ...

data obtained by '' Private Eye'' magazine through

freedom of information Freedom of information is freedom of a person or people to publish and consume information. Access to information is the ability for an individual to seek, receive and impart information effectively. This sometimes includes "scientific, Indigeno ...

requests. The seller's market has sent prices skyrocketing out of reach for many Londoners. Included among the Papers are the names of six members of the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

, several of whom have been donors to Cameron's Conservative Party, and other Conservative donors. This included: *

Anthony Bamford Anthony Paul Bamford, Baron Bamford, (born 23 October 1945) is a British billionaire businessman who is chairman of J. C. Bamford (JCB). He succeeded his father, Joseph Cyril Bamford, as chairman and managing director of the company in 1975, ...

: £4 million in Conservative Party donations, made a Conservative life peer in 2013; * David Rowland: £3.8 million in Conservative Party donations, former party treasurer; * Fleming Family & Partners: Over £400,000 in Conservative Party donations, including direct donations to David Cameron; * Juniper Equities Trading: £250,000 loan to the Conservative Party from an offshore fund with an opaque ownership structure; *

Tony Buckingham Anthony Leslie Rowland "Tony" Buckingham is a former North Sea oil-rig diver and is currently an oil industry executive with a significant share holding in Heritage Oil Corporation. Heritage is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange since 1999. I ...

: £100,000 donation to the Conservative Party. As the United Kingdom still exercises varying degrees of control over British Overseas Territories and Crown dependencies which make up a large number of the many tax havens and "secrecy jurisdictions" that exist, pressure has mounted on Prime Minister David Cameron to make changes. According to the ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', the Panama Papers "are shining a light on the constellation of offshore centers in the last remnants of the British Empire, from

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

to the British Virgin Islands." Of the companies handled by Mossack Fonseca which were included in the leaked data, British Overseas Territory the BVI topped the list, with 113,000 of the nearly 215,000 companies that Mossack Fonseca managed incorporated there. British Overseas Territory

Anguilla Anguilla ( ) is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and directly north of Saint Martin. The terr ...

was 7th on the list. Cameron criticized complex offshore structures in 2012, saying that it is "not fair and not right", while at the G8 summit in 2013 he demanded more transparency, saying that it would be better for business. In 2014, Cameron asked all Overseas Territories and Crown dependencies to set-up an open register of firms and individuals with investments registered in their jurisdictions, but by the time of the Panama Papers leak in April 2016, only Montserrat and Gibraltar had agreed to do so. Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn, said "The government needs to stop pussyfooting around on tax dodging" and called for "direct rule" to be imposed over British Overseas Territories and Crown dependencies that act as tax havens, a move former Business Secretary

Vince Cable Sir John Vincent Cable (born 9 May 1943) is a British politician who was Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2017 to 2019. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Twickenham from 1997 to 2015 and from 2017 to 2019. He also served in the Cabinet as ...

agreed with, although former attorney general

Dominic Grieve Dominic Charles Roberts Grieve (born 24 May 1956) is a British barrister and former politician who served as Shadow Home Secretary from 2008 to 2009 and Attorney General for England and Wales from 2010 to 2014. He served as the Member of Parl ...

described it as a "bit of a nuclear option" which would "destroy the livelihoods" of BVI inhabitants in the finance industry. The Labour Party also said that Cameron's plans for an "anti-corruption" summit in May would be "a charade" if Cameron, as chairman of the summit, did not require representatives of all Crown dependencies and overseas territories to attend. Jennie Granger, a spokeswoman for HMRC said that the department had received "a great deal of information on offshore companies, including in Panama, from a wide range of sources, which is currently the subject of intensive investigation". She said HMRC had asked ICIJ to share all its data. ''Private Eye'' and ''The Guardian'' revealed that Edward Troup, appointed executive chair of HMRC in April 2016, was a former partner with Simmons & Simmons, the London-based legal firm whose clients included the Panama-registered fund created by David Cameron's father, Blairmore Holdings. Papers obtained by the ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' and ICIJ reveal Simmons & Simmons' close relationship with running offshore companies and major overseas property owners, including an investment company run on behalf of Sheikh

Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah bin Jassim bin Muhammed Al Thani ( ar, حمد بن عبدالله بن جاسم بن محمد آل ثاني; 1896 – 27 May 1948) was Crown Prince of the State of Qatar. Sheikh Hamad was the second son of the second E ...

, while Troup was its senior tax partner. By November 2016 it was reported that a total of 22 people had been subjected to investigation by HMRC relating to potential tax evasion as a result of the Panama Papers, with a further 43 "under review".

Blairmore Holdings, Inc.

Ian Cameron, the late father of UK Prime Minister David Cameron, ran an offshore fund ( Blairmore Holdings, Inc.) through Mossack Fonseca that avoided UK taxes for 30 years. His company moved to Ireland after David Cameron became Prime Minister. On April 6, Cameron admitted that he owned shares in Blairmore, but sold his shares before becoming PM. Prominent politicians criticized the involvement of the Cameron family in the scandal; Leader of the Opposition

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...

urged an immediate independent investigation into the tax affairs of Cameron's family as well as tighter laws on UK tax avoidance.— * * * * Opponents also called for Cameron's resignation after he admitted owning shares in Blairmore.

United States

President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

was critical of Caribbean tax havens in his 2008 election campaign. In 2010, the United States implemented the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act; the law required financial firms around the world to report accounts held by US citizens to the Internal Revenue Service. Former Secretary of State and Democratic Presidential front-runner

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

condemned "outrageous tax havens and loopholes ... in Panama and elsewhere". at a Pennsylvania AFL–CIO event. Clinton added that "some of this behavior is clearly against the law, and everyone who violates the law anywhere should be held accountable", but it was "scandalous how much is actually legal". Clinton promised that "We are going after all these scams and make sure everyone pays their fair share here in America." The US on the other hand refused the

Common Reporting Standard The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is an information standard for the Automatic Exchange Of Information (AEOI) regarding financial accounts on a global level, between tax authorities, which the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Develop ...

set up by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, alongside

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...

and

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

. This means the US receives tax and asset information for American assets and income abroad, but does not share information about what happens in the United States with other countries, in other words has become attractive as a tax haven.

Panama Free Trade Agreement

The Panama Free Trade Agreement, supported by Obama and Clinton, has been accused of enabling the practices detailed within the Panama Papers through regulatory oversight. However, an Obama administration official said the argument has "zero merit". John Cassidy of ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' says the Panama Free Trade Agreement actually forced Panama to release information to the American regulatory authorities on "the ownership of companies, partnerships, trusts, foundations, and other persons". Citing leaked diplomatic cables, ''Fortune'' writer Chris Matthews speculated that Obama and Clinton may have supported the agreement, after opposing it while campaigning for office, because it was a '' quid pro quo'' for Panamanian support of US efforts against drug trafficking. In any event, he notes, while it is true that the agreement abolished limits on fund transfers between the US and Panama, the Obama administration insisted that the two countries first sign a Tax Information and Exchange Agreement as well, which facilitated the exchange of tax information between the countries.

After the leak

President Barack Obama addressed the overseas shell companies listed by the leak in a press conference: "It's not that they're breaking the laws," he said, "it's that the laws are so poorly designed that they allow people, if they've got enough lawyers and enough accountants, to wiggle out of responsibilities that ordinary citizens are having to abide by." Although no leader in the US was mentioned in the Panama Papers, Obama said that "Frankly, folks in America are taking advantage of the same stuff". Senators

Sherrod Brown Sherrod Campbell Brown (; born November 9, 1952) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Ohio, a seat which he has held since 2007. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the U.S. representative for Ohio's ...

and

Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Ann Warren ( née Herring; born June 22, 1949) is an American politician and former law professor who is the senior United States senator from Massachusetts, serving since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party and regarded as a ...

have requested that the Treasury Department investigate any US-linked companies that appeared in the leaks, and members of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

for

the state of New York New York, officially the State of New York, is a U.S. state, state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the List of U.S. ...

( Democratic representative

Carolyn Maloney Carolyn Jane Maloney (née Bosher, February 19, 1946) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2013, and for from 1993 to 2013. The district includes most of Manhattan's East Side, Astoria and Long Island City ...

– a high-ranking member of the

House Banking Committee The United States House Committee on Financial Services, also referred to as the House Banking Committee and previously known as the Committee on Banking and Currency, is the committee of the United States House of Representatives that oversees t ...

– and

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

representative

Peter T. King Peter Thomas King (born April 5, 1944) is a former American politician who represented New York in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, he represented a South Shore Long Island district that i ...

"NY banks ordered to provide information on Panama dealings"
''Curaçao Chronicle''.) have introduced the ''Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act'', a proposed bill which would:

...ensure that persons who form corporations or limited liability companies in the United States disclose the beneficial owners of those corporations or limited liability companies, in order to prevent wrongdoers from exploiting United States corporations and limited liability companies for criminal gain, to assist law enforcement in detecting, preventing, and punishing terrorism, money laundering, and other misconduct involving United States corporations and limited liability companies, and for other purposes.

According to the ''Fair Observer'': "The law contains many reasonable exemptions, including public corporations (who already have registers of beneficial owners); churches and other non-profits; and owners of businesses with more than 20 employees, $5 million in annual revenues and a physical presence such as an office." However, the bill has faced resistance from the

National Association of Secretaries of State The National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), founded in 1904, is the oldest non-partisan professional organization of public officials in the United States, composed of the secretaries of state of U.S. states and territories. Currentl ...

, who are concerned about loss of tax revenue and the burden of regulation. NASS has also called for "existing solutions" being used to combat the issue, saying that "federal legislation won't work". Jürgen Mossack testified under oath that M.F. Corporate Services (Nevada) Ltd. had no affiliation with the Panamanian Mossack Fonseca, but the Panama Papers show that it was in fact a wholly owned subsidiary and tried to hide the relationship, ordering emails and other computer footprints deleted. The firm was fighting an order that it turn over the details of 123 shell companies created by an associate of a former President of Argentina. Manhattan US Attorney

Preet Bharara Preetinder Singh Bharara (; born October 13, 1968) is an Indian-born American lawyer, author, podcaster and former federal prosecutor who served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017. He is curren ...

has opened a criminal investigation on matters related to the Panama Papers and sent a letter April 3 to the

(ICIJ) saying his office "would greatly appreciate the opportunity to speak as soon as possible." The ICIJ received many such requests from many countries and ICIJ Director Gerard Ryle has said its policy is not to turn over any materials.

Americans

McClatchy Newspapers The McClatchy Company, commonly referred to as simply McClatchy, is an American publishing company incorporated under Delaware's General Corporation Law and based in Sacramento, California. It operates 29 daily newspapers in fourteen states and ...

, the only participating US news organization in the investigation, found four Americans with offshore shell companies named in the documents. All had previously been either accused or convicted of financial crimes such as fraud or tax evasion. Three reasons have been suggested to explain the paucity of Americans in the leak: * Shell companies can be created in the United States, * major international banks based in America tend to have offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands instead * US laws like the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the

Tax Information Exchange Agreements Tax information exchange agreements (TIEA) provide for the exchange of information on request relating to a specific criminal or civil tax investigation or civil tax matters under investigation. A model TIEA was developed by the OECD Global Forum W ...

(TIEAs) of 2010 have meant that the "tax evasion game asprincipally over for American taxpayers." Asked about the paucity of American individuals in the documents, digital editor of '' Süddeutsche Zeitung,'' Stefan Plöchinger, said via Twitter: "Just wait for what is coming next." Plöchinger later clarified that he was just advocating not jumping to conclusions. New York's Department of Financial Services has asked 13 foreign banks, including Deutsche Bank AG, Credit Suisse Group AG, Commerzbank AG, ABN Amro Group NV and Societe Generale SA, for information about their dealings with Mossack Fonseca. The banks are not accused of wrongdoing but must provide telephone logs and records of other transactions between their New York branches and the law firm. Copies of at least 200 American passports – indicating that their owners applied for banking services – have been discovered in the Papers, but no US politicians have yet been named in the leak. The names of a few Americans are however mentioned: * Puerto Rican recording artist Ramón Luis Ayala, better known as

Daddy Yankee Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez (born February 3, 1976), known professionally as Daddy Yankee, is a Puerto Rican rapper, singer, composer, and actor. Known as the " King of Reggaetón" by music critics and fans alike, he is the artist who coined ...

, appears in the leaked documents. * CEO and then Chairman of Citibank (1998-2006)

Sanford Weill Sanford I. "Sandy" Weill (; born March 16, 1933) is an American banker, financier and philanthropist. He is a former chief executive and chairman of Citigroup. He served in those positions from 1998 until October 1, 2003, and April 18, 2006, re ...

appears in the documents as sole shareholder of April Fool, a company based in the British Virgin Islands that managed a yacht of the same name 2001-2005. Weill's second company, Brightao, includes Chinese and American investors and holds share in a Chinese insurance and risk-management firm, Mingya Insurance Brokers. * Jerry Slusser, a fundraiser for Republican Mitt Romney, initially said he did not recall opening an offshore company, but then called his accountant and said it was for an investment in Hong Kong that eventually showed a loss. He declined to provide further detail. * Numerous donors to the Clinton Foundation, including many foreign nationals.

Venezuela

Josmel Velásquez, brother of a security official under the late Hugo Chávez, was arrested April 15 trying to catch a flight out of the country due to an offshore company revealed by the Panama Papers. His mother Amelis Figueroa was also arrested, but allowed to return home due to her health. Venezuelan news site Armando.info reported that Josmel's brother Adrian, a former aide to late President Hugo Chávez, had opened a shell company though Mossack Fonseca in the Republic of the Seychelles with a $50,000 deposit. Their report was based on the documents leaked from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. Velásquez was Indicted April 20.

WikiLeaks

Icelandic investigative journalist and

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...

spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson has called for the Panama Papers to be published in full online. Hrafnsson, who worked on Cablegate in 2010, said the withholding of documents is understandable to maximise the impact, but said that in the end the papers should be published in full for the public to access. Hrafnsson's comments were reinforced by a tweet from WikiLeaks which criticized the decision of the

ICIJ The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Inc. (ICIJ), is an independent global network of 280 investigative journalists and over 140 media organizations spanning more than 100 countries. It is based in Washington, D.C. with ...

to not allow full and transparent access to the Panama Papers, stating that, "If you censor more than 99% of the documents you are engaged in 1% journalism by definition." WikiLeaks' position was, in turn, criticized, as the decision to disclose the documents at once would not have been the right one as far as "journalistic ethics" were concerned. WikiLeaks also argued via a tweet that the connection between the

and the American government would undermine the integrity of the news leak; this position was also, in turn, criticized as a theory which "Vladimir Putin would love."

References

{{authority control Panama Papers Panama Papers reactions Panama Papers