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‘Panama Papers’ Leak to Spur Governmental Inquiries
By Irene Madongo and Valentina Pasquali
printThe leak of millions of records purporting to show widespread exploitation of offshore financial centers by global leaders, lenders and criminals is expected to draw governmental scrutiny of illicit finance, however unevenly. On Sunday, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung and other media outlets said that the records obtained from a Panamanian law firm reveal offshore assets held on behalf of 140 public officials, including current and former leaders of Russia, China, Iceland, Pakistan, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and five other nations. The law firm, Panama City-based Mossack Fonseca, has also aided Ponzi schemers, drug...
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Panama has taken "substantial steps" to tackle tax evasion after last year's leak of millions of documents from offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca revealed the nation's role as a global enabler of illicit financial flows, an international economic body said.
The head of an EU parliamentary committee reviewing files leaked from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca said their yearlong investigation has been hampered by officials refusing to hand over documents and bank executives failing to appear at hearings.
The only serving EU minister named in records leaked from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca failed Tuesday to clear himself from allegations of money laundering during a grilling by a panel of European lawmakers in Malta.
Variances in data-protection rules from country to country are impeding EU investigations of politicos with secret offshore holdings as documented by the Panama Papers, European lawmakers heard Thursday.
EU parliamentarians on Thursday detailed plans to investigate purported supervisory failures that allowed some of Europe's largest banks to create thousands of shell companies for clients holding suspect funds offshore.
Reports last month alleging widespread misuse of shell companies linked to Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca have drawn undue criticism of the British Virgin Islands, according to two Tortola-based investigators.
As media organizations prepare to launch a database of records leaked from a Panama City-based company, a top Panamanian official on Thursday reiterated the country's plans to improve its financial transparency.
Great Britain's newly formed financial sanctions unit that is part of HM Treasury has its first supervisor, Rena Lalgie, who joins the agency in conjunction with a push by the U.K. to enforce a tougher financial sanctions regime.
More than a week after media allegations of widespread abuse of shell companies, banks are scrambling to determine what ties they have to the Panamanian law firm at the center of the scandal.
The Panama Papers are justifiably grabbing headlines. But it's important to step back and have a little perspective: the use of shell companies for tax evasion, the proceeds of corruption and other crimes detailed in the papers are outrageous, but sadly nothing new.
Facing criticism over his late father's offshore holdings, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron outlined plans on Monday asked parliamentarians to make it easier to prosecute companies that aid tax dodgers.
With national governments this week mustering responses to a massive leak of privileged documents, the international groups that direct the global fight against money laundering have remained relatively quiet, and could stay so.
As pressure mounted earlier this week for U.K. officials to respond to allegations against British banks and politicos, the country's financial watchdog quietly disclosed that it would not conduct thematic money laundering assessments this year.
British businesses must collect and store data on their beneficial owners as of Wednesday, under a milestone deadline for the U.K.'s plan to launch a public register aimed at improving corporate transparency.
Russia plans to investigate whether the Russian nationals named in the Panama Papers violated any laws, officials in the Ukraine will probe President Petro Poroshenko over his ownership of three offshore companies with ties to Mossack Fonseca, and more, in the midweek roundup.
U.K. overseas territories officials in London this week pledged to create central registries or similar effective systems to share data on beneficial owners more easily with financial crime investigators, but didn't disclose when and how they would comply with the initiative.
In the messy art of prognostication, everything is overly easy and nothing exact, not even compliance expectations. But one thing government officials and financial industry representatives seem certain of: 2015 will prove just as challenging as the past year for AML professionals.