Tag: “Panama Papers”

‘Panama Papers’ law firm shuts down operations

PANAMA CITY (AFP) — The law firm at the heart of the “Panama Papers” global tax evasion scandal that brought down two world leaders announced Wednesday it would shut down operations, citing negative press and what it called unwarranted action by authorities. “Reputational deterioration, the media campaign, the financial consequences and irregular actions by some Panamanian authorities have caused irreparable damage, resulting in the total ceasing of public operations at the end of this month,” […]

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Panama suspends Panama Papers probe

PANAMA CITY, Panama (AFP) — Panama is suspending its probe into the Panama Papers, the leak of a legal firm’s files on clients who stored assets in opaque offshore companies, prosecutors said Tuesday. The records from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca revealed the names of leaders, politicians, celebrities and wealthy individuals from around the world who used the firm to create offshore entities to hide their assets. A legal challenge on constitutional grounds required […]

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IT worker at Panama Papers firm arrested in Geneva: report

GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — An information technology worker at the Geneva office of Mossack Fonseca, the law firm at the center of the Panama Papers scandal, has been arrested, Switzerland’s Le Temps newspaper reported Wednesday. The paper, citing a source close to the case, said the IT employee had been placed in provisional detention on suspicion of stealing a large haul of confidential documents. The spokesman for the Geneva’s prosecutor’s office, Henri Della Casa, told […]

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Panama Papers database on shell companies goes online

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) by Paul Handley The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists on Monday published online detailed data from the Panama Papers trove on more than 200,000 secret offshore companies. The searchable database built on just a portion of the documents leaked from the Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca reveals more than 360,000 names of individuals and companies behind the anonymous shell firms, the ICIJ said. Reports already published in April based on the explosive […]

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Panama Papers showed vulnerability of whole system: Panama president

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The scandal triggered by the Panama Papers leak of information on how and where the world’s wealthy stash funds to avoid detection or taxes underscored many countries’ vulnerabilities, President Juan Carlos Varela said Tuesday. Speaking at the State Department in Washington, the Panamanian president said the documents “reveal a worldwide problem, that involves many countries with legal and financial institutions” vulnerable to actions “that are not in the public interest.” […]

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LuxLeaks whistleblowers go on trial

by Veronique POUJOL LUXEMBOURG,Luxembourg (AFP) — Three Frenchmen went on trial in Luxembourg on Tuesday accused of an “incredible” document leak that exposed huge tax breaks for major global companies, in an issue brought sharply into focus by the Panama Papers scandal. Antoine Deltour and Raphael Halet, two former employees at services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), and French journalist Edouard Perrin face charges over the theft of thousands of confidential files in the so-called LuxLeaks scandal. […]

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Panama scandal claims scalp of Austrian bank chief

VIENNA, Austria (AFP) — The head of a Austrian regional bank became on Thursday the latest casualty of the Panama Papers scandal, announcing his resignation but denying any wrongdoing. “At the end of the day what made the difference in taking this step was the prejudgement through the media of Hypo Vorarlberg and of myself in recent days,” Michael Grahammer, 51, said. “I remain 100-percent convinced the bank at no time contravened laws or sanctions,” he […]

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‘Panama Papers’ law firm says ‘hacked by servers abroad’

PANAMA City (AFP)– One of the founders of Mossack Fonseca, the law firm at the center of the explosive “Panama Papers” revelations on off-shore holdings, told AFP on Tuesday his company was hacked by servers abroad. Ramon Fonseca said the firm had lodged a criminal complaint with Panamanian prosecutors on Monday over the breach. He added that in all the reporting so far “nobody is talking of the hack, and that is the only crime […]

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FIFA President denies links to “Panama Papers” scandal

  ZURICH, SWITZERLAND (Reuters) – FIFA President Gianni Infantino released a statement on Tuesday (April 5) denying involvement with companies implicated in the Panama leaks shortly after an article by Britain’s Guardian newspaper said the leaks showed contracts co-signed by Infantino in his role as director of legal services at UEFA, with an Argentine firm that bought TV rights for European continental competitions. “As I previously stated, I never personally dealt with Cross Trading nor […]

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Football: Infantino implicated in Panama Papers – report

  BERLIN, Germany (AFP) —  The signature of new FIFA president Gianni Infantino has cropped up in the so-called “Panama Papers” in connection with questionable TV rights sales in South America, the German newspaper behind the mass leaks reported on Tuesday. Swiss-Italian lawyer Infantino, 46, succeeded the suspended Sepp Blatter in February as the head of FIFA, which is reeling from the arrests of leading officials last year, as well as the clouds over the […]

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Iceland premier resigns as Panama Papers scandal widens 

by Hugues Honore with David Williams in Paris REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AFP) —  Iceland’s prime minister resigned Tuesday, becoming the first political victim of a mushrooming global scandal over hidden offshore financial dealings exposed in the so-called Panama Papers. Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson was the biggest casualty of a worldwide media probe into 11.5 million leaked documents that purportedly reveal the offshore financial activities of 140 political figures, including 12 current or former heads of […]

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