2016-04-08 12:35:00

EU considering sanctions over panama papers


(Vatican Radio) A European Union official says the EU is considering to sanction Panama and other nations if they don't cooperate
fully to fight money laundering and tax evasion, after a leak of data showed the small country remains a key destination for people, including
the rich and famous, who want to hide money. 

Listen to Stefan Bos' report


Pierre Moscovici, who heads the financial affairs for the 28-nation European Union says he is outraged after media began publishing details
in 11.5 million documents from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca. They show how the company has helped thousands of individuals and companies from around the world set up shell companies and offshore accounts in low-tax havens.

They include even companies linked to presidents and prime ministers. Moscovici has condemned Panama and other nations allowing such secretive low tax account.

"This week's revelations leave me outraged and furious. We do not yet know how much of this activity was illegal, but much of it is certainly, first, true,
and secondly, certainly immoral, unethical and in one word, unacceptable," he said.

"The amounts of money, the jurisdictions and the names associated with this affair are frankly shocking, and let's call a spade a spade (be frank and forthright), non-cooperative jurisdictions are tax havens," the official added. "We have to list them through a common EU blacklist and to be ready to hit them with appropriate sanctions if they refuse to change," Moscovici warned.

LEADERS MENTIONED

Among those mentioned has been even the British Prime Minister David Cameron. He has now admitted that he and his wife did own shares
in an offshore trust run by his late father. Blairmore Holdings was set up in the Bahamas in the 1981 so the company could avoid paying British tax.

Cameron says he sold the shares in 2010, the year he became prime minister. "Samantha and I have a joint account. We owned 5000 units in Blairmore
Investment Trust, which we sold in January 2010. That was worth something like £30,000 ($42,000). I paid income tax on the dividends," he said.

While offshore trusts are not illegal under British law, the revelation are seen as embarrassing for the Prime minister as he had
called complex tax avoidance schemes as “morally wrong.”

Among other leaders linked to off-shore accounts have been Russian President Vladimir Putin. However Putin denied wrongdoing and said
the allegations were part of a U.S.-led disinformation campaign waged against Russia in order to weaken its government.

PUTIN CONTROVERSY

The documents revealed by Germany's Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ),
indicate that Russian cellist Sergei Roldugin acted as a front man for a network of Putin loyalists and, perhaps, the president himself.

The ICIJ said the documents show how complex offshore financial deals channeled as much as $2 billion to a network of people linked
to the Russian president.

However Western-backed Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who earned millions in the chocolate business, is also mentioned in what
have become known as the Panama Papers.

Analysts say these revelations also added to anger among Dutch voters who on Wednesday rejected an EU-association agreement with Ukraine in a referendum.


 








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