Panama Papers is a trove of 11.5 million leaked internal documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, showing how hundreds of thousands of people hide their wealth in offshore accounts in Panama so as to evade tax and launder money.
A Central American country, Panama is a tax haven where taxes are not imposed on offshore companies, and extensive laws protect corporate and individual financial privacy.
The Panama Papers made public the offshore accounts, and assets of 140 politicians, and public officials, among them four assets belonging to the Saraki family.
Over the past year, investigative journalists across the world have been sifting through 11.5 million internal files from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.
The files were leaked to German paper, Süddeutsche Zeitung, which shared the huge trove with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists have promised to release a full list of companies and the people linked to them in “early May.”
Stories about the data, which has been dubbed the Panama Papers, have been published by news organizations everywhere from Argentina to Sweden.
In Iceland the country’s prime minister has been asked to resign after he was implicated in the papers.
However on Monday, Senator Bukola Saraki in a statement released by his media aide, Yusuph Olaniyonu, denied owning the assets linked to him, adding that they belong to his father-in-law.
The statement reads in part: “The property in question forms part of Saraki’s wife’s family asset. It is public knowledge that Mrs. Saraki comes from a family of independent means and wealth with numerous and varied assets acquired over decades in family estates and investments.”
Where are the American names and businesses on this list. Really selective reporting there .