Documents released this week claim Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson and his wife used offshore company, Wintris Inc., in the British Virgin Islands to hide millions in bank bonds when Iceland's banking system crashed and its lenders had to be bailed out.
The shocking revelations led opposition parties to call for his resignation today, which has now been echoed by citizens who launched the largest public protest since the country's 2008 banking crisis.
Arntho Haldersson, a financial services consultant, said: 'He’s just lost all credibility. After all this country has been through, how can he possibly pretend to lead Iceland’s resurrection from the financial crisis? He should go,' reports The Guardian.
Anna Mjoll Gudmundsdottir, a tourism researcher, told the newspaper: 'These people, they say they’ve learned the lessons from what happened to us in 2008, but they’re still just hiding our money.'
However, he is refusing to resign, claiming that he has done nothing wrong.
He said: 'I certainly won't (resign) because what we've seen is the fact that, well, my wife has always paid her taxes. We've also seen that she has avoided any conflict of interest by investing in Icelandic companies at the same time that I'm in politics.'
And finally, we've seen that I've been willing to put the interests of the people of Iceland first even when it's at a disadvantage to my own family.'
Gunnlaugsson, who came to power in 2013 on a wave of anti-bank anger in the aftermath of the Icelandic financial meltdown, is facing a no-confidence vote over the revelations.
He is among a number of world leaders including Vladimir Putin, celebrities, British politicians and the global rich who have been revealed in 11million documents in the biggest financial data leak in history.
Some, like Putin, Chinese president Xi Jinping and Syria's president Bashar al-Assad are said to be indirectly linked to offshore accounts through friends and associates, while the presidents of Argentina and Ukraine, plus Gunnlaugsson, are among the 12 current or former national leaders with apparent direct links.
Megastars Jackie Chan and Lionel Messi are two of the big name celebrities named in the Panama files - while David Cameron is under pressure to reveal if his family still has cash in tax havens after it emerged his late father Ian ran an investment fund that never had to pay tax in Britain.
Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson is under pressure to resign over claims he had money hidden offshore - and stormed out of an interview when confronted about the issue earlier today.
When asked about Wintris by a journalist from the Swedish SVT channel, he appeared flustered before appearing to point the finger at his wife.
He said: 'My wife sold a part in the family company. It was put in the care of a bank and the bank made some arrangement and this company was the result.
'I don't know how these things work. But everything is declared on the tax report from the beginning. And I mean what...'
Visibly irritated, he gets up and tries to leave the room, saying: 'I have never hidden assets. It's a bit like you're accusing me of something.'
He walks out but not before being pressed further on the claims as he tried to remove his microphone.
The journalist tells him: 'We know that Wintris held and holds claims in the collapsed banks. You sold your share of the company for $1 in 2009.'
He replies: 'No, no, no. You're asking me nonsense'.
His spokesman later insisted he and his wife have scrupulously followed the law.
Leaked documents show that he and his wife, Anna Sigurlaug Palsdottir, bought offshore company Wintris in 2007, but he did not declare an interest in the company when entering parliament two years later.
After the banking meltdown, he is said to have resisted pressure from foreign creditors - including UK customers - to repay their deposits in full because it may have affected both the Icelandic banks and the value of the bonds - which Wintris held.
The couple, who were living in the UK at the time, had been advised to set up a company in order to hold and invest substantial proceeds from the sale of Pálsdóttir's share in her family's business back in Iceland, it was reported by The Guardian.
Gunnlaugsson owned a 50 per cent stake in Wintris for more than two years, then transferred it to Palsdottir, who held the other 50 per cent, for one dollar.
He says no rules were broken and his wife did not benefit financially.
The prime minister's office later said his shareholding was an error and it had 'always been clear to both of them that the prime minister's wife owned the assets'.
Opposition MPs met this morning and unanimously agreed upon a motion of no confidence against the government, it was reported by Iceland Monitor.
The text, which will be distributed today, demands the dissolution of the current parliament and early general elections.
In a Facebook post, Birgitta Jónsdóttir claimed the Prime Minister had been exposed as 'a charlatan and a liar in an advanced state of paranoia'.
A former prime minister urged him to resign after the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism on Sunday released 11.5 million financial records detailing the holdings of a dozen current and former world leaders.
'The prime minister should immediately resign,' former Social Democratic prime minister Johanna Sigurdardottir said in a message posted on Facebook.
More than 16,000 Icelanders have also signed a petition demanding his resignation, while the opposition has said it will seek a vote of no confidence in parliament, likely to be held this week.
It comes after the biggest financial data leak in history revealed how Vladimir Putin's inner circle and a 'dirty dozen' list of world leaders are using offshore tax havens to hide their wealth.
Documents were leaked from one of the world's most secretive companies, Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, and show how the company has allegedly helped clients launder money, dodge sanctions and evade tax.
Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak, Libya's former leader Colonel Gaddafi, Syria's president Bashar al-Assad and Chinese president Xi Jinping are among those alleged to have links to tax havens through families and associates.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his family have links to offshore accounts, it has emerged.
One of the people named in the leaks is Xi's brother-in-law Deng Jiagui, who set up two British Virgin Islands companies in 2009 when his famous relation was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee but not yet president.
Xi has been dogged by foreign media reports of great family wealth. The claims are ignored by mainstream Chinese outlets, and their publication on the internet in China is suppressed.
In 2012 the Bloomberg news agency published investigations into the vast wealth said to have been amassed by Xi's family, revealing that Deng and his wife had accumulated several hundred million dollars in company shares and property assets.
Since becoming president that same year, Xi has staked his reputation on pushing for transparency by initiating a vast anti-graft campaign to clean the party's ranks of corruption and to reassert his authority.
The daughter of former premier Li Peng - who was in power from 1987 to 1998 - was also identified in the documents.
They revealed that Li Xiaolin, the former vice president of state-run power company China Power Investment Corporation, was the beneficiary of a Liechtenstein foundation controlling a firm registered in the British Virgin Islands during the period when her father was in office.
David Cameron will meet world leaders next month to work on new tax avoidance measures but today's massive leak of the Panama papers could overshadow the London summit.
No 10 today insisted the Prime Minister and Britain had been global leaders on cracking down on tax evasion and aggressive avoidance.
But after the leak of millions of papers - suggesting among others Mr Cameron's father and a string of Tory donors sheltered money off shore - threatens to undermine the talks.
Campaigners have demanded British legislation to end UK tax havens - including in the crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.
German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung obtained the files and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists but the identity of the source who leaked them and how it was done is unknown.
The unprecedented leak of confidential documents reveal:
Putin's name is not included in the records but his friends and associates appear to have earned millions of pounds from deals that would have been difficult to secure without his patronage. The BBC and The Guardian set out the details in the documents.
Among the disclosures are that six members of the House of Lords and three former Conservative MPs had offshore accounts, although the only British politicians so far named are Lord Ashcroft, Tory peer Baroness Pamela Sharples and former Conservative MP Michael Mates.
Dozens of donors to UK political parties had similar arrangements, the leak reveals.
Campaigners said David Cameron now faces a 'credibility test', having promised to end tax secrecy four years ago.
While using offshore companies is not illegal, the practice has long been morally dubious and is under the spotlight amid a wider examination of tax avoidance by large companies such as Google.
Mr Cameron has vowed to end 'tax secrecy' in the UK. But critics say little has been done – with the Prime Minister due to hold his latest summit on the issue next month.
Mr Cameron said four years ago that some offshore schemes were 'not fair and not right'.
'Frankly some of these schemes where people are parking huge amounts of money offshore and taking loans back just to minimise their tax rates, it is not morally acceptable,' he added.
The Prime Minister will now come under intense pressure to abolish all the UK's tax havens, including the crown dependencies Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.
In 2012, it emerged that the Prime Minister's father Ian ran a network of entirely legal offshore investment funds to grow the family fortune.
The leaked records were obtained from an anonymous source by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, and shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists with The Guardian and the BBC.
The data covers nearly 40 years, from 1977 to the end of 2015, and lists nearly 15,600 paper companies set up for clients who wanted to keep their financial affairs secret.
Thousands were created by UBS and HSBC, the latter of which was fined by the US government for laundering money from Iran.
Mossack Fonseca is Panamanian but runs a worldwide operation.
Among national leaders with offshore wealth are Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan's prime minister, and Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, prime minister of Iceland – who now faces calls for a snap election.
The leaks also reveal a suspected billion-dollar money laundering ring that was run by a Russian bank and involved close associates of President Putin.
Mossack Fonseca said in a statement: 'Our firm has never been accused or charged in connection with criminal wrongdoing.
'If we detect suspicious activity or misconduct, we are quick to report it to the authorities.'
Gerard Ryle, director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, said the documents covered the day-to-day business at Mossack Fonseca for the past 40 years.
He said: 'I think the leak will prove to be probably the biggest blow the offshore world has ever taken because of the extent of the documents.'
THE UK CONNECTION: BRITISH-OWNED AND LONDON BASED BANKS INCLUDING HSBC, ROTHSCHILD AND COUTTS EMERGE AS SOME OF BIGGEST USERS OF MOSSACK FONSECA
Stuart Gulliver, the boss of HSBC, was embarrassed last year over his links to Panama. Today it was revealed his bank asked Mossack Fonseca to set up more than 2,300 offshore companies via a Panamanian law firm
+52
Stuart Gulliver, the boss of HSBC, was embarrassed last year over his links to Panama. Today it was revealed his bank asked Mossack Fonseca to set up more than 2,300 offshore companies via a Panamanian law firm
British-owned or London-based banks were today revealed to be at the heart of the Panama tax scandal.
Today's leaked documents show that HSBC, Rothschild, Coutts and UBS - all giants of the banking industry - are among the top 10 banks who asked Mossack Fonseca to set up 15,600 offshore companies.
HSBC, Britain's biggest bank and the second largest in the world, helped set up more than 2300 offshore companies, according to leaked documents.
Private bank Coutts set up almost 500 offshore companies over the past 40 years, Swiss Bank UBS, whose investment bank is based in London, asked for 1,300 offshore companies for clients.
Last year HSBC had to pay a record £28million in compensation to settle a probe into allegations it helped hide money for arms dealers and blood diamond traders while helping others avoid taxes at its Swiss bank.
The data covers nearly 40 years, from 1977 to the end of 2015, and lists nearly 15,600 paper companies set up for clients who wanted to keep their financial affairs secret.
Thousands were created by UBS and HSBC, the latter of which was fined by the US government for laundering money from Iran.
Stuart Gulliver, the boss of HSBC, was embarrassed last year over his links to Panama. It is not known if he used Mossack Fonseca for his offshore company.
There were questions over his secretive tax affairs after he sheltered money in a Swiss bank account to prevent prying colleagues from finding out his bonus. Leaked documents revealed he sheltered some £5million in bonuses in an HSBC account in Switzerland under the name of a Panamanian company.
This lasted from 1998 until 2011, when he became chief executive and his pay details had to be published anyway.
Mr Gulliver, 56, said the computer systems on the trading floor enabled staff to find out how much their colleagues were being paid in bonuses.
As he was often the best paid employee at the bank, he said he was particularly keen to stop this happening and set up a Swiss bank account to keep his pay secret.
He had previously described his 'shame' at allegations that HSBC routinely helped clients including arms dealers and blood diamond smugglers evade taxes.
HSBC said today: 'We work closely with the authorities to fight financial crime and implement sanctions. Our policy is clear that offshore accounts can only remain open either where clients have been thoroughly vetted, where authorities ask us to maintain an account for the purposes of monitoring activity, or where an account has been frozen based on sanctions obligations.'
A spokesman for Coutts said: “Coutts Trustees is committed to the highest standards of regulatory compliance, including tax laws, anti-money laundering regulations and international sanctions.
We require all clients to be tax compliant as a condition of receiving our products and services and take a risk based approach to identify and prevent tax evasion that relies upon extensive anti-money laundering systems and controls, including the requirement to understand the source of clients’ wealth'.
Celebrities including Hollywood star Jackie Chan and Barcelona footballer Lionel Messi have used Panama law firm to invest their millions
Megastars Jackie Chan and Lionel Messi are among the big names accused of using a controversial Panama law firm to invest their millions offshore.
At least 20 other footballers from Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester United are also said to have used Mossack Fonseca's services to avoid tax.
Lionel Messi, who is already facing tax fraud charges in Spain, owned a Panama company, Mega Star Enterprises Inc, with his father Jorge, leaked documents reveal.
The business, which still exists in Panama, is said to have handled millions from the Barcelona star's image rights contracts.
Martial arts actor Jackie Chan is also named in the leaked documents as having at least six offshore companies managed through the law firm.
India's biggest Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan - known as 'Big B' - was a director of at least four offshore shipping companies.
As names of clients continue to emerge, it has been revealed that many millionaire footballers have been funnelling cash to offshore havens with the help of Mossack Fonseca.
Premier League star Leonardo Ullua, who was Leicester City's top scorer last year, was named in documents after an associate used the law firm in 2008 while he was playing in Argentina.
Argentine full back Gabriel Heinze set up a British Virgin Islands (BVi) company in 2005 in the same year he signed a $1million boot contract with Puma while playing for Manchester United.
Former Real Madrid and Chile star striker Ivan Zamorano, once voted in the greatest 100 players of all time, had a business in the BVI, where businesses pay no tax on profits.
Michel Platini allegedly turned to Mossack Fonseca to help him administer an offshore company created in Panama in 2007.
Platini is serving a six-year ban from all football-related activity for an ethics breach after former FIFA president Sepp Blatter approved a $2 million payment to the Frenchman in 2011 for consultancy work done without a contract a decade earlier.
theguardian
0 Comments