The Prime Minister
\nof Iceland on Tuesday became the first European political figure to fall victim
\nof the data leak disclosing how heads of state, top ranking politicians,
\nbillionaires, athletes and criminal networks have used dozens of tax havens to
\nhide their money and avoid taxation in their countries. The current
\njournalistic investigation is being carried out by over 100 media institutions,
\nwhich have managed to get hold of documents from the secret archives of Mossack
\nFonseca, a leading global provider for legal and trust services, based in
\nPanama, hence the name of the scandal: the Panama Papers. These archive
\ndocuments show that, starting in 1977 up until 2015, Mossack Fonseca established
\nor managed over 214,000 offshore entities in 21 tax havens for clients from
\nover 200 countries and territories, including Romania. Rise Project, a
\ncommunity of journalists investigating organized crime and corruption in
\nRomania, has gained access to that data. The Executive Director of the
\norganization, Pavel Radu, has promised disclosures about important people in
\nthe country.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Pavel Radu: We are
\ncurrently looking into data concerning some 100 people who used offshore
\ncompanies, both for their businesses based in the country, and to set up bank
\naccounts elsewhere in the world. We are working on that, and we will soon have
\nlots of material. These are people from all fields, but I cannot give you any
\ndetails right now. What I can tell you is that they are business people,
\nlawyers, big names in the oil industry, mining industry, and so on. They are
\nsome of the most powerful business people in the country, and now we are
\nconducting investigations to see exactly who did what. As soon as we have clear
\ninformation, we will publish it on our website.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Romanian tax authorities have
\nalready announced that a working group made up of anti-fraud inspectors, tax
\ninspectors, and inspectors specializing in verifying the assets of natural
\npersons, managing tax information and forced executions has already started to
\nlook into the information leaked and made public in the Panama Papers scandal.
\nThe Romanian Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism
\n(DIICOT) will too conduct its own investigation, in order to establish whether
\nthe current cases, or the ones already settled, contain data that could confirm
\nthe information disclosed. Also, the Budget – Finance Committee of the Chamber
\nof Deputies has announced it is currently sending invitations to
\nrepresentatives of the tax authorities and the National Office for the
\nPrevention and Control of Money Laundering to discuss the Panama Papers. The
\nstakes here are quite high, given that the Romanian authorities have been
\ntrying hard for years to curb corruption and prevent embezzlement. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
According to the Panama Papers, Mossack Fonseca established and managed offshore entities for clients from over 200 countries, including Romanians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":45166,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[28950,38432,30131],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-68097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-corruption","tag-mossack-fonseca","tag-panama-papers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n