Panama Papers: Singapore to investigate leaked documents
Suganthi Suparmaniam
April 6, 2016 10:45 MYT
April 6, 2016 10:45 MYT
A woman passes by the headquarters of Russia's Rossiya Bank in St. Petersburg on April 4, 2016. AFP / OLGA MALTSEVA
Singapore said it will investigate if there is any individual or entity in the republic named in the leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm.
In a joint statement, Singapore’s Ministry of Finance and the Monetary Authority of Singapore said they are reviewing the leaked information, Singapore Straits Times reported.
“If there is evidence of wrongdoing by any individual or entity in Singapore, we will not hesitate to take firm action," the agencies said in a statement.
The Panama Papers information leak involved over 11.5 million confidential documents created by Panamanian corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca.
The documents provided detailed information on more than 214,000 offshore companies, the names of their shareholders as well as their directors, who included government leaders, their close associates and relatives.
Those named in the Panama Papers include individuals from Malaysia, Brazil, China, France, India, Pakistan, the UK, South Africa, Spain, Syria, Russia, Mexico, Argentina and Ukraine.
Yesterday, Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz said the government will only act against Malaysians named in the Panama Papers if there is clear evidence of their wrongdoing.
He said action would be taken if it was proven that they were "doing things against the law" such as tax evasion.
Commenting on the Panama Papers, Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said no one at this point should link the data revealed in documents with any criminal doings.
He said said there were many individuals who conducted businesses before venturing into politics.
"We don't know to what extent the content of those documents, even though they are dominating the headlines right now," Khairy said yesterday.
The first major political casualty to emerge from the leak of the Panama Papers yesterday was Iceland's Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, who resigned Tuesday.
The 41-year-old premier has been under pressure to resign since leaked financial documents showed that he and his wife Anna Sigurlaug Palsdottir owned an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands and had placed millions of dollars there.
READ: Icelandic PM resigns in wake of Panama Papers scandal
Gunnlaugsson's company, named Wintris Inc and acquired in 2007, was intended to manage his wife's inheritance from her wealthy businessman father, according to the Panama Papers.