Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson resigned on Tuesday, becoming the first major casualty of the “Panama Papers,” which revealed the vast scale of money hiding in tax havens.
Documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca showed that Gunnlaugsson, along with his wife, had an offshore company. According to documents revealed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Gunnlaugsson (41) established a company in the British Virgin Islands in 2007 with his wife, where he hid millions of dollars, and in 2009 transferred his shares for one dollar. When he first became a representative in April 2009, he did not mention it in his asset declaration, although he was legally required to do so.
On Monday, thousands of protesters gathered outside the parliament building demanding the resignation of the prime minister, who denied avoiding tax payments and did not want to resign. On Tuesday, Gunnlaugsson requested the president’s consent to dissolve parliament, but Olafur Ragnar Grimsson refused.
Watch a clip from Prime Minister Gunnlaugsson’s interview:
The law firm Mossack Fonseca from which millions of documents revealing that the world’s wealthy, statesmen, FIFA and politicians hid money in tax havens leaked, struck back on Monday evening, calling media reports about their work “inaccurate.”
– These reports relate to assumptions and stereotypes and play on the fact that the public is not familiar with the workings of companies like ours, the statement from Mossack Fonseca, which is based in Panama, explains.
Among the political leaders mentioned in the documents are associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson and his wife, while Chinese President Xi Jinping and British Prime Minister David Cameron have family members linked to offshore companies.
Panama announced on Tuesday that it is opening an investigation into this global scandal, emphasizing that its goal is to determine whether criminal offenses have indeed been committed, who committed them, and any potential financial damage. Several countries have already announced that they have opened investigations, including Austria, Sweden, the Netherlands, Australia, and New Zealand.
