R.B
JF-Expert Member
- May 10, 2012
- 6,296
- 2,575
Viongozi wa dunia, nyota wa michezo na filamu ni miongoni mwa matajiri kadhaa waliotajwa katika kile kinachoweza kuwa ufichuaji mkubwa zaidi wa taarifa za ndani katika historia.
Ufichuaji huo mkubwa unaohusisha nyaraka milioni 11.5, na kupewa jina la "Panama Leaks" umeonyesha namna matajiri wanavyotumia maeneo salama ya kodi kuficha utajiri wao na kukwepa kodi.
Uchunguzi uliyofanywa na zaidi ya makampuni 100 ya habari umefichua mali zilizofichwa nje za watu mashuhuri duniani, wakiwemo wanasiasa karibu 140.
Nyaraka hizo zilipatikana na gazeti la kila siku la nchini Ujerumani - Süddeutsche Zeitung na kusambazwa kwa makampuni mengine ya habari ulimwenguni na jukwa la kimataifa la waandishi wa habari za uchunguzi ICIJ.
Nyaraka hizo zinazoyahusu mashirika karibu 214. 000 ya nchi za kigeni kwa muda wa karibu miaka 40, zilitoka kampuni ya uwakili ya Mossack Fonseca, yenye makao yake nchini Panama - na ikiwa na ofisi katika mataifa zaidi ya 35.
Jengo la kampuni ya uwakili ya Mossack Fonseca katika mji mkuu wa Panama - Panama City.
Putin, Xi Jinping, Jackie Chan watajwa
Uchunguzi huo unadai kuwa washirika wa karibu wa rais wa Urusi Vladmir Putin, ambaye binafsi hajatajwa katika nyaraka hizo za siri, walihamisha kwa siri kiasi cha dola bilioni mbili kupitia mabenki na makampuni hewa.
Viongozi 12 walioko madarakani na wa zamani pia wametajwa katika uchunguzi huo, wakiwemo waziri mkuu wa Pakistan, rais wa Ukraine na Mfalme wa Saudi Arabia, na vile vile nyota wa filamu akiwemo Jackie Chan.
Wachunguzi wamedai pia kuwa familia ya rais wa China Xi Jinping ina mahusiano na akaunti za nje, kama alivyokuwa marehemu baba wa waziri mkuu wa sasa wa Uingereza David Cameron, na wanadai pia kuwa waziri mkuu wa sasa wa Iceland aliwekeza kwa siri, mamilioni ya pesa kwenye benki za nchi hiyo wakati wa mgogoro wa kifedha.
Mkurugenzi wa jukwaa la kimataifa la waandishi wa habari za uchunguzi Gerard Ryle amesema kinachoshtua zaidi ni namna ulimwengu wa nje unavyotumiwa na viongozi walioko madarakani, ambao baadhi yao wamekuwa wakijitanabisha kuwa wapinzani wakubwa wa usiri.
"Tunachopaswa kufanya hapa kama waandishi habari ni kuvunja usiri kwa sababu bodhaa pekee inayotolewa na ulimwengu wa nje ni usiri, na bila hivyo basi hakutakuwa tena na bidhaa hivyo kadiri tunavyoendelea kuwafedhehesha watu, nadhani tutaona mageuzi ya kweli," alisema Ryle katika mahojiano na DW.
Wateja wa Mossack Fonseca
Kampuni ya uwakili ya Mossack Fonseca ilifanya kazi na watu wasiopungua 33 na makampuni yliyoorodheshwa na Marekani kwa kuwa na uhusiano wa kibiashara na magenge ya wauza madawa ya kulevya nchini Mexico, makundi ya kigaidi na mataifa sugu, ikiwemo Korea Kaskazini. Moja ya makampuni hayo lilitoa mafuta kwa ajili ya ndege za utawala wa Syria zilizotumiwa kuwashambulia wake.
Ufichuzi wa Panama unatajwa kuwa mkubwa zaidi katika historia.
Wateja wa kampuni hiyo wanahusisha wawekezaji wa uongo, magwiji wa madawa, wakwepaji kodi, na mfanyabiashara wa Marekani alitiwa hatiani kwa kwenda nchini Urusi kufanya ngono na watoto yatima walio chini ya umri, ambaye alisaini nyaraka za za kampuni ya nje akiwa gerezani.
Lionnel Messi, Sepp Blatter nao wamo
Nyaraka hizo pia zinahusisha matajiri 29 walioko katika orodha ya matajiri ya jarida la Forbs, na nyota wa filamu za mapigano Jackie Chan. Yumo pia mjumbe w akamati ya Maadili ya FIFA Juan Pedro Damian, mchezaji soka nambari moja duniani Lionnel Messi na rais wa zamani wa FIFA Sepp Blatter.
Zaidi ya benki 500 na benki zake tanzu na matawi pia zimefanya kazi na kampuni ya Mossack Fonseca tangu miaka ya 1970 kuwasaidia wateja wao kusimamia makampuni ya nje.
Chanzo: PANAMA LINK
Mwandishi: Iddi Ssessanga/afpe.
========================
The biggest financial data leak in history has revealed how Vladimir Putin's inner circle and a 'dirty dozen' list of world leaders are using offshore tax havens to hide their wealth.
A host of celebrities, sports stars, British politicians and the global rich are all implicated in the so-called Panama Papers - a leak of 11million files which contain more data than the amount stolen by former CIA contractor Edward Snowden in 2013.
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.
Megastars Jackie Chan and Lionel Messi are among the big names accused of using a controversial Panama law firm to invest their millions offshore.
The £26million stolen during the Brink’s Mat robbery in 1983 may have been channelled into an offshore company set up by Mossack Fonseca, the leaked documents reveal.
Families and associates of Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak, Libya's former leader Colonel Gaddafi and Syria's president Bashar al-Assad are among 12 world leaders who are said to have benefited from tax havens.
Lord Ashcroft, Baroness Pamela Sharples and former Tory MP Michael Mates are among the British politicians named in the data release.
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.'
Leaked financial data reveals how a network of secret offshore deals and huge loans worth £1.4billion created a trail beginning and ending with Vladimir Putin, it has been reported.
A massive leak of documents reveal how the Russian president's best friend Sergei Roldugin and the man who heads up Putin's 'crony bank' Yuri Kovalchuk are linked to the movement of money offshore.
Bank Rossiya, which Roldugin owns 3.2 per cent of, sent instructions to Swiss lawyers who in turn got in touch with Mossack Fonseca. The Panamanian law firm then set up offshore company Sandalwood Continental Ltd in the British Virgin Islands and other offshores linked to Roldugin.
But the money later found its way back to Russia via Ozon, which was lent $11.3million by Sandalwood in 2010/11. Ozon is the owner of the private Igora ski resort outside St Petersburg, where Putin's daughter Katya got married, according to The Guardian.
Putin's name is not included in the leaked documents but his friends and associates appear to have earned millions of pounds from deals that would have been difficult to secure without his patronage.
Meanwhile Roldugin, a professional musician, is said to have accumulated a fortune by being put in control of a series of assets worth at least $100million.
Last week a senior Russian official revealed how the Kremlin was braced for an expose on Mr Putin's alleged secret fortune.
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, one of the president's closest aides, dismissed the allegations as false and politically motivated even before they were published.
He said a number of foreign secret services were behind the claims, which suggest that Mr Putin has amassed a secret personal fortune of more than £28billion ($40billion).
Former Tory MPs, party donors and the Prime Minister's late father were named last night in a huge leak of millions of documents exposing the use of offshore tax regimes by the world's richest people.
Ian Cameron, a stockbroker and multi-millionaire, was a client of a controversial offshore law firm based in Panama.
He was accused of using the firm, Mossack Fonseca, to shield his investment fund, Blairmore Holdings, Inc., from British taxes.
A series of British politicians were also said last night to be implicated in the massive data release.
It was reported that six members of the House of Lords, three former Conservative MPs and dozens of donors to British political parties have been shown to have had offshore assets.
None were named last night but revelations about the hidden wealth of politicians and their supporters will trigger nerves in Number Ten as names and details emerge from the leak this week.
If Tory donors or senior figures are implicated, it will be a huge embarrassment to the Prime Minister.
The BBC and the Guardian last night set out details from the so-called 'Panama Papers' – 11.5million files leaked from the database of Mossack Fonseca, the world's fourth biggest offshore law firm.
They show that 12 national leaders are among 143 politicians, their families and close associates from around the world known to have been using offshore tax havens.
Close associates of Russia's President Putin are also implicated, although the Russian president's name is not said to appear directly on any documents.
The 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.
Though there is nothing unlawful about using offshore companies, the files raise fundamental questions about the ethics of such tax havens – and the revelations are likely to provoke urgent calls for reforms of a system that critics say is arcane and open to abuse.
Among national leaders with offshore wealth are Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan's prime minister; Ayad Allawi, ex-interim prime minister and former vice-president of Iraq; Petro Poroshenko, president of Ukraine; Alaa Mubarak, son of Egypt's former president; and the prime minister of Iceland, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson.
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.
The operation was run by Bank Rossiya, which is subject to US and EU sanctions following Russia's annexation of Crimea.
The £26 million stolen during the Brink's Mat robbery in 1983 may have been channelled into an offshore company set up by Mossack Fonseca, the leaked documents reveal.
The theft, dubbed the 'Crime of the Century', involved criminals stealing gold bullion, diamonds and cash from the Heathrow International Trading Estate in London.
The leaked files show that 16 months later, Mossack Fonseca set up a Panama shell company called Feberion Inc.
Documents show that the man behind Feberion Inc. was Gordon Parry, who laundered money for the Brink's-Mat plotters.
An internal memo written in 1986 by Jürgen Mossack, one the co-founders of Mossack Fonseca, showed that it knew it was 'apparently involved in the management of money from the famous theft from Brink's-Mat in London'.
The memo stated: 'The company itself has not been used illegally, but it could be that the company invested money through bank accounts and properties that was illegitimately sourced'.
Documents appear to show that Mossack Fonseca later took steps to prevent British police from gaining control of the company in an attempt to get the money back.
The robbery of gold bullion and jewels worth £26 million from the Brink's-Mat vaults at London's Heathrow Airport at 6.30am on November 26, 1983, was Britain's biggest.
A bribed security guard let six armed men into the warehouse and within an hour had they pulled off 'the heist of the century'.
The gang doused security guards at the warehouse in petrol and threatened them with a lit match for the combination numbers of the vault.
It is thought more than £17 million of the cash realised from the gold has been accounted for by police, with the rest believed to be invested in property in Britain and Spain or drugs.
Eleven bars of the gold were found in 1985 and melted down and a further £1 million of gold was later recovered from the Bank of England where it was being stored after re-entering the legal market.
The rest is believed to have been melted down shortly after the robbery. But police have continued to trace cash and assets linked to profits from the haul.
And Lloyd's of London, the insurance market that paid out for the stolen millions, is believed to have forced 25 people linked to the robbery to secretly pay back every penny stolen in March 1995 following investigations by private detectives.
Only two of the actual robbers have been convicted. Michael McAvoy and Brian Robinson are each serving 25 years.
Others have been convicted of handling the bullion or making profit from the robbery. They include convicted killer Kenneth Noye, jailed in 1986 for handling the bullion for 14 years, reduced to 13 on appeal.
Scot Young helped hide £500million from his wife ‘in a game of hide and concealment’ aided by a Panama-based law firm, leaked documents revealed today.
The British tycoon used Mossack Fonseca and other offshore businesses to stash some of his fortune in Russia, the British Virgin Islands and Monaco, it has emerged.
Mr Young, who died after plunging onto railings below his £3million London penthouse in December 2014, is among a number of super-rich husbands named in leaked documents today.
Russia's 'fertilizer king' Dmitri Rybolovlev and aviation tycoon Clive Joy, 55, also allegedly used Mossack Fonseca to shield assets from their soon-to-be ex-wives.
Leaked emails also reveal how Mossack Fonseca helped predominantly male clients find the 'silver bullet' to keep their fortunes out of the hands of their partners.
Source: DailyMail
Ufichuaji huo mkubwa unaohusisha nyaraka milioni 11.5, na kupewa jina la "Panama Leaks" umeonyesha namna matajiri wanavyotumia maeneo salama ya kodi kuficha utajiri wao na kukwepa kodi.
Uchunguzi uliyofanywa na zaidi ya makampuni 100 ya habari umefichua mali zilizofichwa nje za watu mashuhuri duniani, wakiwemo wanasiasa karibu 140.
Nyaraka hizo zilipatikana na gazeti la kila siku la nchini Ujerumani - Süddeutsche Zeitung na kusambazwa kwa makampuni mengine ya habari ulimwenguni na jukwa la kimataifa la waandishi wa habari za uchunguzi ICIJ.
Nyaraka hizo zinazoyahusu mashirika karibu 214. 000 ya nchi za kigeni kwa muda wa karibu miaka 40, zilitoka kampuni ya uwakili ya Mossack Fonseca, yenye makao yake nchini Panama - na ikiwa na ofisi katika mataifa zaidi ya 35.
Jengo la kampuni ya uwakili ya Mossack Fonseca katika mji mkuu wa Panama - Panama City.
Putin, Xi Jinping, Jackie Chan watajwa
Uchunguzi huo unadai kuwa washirika wa karibu wa rais wa Urusi Vladmir Putin, ambaye binafsi hajatajwa katika nyaraka hizo za siri, walihamisha kwa siri kiasi cha dola bilioni mbili kupitia mabenki na makampuni hewa.
Viongozi 12 walioko madarakani na wa zamani pia wametajwa katika uchunguzi huo, wakiwemo waziri mkuu wa Pakistan, rais wa Ukraine na Mfalme wa Saudi Arabia, na vile vile nyota wa filamu akiwemo Jackie Chan.
Wachunguzi wamedai pia kuwa familia ya rais wa China Xi Jinping ina mahusiano na akaunti za nje, kama alivyokuwa marehemu baba wa waziri mkuu wa sasa wa Uingereza David Cameron, na wanadai pia kuwa waziri mkuu wa sasa wa Iceland aliwekeza kwa siri, mamilioni ya pesa kwenye benki za nchi hiyo wakati wa mgogoro wa kifedha.
Mkurugenzi wa jukwaa la kimataifa la waandishi wa habari za uchunguzi Gerard Ryle amesema kinachoshtua zaidi ni namna ulimwengu wa nje unavyotumiwa na viongozi walioko madarakani, ambao baadhi yao wamekuwa wakijitanabisha kuwa wapinzani wakubwa wa usiri.
"Tunachopaswa kufanya hapa kama waandishi habari ni kuvunja usiri kwa sababu bodhaa pekee inayotolewa na ulimwengu wa nje ni usiri, na bila hivyo basi hakutakuwa tena na bidhaa hivyo kadiri tunavyoendelea kuwafedhehesha watu, nadhani tutaona mageuzi ya kweli," alisema Ryle katika mahojiano na DW.
Wateja wa Mossack Fonseca
Kampuni ya uwakili ya Mossack Fonseca ilifanya kazi na watu wasiopungua 33 na makampuni yliyoorodheshwa na Marekani kwa kuwa na uhusiano wa kibiashara na magenge ya wauza madawa ya kulevya nchini Mexico, makundi ya kigaidi na mataifa sugu, ikiwemo Korea Kaskazini. Moja ya makampuni hayo lilitoa mafuta kwa ajili ya ndege za utawala wa Syria zilizotumiwa kuwashambulia wake.
Ufichuzi wa Panama unatajwa kuwa mkubwa zaidi katika historia.
Wateja wa kampuni hiyo wanahusisha wawekezaji wa uongo, magwiji wa madawa, wakwepaji kodi, na mfanyabiashara wa Marekani alitiwa hatiani kwa kwenda nchini Urusi kufanya ngono na watoto yatima walio chini ya umri, ambaye alisaini nyaraka za za kampuni ya nje akiwa gerezani.
Lionnel Messi, Sepp Blatter nao wamo
Nyaraka hizo pia zinahusisha matajiri 29 walioko katika orodha ya matajiri ya jarida la Forbs, na nyota wa filamu za mapigano Jackie Chan. Yumo pia mjumbe w akamati ya Maadili ya FIFA Juan Pedro Damian, mchezaji soka nambari moja duniani Lionnel Messi na rais wa zamani wa FIFA Sepp Blatter.
Zaidi ya benki 500 na benki zake tanzu na matawi pia zimefanya kazi na kampuni ya Mossack Fonseca tangu miaka ya 1970 kuwasaidia wateja wao kusimamia makampuni ya nje.
Chanzo: PANAMA LINK
Mwandishi: Iddi Ssessanga/afpe.
========================
The biggest financial data leak in history has revealed how Vladimir Putin's inner circle and a 'dirty dozen' list of world leaders are using offshore tax havens to hide their wealth.
A host of celebrities, sports stars, British politicians and the global rich are all implicated in the so-called Panama Papers - a leak of 11million files which contain more data than the amount stolen by former CIA contractor Edward Snowden in 2013.
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.
Megastars Jackie Chan and Lionel Messi are among the big names accused of using a controversial Panama law firm to invest their millions offshore.
The £26million stolen during the Brink’s Mat robbery in 1983 may have been channelled into an offshore company set up by Mossack Fonseca, the leaked documents reveal.
Families and associates of Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak, Libya's former leader Colonel Gaddafi and Syria's president Bashar al-Assad are among 12 world leaders who are said to have benefited from tax havens.
Lord Ashcroft, Baroness Pamela Sharples and former Tory MP Michael Mates are among the British politicians named in the data release.
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.'
Leaked financial data reveals how a network of secret offshore deals and huge loans worth £1.4billion created a trail beginning and ending with Vladimir Putin, it has been reported.
A massive leak of documents reveal how the Russian president's best friend Sergei Roldugin and the man who heads up Putin's 'crony bank' Yuri Kovalchuk are linked to the movement of money offshore.
Bank Rossiya, which Roldugin owns 3.2 per cent of, sent instructions to Swiss lawyers who in turn got in touch with Mossack Fonseca. The Panamanian law firm then set up offshore company Sandalwood Continental Ltd in the British Virgin Islands and other offshores linked to Roldugin.
But the money later found its way back to Russia via Ozon, which was lent $11.3million by Sandalwood in 2010/11. Ozon is the owner of the private Igora ski resort outside St Petersburg, where Putin's daughter Katya got married, according to The Guardian.
Putin's name is not included in the leaked documents but his friends and associates appear to have earned millions of pounds from deals that would have been difficult to secure without his patronage.
Meanwhile Roldugin, a professional musician, is said to have accumulated a fortune by being put in control of a series of assets worth at least $100million.
Last week a senior Russian official revealed how the Kremlin was braced for an expose on Mr Putin's alleged secret fortune.
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, one of the president's closest aides, dismissed the allegations as false and politically motivated even before they were published.
He said a number of foreign secret services were behind the claims, which suggest that Mr Putin has amassed a secret personal fortune of more than £28billion ($40billion).
Former Tory MPs, party donors and the Prime Minister's late father were named last night in a huge leak of millions of documents exposing the use of offshore tax regimes by the world's richest people.
Ian Cameron, a stockbroker and multi-millionaire, was a client of a controversial offshore law firm based in Panama.
He was accused of using the firm, Mossack Fonseca, to shield his investment fund, Blairmore Holdings, Inc., from British taxes.
A series of British politicians were also said last night to be implicated in the massive data release.
It was reported that six members of the House of Lords, three former Conservative MPs and dozens of donors to British political parties have been shown to have had offshore assets.
None were named last night but revelations about the hidden wealth of politicians and their supporters will trigger nerves in Number Ten as names and details emerge from the leak this week.
If Tory donors or senior figures are implicated, it will be a huge embarrassment to the Prime Minister.
The BBC and the Guardian last night set out details from the so-called 'Panama Papers' – 11.5million files leaked from the database of Mossack Fonseca, the world's fourth biggest offshore law firm.
They show that 12 national leaders are among 143 politicians, their families and close associates from around the world known to have been using offshore tax havens.
Close associates of Russia's President Putin are also implicated, although the Russian president's name is not said to appear directly on any documents.
The 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.
Though there is nothing unlawful about using offshore companies, the files raise fundamental questions about the ethics of such tax havens – and the revelations are likely to provoke urgent calls for reforms of a system that critics say is arcane and open to abuse.
Among national leaders with offshore wealth are Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan's prime minister; Ayad Allawi, ex-interim prime minister and former vice-president of Iraq; Petro Poroshenko, president of Ukraine; Alaa Mubarak, son of Egypt's former president; and the prime minister of Iceland, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson.
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.
The operation was run by Bank Rossiya, which is subject to US and EU sanctions following Russia's annexation of Crimea.
The £26 million stolen during the Brink's Mat robbery in 1983 may have been channelled into an offshore company set up by Mossack Fonseca, the leaked documents reveal.
The theft, dubbed the 'Crime of the Century', involved criminals stealing gold bullion, diamonds and cash from the Heathrow International Trading Estate in London.
The leaked files show that 16 months later, Mossack Fonseca set up a Panama shell company called Feberion Inc.
Documents show that the man behind Feberion Inc. was Gordon Parry, who laundered money for the Brink's-Mat plotters.
An internal memo written in 1986 by Jürgen Mossack, one the co-founders of Mossack Fonseca, showed that it knew it was 'apparently involved in the management of money from the famous theft from Brink's-Mat in London'.
The memo stated: 'The company itself has not been used illegally, but it could be that the company invested money through bank accounts and properties that was illegitimately sourced'.
Documents appear to show that Mossack Fonseca later took steps to prevent British police from gaining control of the company in an attempt to get the money back.
The robbery of gold bullion and jewels worth £26 million from the Brink's-Mat vaults at London's Heathrow Airport at 6.30am on November 26, 1983, was Britain's biggest.
A bribed security guard let six armed men into the warehouse and within an hour had they pulled off 'the heist of the century'.
The gang doused security guards at the warehouse in petrol and threatened them with a lit match for the combination numbers of the vault.
It is thought more than £17 million of the cash realised from the gold has been accounted for by police, with the rest believed to be invested in property in Britain and Spain or drugs.
Eleven bars of the gold were found in 1985 and melted down and a further £1 million of gold was later recovered from the Bank of England where it was being stored after re-entering the legal market.
The rest is believed to have been melted down shortly after the robbery. But police have continued to trace cash and assets linked to profits from the haul.
And Lloyd's of London, the insurance market that paid out for the stolen millions, is believed to have forced 25 people linked to the robbery to secretly pay back every penny stolen in March 1995 following investigations by private detectives.
Only two of the actual robbers have been convicted. Michael McAvoy and Brian Robinson are each serving 25 years.
Others have been convicted of handling the bullion or making profit from the robbery. They include convicted killer Kenneth Noye, jailed in 1986 for handling the bullion for 14 years, reduced to 13 on appeal.
Scot Young helped hide £500million from his wife ‘in a game of hide and concealment’ aided by a Panama-based law firm, leaked documents revealed today.
The British tycoon used Mossack Fonseca and other offshore businesses to stash some of his fortune in Russia, the British Virgin Islands and Monaco, it has emerged.
Mr Young, who died after plunging onto railings below his £3million London penthouse in December 2014, is among a number of super-rich husbands named in leaked documents today.
Russia's 'fertilizer king' Dmitri Rybolovlev and aviation tycoon Clive Joy, 55, also allegedly used Mossack Fonseca to shield assets from their soon-to-be ex-wives.
Leaked emails also reveal how Mossack Fonseca helped predominantly male clients find the 'silver bullet' to keep their fortunes out of the hands of their partners.
Source: DailyMail
