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UP FRONTTuesday 5 April 2016
“Panama Papers” dump sends shockwaves around world
Russian President Vladimir Putin listens during a meeting in the Novo-Ogaryov residence outside and had been obtained il- self,” the consortium said.
Moscow on Monday, April 4, 2016. The spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Pes- legally by hackers. Roldugin was unavailable
kov has dismissed suggestions of Putin’s involvement in an offshore account scheme as a smear But he said most people for comment Monday. A
likely motivated by “Putinophobia.” identified in the reports receptionist at the St. Pe-
were not his firm’s direct cli- tersburg House of Music,
(Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik, Kremlin Photo via AP) ents but were accounts set where he is artistic director,
up by intermediaries. said he was not in.
Continued from Front mer heads of state. dards covering corporate One of the most prominent Kremlin spokesman Dmi-
Among the countries with registrations. subjects of the report is try Peskov claimed Putin
In reports that began Sun- past or present political fig- Ramon Fonseca, a co- Russian President Vladimir was the “main target” of
day, they said the docu- ures named in the reports founder of Mossack Fon- Putin, although his name the investigation, which
ment dump that they are Iceland, Ukraine, Paki- seca — one of the world’s does not appear in the he suggested was the re-
dubbed the “Panama Pa- stan, Saudi Arabia, Russia largest creators of shell documents. ICIJ said on sult of “Putinophobia” and
pers” shows the hidden off- and Argentina. companies — confirmed to its website that the docu- aimed at smearing Russia
shore assets of politicians, The law firm said in a state- Panama’s Channel 2 that ments show how complex in a parliamentary election
businesses and celebrities, ment it observed all laws documents investigated offshore financial deals year.
including 12 current or for- and international stan- by the ICIJ were authentic channeled as much as $2 He suggested the ICIJ had
billion to a network of peo- ties to the U.S. government.
ple linked to Putin. The ICIJ is part of the non-
One focus was Sergei Rol- profit, non-partisan Center
dugin, a professional cel- for Public Integrity, and nei-
list and childhood friend of ther takes U.S. government
Putin. Roldugen was listed funding, said Peter Bale,
as the owner of compa- CPI’s chief executive.
nies that obtained pay- Peskov said he would not
ments from other compa- go into the details of alle-
nies worth tens of millions gations that Putin’s friends
of dollars, and of a stake in ran an offshore scheme,
Bank Rossiya, described by “mainly because there
the U.S. Treasury as “desig- is nothing concrete and
nated for providing mate- nothing new about Putin,
rial support to government and a lack of details.”
officials.” Peskov, who had warned
“The evidence in the files last week of an upcoming
suggests Roldugin is act- “information attack” on
ing as a front man for a Putin, said he expected
network of Putin loyalists — more reports to follow.
and perhaps for Putin him- In Russia, where the inves-
tigation was published by
the independent newspa-
per Novaya Gazeta, the
scandal initially faced an
effective coverage ban.
Following hours of silence,
state-owned Channel One
reported the story, leading
with Peskov’s denial and
mentioning dealings in-
volving Ukrainian President
Petro Poroshenko. The TV
report said the leak may
have been a U.S.-orches-
trated attempt to remove
Panama as a tax haven
since it is competing for tax
revenue.
The U.S. Justice Depart-
ment was reviewing the
leak for evidence of pos-
sible criminal wrongdoing
that might have a link to
the United States or to its
financial system but could
not comment on specific
documents, said spokes-
man Peter Carr. It’s not
clear how many Americans
have been identified in the
documents, but thousands
of Europeans have been
named, according to local
journalists.q
