The Czech Republic's prime minister has asked the national tax authorities to investigate the nearly 300 Czech nationals whose names appear in the Panama papers.
"Of the 11 million files leaked from Mossack Fonseca, the world’s fourth largest offshore law firm, 250,000 files are Czech-related, according to Pavla Holcová from the Czech Centre for Investigative Journalism which has been analyzing the documents. Unlike in other countries, they do not appear to contain the names of politicians in high office, although they do allegedly contain the names of big players in the 1990s privatization deals."
Good morning. We'll start our Panama Papers live blog with this item from our news desk:
Panama To Create Panel To Review Offshore Finance Practices
Panama's president has moved to create a commission to review the country's financial practices following leaks of a Panamanian law firm's documents that embarrassed an array of world leaders.
"The Panamanian government, via our foreign ministry, will create an independent commission of domestic and international experts...to evaluate our current practices and propose the adoption of measures that we will share with other countries of the world to strengthen the transparency of the financial and legal systems," President Juan Carlos Varela said on April 6.
"We are a serious country, respectful of international law and cooperative with the efforts of the international community to seek solutions to this global problem."
Panama was severely criticized by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OSCE) following the leaks of 11.5 million documents from the Mossack Fonseca law firm, which specializes in making offshore arrangements for the world's rich and famous.
"Panama is the last major holdout that continues to allow funds to be hidden offshore from tax and law enforcement authorities," OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria said on April 5.