The Panama Papers scandal now seems to have spread to Malta, according to this piece by Chris Scicluna for the Reuters news agency:
Malta's Opposition Demands Resignation Of PM Over Panama Papers
VALLETTA, April 10 (Reuters) - Several thousand people filled a big square in Malta's capital on Sunday and demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat after the leaked Panama Papers said two of his political allies had offshore accounts.
"Shame on you, you are shaming Malta, you have lost the moral authority to govern," opposition leader Simon Busuttil said to the applause of protesters.
The rally, organised by the opposition outside the prime minister's office, drew no official comment from Muscat. He said on Wednesday that he would take a decision on the future of his two allies when he knows all the facts and on the basis of public sentiment.
The Nationalist Party opposition wants the removal of Health and Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi and the prime minister's Chief of Staff, Keith Schembri.
The Panama Papers showed how Mizzi set up a company in Panama and a trust in New Zealand.
Mizzi denies wrongdoing and says the arrangements were made to facilitate the management of his family assets, including income from a property in London. He has refused calls to resign and said he is subjecting himself to an independent audit.
However, on Thursday he told the ruling Labour Party he is ready for any decision that the prime minister might take.
Busuttil said the opposition is also calling for the resignation of Schembri, for having similarly set up a company in Panama and a trust in Panama. Schembri has denied any wrongdoing. He says that he was in business well before he assumed his government role and that he handed over his business management as soon as the government was elected in 2013.
The opposition has repeatedly hit out at Mizzi, who handled the government's biggest contracts, including the part-privatisation of the health service, the part-privatisation of energy provider Enemalta and an oil hedging agreement with Azerbaijan.
Busuttil said that although the scandal became known in Malta as early as February, Muscat had done nothing about it. Rather, he had promoted Mizzi to deputy leader of the Labour Party.
"His inaction is undermining Malta's reputation and endangering its financial services centre," he warned.
"How can the prime minister defend Malta's financial services industry in the EU when his fellow minister has a secret company in Panama?" Busuttil asked.
The opposition has presented a parliamentary motion of no confidence in the government.
The Panama Papers scandal broke a week ago when the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung said it had received 11.5 million leaked documents from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca showing how offshore companies are used to stash the wealth of the world's elite.
The leak quickly led to the resignation of Iceland's prime minister and embroiled British Prime Minister David Cameron in difficulties over offshore investments made by his father.
(Reporting by Christopher Scicluna; editing by Stephen Powell)
The leader of the United Kingdom's opposition Labour Party gives his views on the Panama Papers fallout:
The International Red Cross has found itself implicated in the Panama leaks scandal and the organization is not too happy about it, according to this AFP report:
Red Cross Threatened By Unauthorised Panama Papers Link: ICRC Head
Geneva, April 10, 2016 (AFP) -- The unauthorised use of the International Red Cross's name by entities listed in the Panama Papers poses "enormous" risks for its operations and staff, the head of the humanitarian body said in an interview published Sunday.
Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), made the comments in Le Matin Dimanche, after the Swiss paper detailed how shell companies set up by Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca inaccurately listed the ICRC as their beneficiary.
"The (risks) are enormous. If we were found, for example, to be associated with an offshore company owned by an armed group, I dare not imagine what we could be implicated in," Maurer told the paper.
"We are going to do to everything in our power to stop this abuse," he added.
According to the Swiss paper, Mossack Fonseca set up two entities -- Brotherhood Foundation and Faith Foundation -- which it offered to clients as an asset holding body.
The ICRC was listed as a beneficiary of the two "foundations", without the ICRC's knowledge, a move reportedly allowed under a legal loophole.
"We have never had a relationship with Mossack Fonseca and we have never received money from them," Maurer told the paper.
Read the entire article here
You can find some nice data visualizations of the fallout from the Panama Papers here:
And here's another Cameron-related item, courtesy of Reuters:
German Politicians Urge U.K.'s Cameron To Do More In Fight Against Tax Evasion
BERLIN, April 10 (Reuters) -- German politicians have called on British Prime Minister David Cameron to do more in tackling the use of offshore companies set up in British overseas territories to evade taxes.
"We'll only be convincing on the international stage if we are, first of all, fully compliant in the EU and for me, that includes Britain exerting influence over its overseas territories - we need to make that clear to the Brits in upcoming talks," senior conservative politician Ralph Brinkhaus told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.
Carsten Schneider, a budget expert for Germany's Social Democrats, the junior partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition, also said the British prime minister needed to take action in the light of last week's revelations from the "Panama Papers".
Media that have seen the files leaked from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca say more than half of the 200,000 offshore companies set up by the firm were registered in the British Virgin Islands, where details of ownership do not have to be filed with authorities. The law firm denies any wrongdoing.
"If David Cameron still wants to be taken seriously personally and politically in the fight against tax fraud and tax evasion, Britain needs to close the loopholes in its own country immediately," Schneider told Welt am Sonntag.
Earlier on Sunday, Cameron announced he had set up a national task force led by its tax authority and the National Crime Agency to search through the the Panama Papers.
Cameron, who has sought to take the lead internationally in tackling tax avoidance and evasion since Britain hosted a G8 summit in 2013, faced calls from political opponents for his resignation last week after revealing he once had a stake in his late father's own offshore investment trust and profited from it.
Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, said Britain had a "huge responsibility" as many tax havens are British overseas territories, like the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands, or Crown Dependencies, such as Jersey and the Isle of Man. (Reporting by Michelle Martin; editing by Greg Mahlich)