The political fallout from the release of the Panama Papers continues to grow. The papers revealed how a Panamanian firm had set up a global network of shell companies for heads of state, politicians and others to store their money offshore to avoid taxes and oversight. British Prime Minister David Cameron has taken the unusual step of publishing his tax records after he admitted he owned shares in a Bahamas-based trust up until 2010. Details about his late father’s offshore investments were leaked as part of the Panama Papers. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said Cameron must do more to address the scandal.
Jeremy Corbyn: “What Panama (Papers) has shown, more than anything, is that there’s one rule for the rich and one rule for the rest. If you’ve got a lot of money, you put it in a tax haven. You get a big income as a result of it. You pay no tax on it. If you’re a care worker, a street cleaner or a nurse, you don’t have those options. You don’t have those opportunities. You pay your tax.”
In Malta, several thousand people protested Sunday to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat after the leaked Panama Papers said two of his political allies had offshore accounts. And in El Salvador, authorities have raided the local offices of Mossack Fonseca, the Panamanian law firm at the center of the worldwide scandal.