Being listed in Panama Papers not mean having broken law: official

Hanoi (VNA) – That persons and businesses are named in the Panama Papers does not mean they violated the law, and verification is necessary, an anti-corruption official of the Vietnamese Government Inspectorate said.

What has been unveiled from the Panama Paper should be considered a source of information for Vietnam’s relevant agencies to verify, Pham Trong Dat, Director General of the Government Inspectorate’s Anti-corruption Bureau, told Vietnam News Agency on May 11.

It is important to clarify the accuracy of those data first so as to take the following steps, he noted, adding that the data are not official information released by foreign authorised agencies, but founded by international journalists.

The inspectorate has reported the information to the Government and the Party Central Committee.

The Vietnamese persons and companies listed in the Panama Papers should also be examined, Dat said.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has published more data from the Panama Papers that includes information on offshore entities set up through and managed by Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian law firm.

The revealed data name relating persons and businesses, including nearly 200 people in Vietnam.

The Panama Papers are 11.5 million documents leaked from Mossack Fonseca.

Preliminary investigation by the ICIJ found that the law firm created offshore companies to help some 140 politicians, including 12 serving or former world leaders, along with sports stars and drug dealers to evade tax payments.

The Panama Papers are considered the largest data leak journalists have ever worked with.-VNA