HMRC will inspect the leaked Pandora papers exposing the secret financial dealings of some of the world’s richest and most powerful people, Rishi Sunak has said.
The cache of almost 12 million files is said to cover the activities of some 35 current or former world leaders, more than 300 public officials and 100 billionaires.
According to BBC Panorama, which conducted a joint investigation with the Guardian, among the disclosures in the papers are details of the way prominent and wealthy people have been legally setting up companies to secretly buy property in the UK.
The Chancellor denied that the London’s central role in tax avoidance schemes is a “source of shame” and insisted he has never benefited from an offshore arrangement.
The Tory minister also insisted his party carries out the required legal checks on donors after it was reported a prominent donor was involved in one of Europe’s biggest corruption scandals.
Mohamed Amersi, who has given nearly £525,000 to the Conservatives since 2018, worked on a series of controversial deals for a Swedish telecoms company that was later fined $965m (£700m) in a US prosecution, leaked documents reveal.
The 61-year-old corporate lawyer, who worked as a consultant for Telia between 2007 and 2013, denies any wrongdoing.
The BBC revealed Amersi was involved in a controversial $220m payment to a secretive offshore company in 2010. The firm was controlled by Gulnara Karimova – the daughter of the then president of Uzbekistan – and the payment was described by the US authorities as a "$220m bribe".
Amersi’s representatives insist the business had been "vetted and approved by Telia" and that its involvement "did not raise any red flags”.
The Tories received more than £100,000 from Amersi ahead of the 2019 General Election. The lawyer also donated £10,000 to Boris Johnson’s leadership bid.
His Russian-born partner, Nadezhda Rodicheva, has also gifted more than £250,000 to the Tories in recent years.
Questioned about the revelations, Sunak told BBC Breakfast: “My understanding is we carry out compliance checks in line with the referendums and political parties legislation that was put in place by the Labour government.
“Those are the checks that are required by law, those are the compliance checks that the party carries out.”
Asked if he has ever benefited from an offshore arrangement, he told Sky News: “No. I haven’t.
“I’ve seen these things overnight as well and it’s always tough for me to comment on them specifically given they’ve only just emerged, and of course HMRC will look through those to see if there’s anything we can learn.”
He also denied that the City’s role in tax avoidance is a “source of shame”.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I don’t think it’s a source of shame because actually our track record on this is very strong.
“As you’ve seen from the papers, it’s a global problem, there’s a global dimension to it and we need other countries to co-operate with us to tackle this, but we’re determined to do that.”
The Pandora papers are reported to be based on the leak of files from 14 financial services companies in countries including the British Virgin Islands, Panama, Belize, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Switzerland.
The files were passed to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in Washington which then shared access to the data with a number of media organisations including the Guardian and Panorama.
The reports acknowledge that many of the transactions in the documents involve no legal wrongdoing.
However, the Guardian said they highlighted the central co-ordinating role played by London, with the city home to wealth managers, law firms, company formation agents and accountants serving their “ultra-rich” clients.
Duncan Hames, policy director at the campaign group Transparency International UK, said the disclosures should act as a “wake up call” for the Government to deliver on long-overdue measures to strengthen Britain’s defences against “dirty money”
“These leaks show that there is one system for corrupt elites who can buy access to prime property and enjoy luxury lifestyles and another for honest hard-working people,” he said.
“The UK must redouble its efforts in tackling illicit finance, bringing in long overdue transparency reforms to reveal who really owns property here as well as resourcing regulators and law enforcement to clamp down on rogue professionals and corrupt cash held in the UK.”
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