Mexico Launches Probe Over Offshore Scheme Leaks

The Mexican Tax Administration Service head said that the agency has launched an investigation in relation to the recent allegations that linked dozens of politicians and public figures to offshore schemes.

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) – The Mexican Tax Administration Service has launched an investigation in relation to the recent allegations that linked dozens of politicians and public figures to offshore schemes, agency’s head Aristoteles Nunez said.

On Sunday, the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung exposed alleged involvement of a number of former and current world leaders in offshore schemes by publishing materials it claimed came from Mossack Fonseca, a Panama firm selling offshore companies.

According to Nunez, the investigation will be carried out in relation to Mexican companies and businessmen mentioned in the leaked materials, and the registries of Mexican companies and individuals in Panama, the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands and the Bahamas will be checked.

"It is not illegal to have assets in these countries, it is illegal to not pay taxes from them," Nunez told radio Formula on Monday.

Several prominent Mexican figures, including contractor Juan Armando Hinojosa Cantu and several television executives were named in the files.

Mossack Fonseca has refused to validate the information contained in the leaks and accused reporters of gaining unauthorized access to its proprietary documents. It warned that using unlawfully-obtained data was a crime that it would not hesitate to punish by legal means.