Australian Prime Minister Possibly Involved in Panama Papers Schemes

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull used to be the director of a British Virgin Islands company administered by Mossack Fonseca, a law firm accused of being linked to offshore schemes, The Australian Financial Review reports.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Turnbull’s spokesperson said as cited by the newspaper on Wednesday that the prime minister was not aware that the company, a subsidiary of Australian-listed Star Mining NL in the British Virgin Islands called Star Technology Services Limited, had been administered by Mossack Fonseca.

Star Mining NL hoped to develop a $20 billion Siberian gold mine called Sukhoi Log, The Australian Financial Review said.

On April 3, the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung published materials it claimed came from Mossack Fonseca. The leak appeared to expose the alleged involvement of a number of world leaders and other officials in tax avoidance schemes.

Mossack Fonseca responded to the leak by refusing to validate the information 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.