Dogged by allegations he concealed multi-million dollar investments in an offshore company, the prime minister of Iceland has resigned after his request for the president to dissolve parliament was refused.
Local media reports the Prime Minister’s move must be approved by both the Independence Party and the Icelandic president, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, before it becomes official. Agriculture and fisheries minister, Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson, is likely to succeed him in the role.
Iceland’s PM, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson (pictured), is just one of many world leaders and former leaders revealed in the massive data leak from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca which reportedly reveals the complex financial arrangements employed by world leaders to conceal their vast wealth.
With 11.5 million files totaling over 2.6 terabytes in size, covering 200,000 clients of the firm, the data dump has been labeled the largest financial leak in history.
Others named include: the Argentinian President; Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif; former Vice President of Iraq Ayad Allawi; Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko; the King of Saudi Arabia – alongside a host of other Western-allied Gulf figures; and members of Vladimir Putin’s ‘inner circle’ including his best friend and godfather of his daughter.
More will doubtless be revealed, as journalists from over 80 countries analyse the mountain of data provided by an anonymous source last year.
Mossack Fonseca has denied that “the primary function of the services we provide is to facilitate tax avoidance and/or evasion,” and said it was not responsible for the potential “misuse of companies that we incorporate, or the services we provide.”
More follows.
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