'Panama is willing to cooperate fully' over finance scandal'

April 11, 2016 21:54

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development head Angel Gurria said on Monday that Panama is "willing to cooperate fully" with his organisation in the wake of a massive leak of financial data that has sent shockwaves around the world., AFP reported.

Gurria told a press conference in Tokyo that Isabel De Saint Malo, vice president of the Central American country, called him last week to express cooperation with the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Panama is scrambling to avert redesignation as a tax haven that facilitates money laundering after the disclosure of offshore dealings of many of the world's wealthy, famous and infamous in Panama Papers revelations.

The scandal, which has already caused the Icelandic prime minister to resign, came when millions of documents covering nearly 40 years of business were leaked from the archives of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

"I have to say that the vice president of Panama called me last week and she expressed the government is willing to cooperate fully with the OECD," Gurria said.

"My expectation is that this very unfortunate event may trigger a reaction by the government of Panama to fully join the rest of the world in this exercise about transparency," said Gurria, who is OECD secretary-general.

« Back to LIVE

TOP STORIES

Pant hands GT's Mohit unwanted T20 record

Before Pant it was Multan Sultans's Pakistan batter Usman Khan who held the record.

If my unopposed election is death of...: Surat winner

'The Congress is solely responsible for the situation that has arisen in Surat'

M&As pick up pace in Q1

The merger and acquisition (M&As) transactions have picked up pace in the March quarter of 2024 with 455 deals amounting to $25.6 billion deal value announced. This is a 24 per cent rise in deal volume as compared to Q4CY23, according...

Tesla's India factory plan may materialise in 2025

Tesla's plan to manufacture its affordable electric car priced at $25,000 in India and Mexico could materialise sometime in 2025 or thereafter, with Elon Musk declaring that these models would be produced at its existing factories to...

How Pant-Kuldeep teamed up to restrict Tewatia

While speaking at the post-match presentation, Kuldeep said he was "happy" at the win and added that the team knew it was going to be "tight" when the match went to the last over.