Lanka sets up panel to probe ‘Panama Papers’

Cash-strapped Sri Lanka has announced it was setting up a special panel to chase after nationals likely to figure in the “Panama Papers,” a trove of leaked documents
on global tax evasion.
The government, which came to power in January last year on a promise to clean up corruption, has accused former president Mahinda Rajapakse and his family of siphoning off billions of dollars during his decade in power, a charge he has denied.
The new administration has also been weighed down by huge foreign loans taken out by the Rajapakse regime. Colombo last week secured an IMF bailout of $1.5bn to head off a balance of payments crisis.
Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said Colombo would investigate “each and every Sri Lankan” whose names were likely to come up when the Panama Papers became publicly available on May 9.
He accused the former government of failing to look into 46 Sri Lankans whose names came up in a 2013 probe known as the Offshore Leaks, by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) which is also behind the
Panama Papers.
“Our panel will look into names that will come up in the Panama Papers as well as those already named in the Offshore Leaks,” Karunanayake told
reporters in Colombo.
The Panama Papers have become a global scandal, sparking investigations and
resignations.
About 11.5mn leaked documents, from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, revealed the large-scale use of offshore entities to conceal assets from tax authorities.