Panama Papers

=== Oceania ===
==== Australia ====
On April 22, 2016, Australia said it would create a public register showing the beneficial, or actual, owners of shell companies, as part of an effort to stamp out tax avoidance by multinational corporations.<ref>{{cite news |url = http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/1937728/australia-create-public-register-shell-company-owners-wake |title=Australia to create public register of shell company owners, in wake of Panama Papers |newspaper=South China Morning Post |date=April 22, 2016 |access-date=April 22, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160423193649/http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/1937728/australia-create-public-register-shell-company-owners-wake |archive-date=April 23, 2016 }}</ref>

The [[Australian Taxation Office]] has announced that it is investigating 800 individual Australian taxpayers on the Mossack Fonseca list of clients and that some of the cases may be referred to the country's Serious Financial Crime Task Force.<ref name=SMHATOApr416>{{cite news |url=https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/panama-papers-ato-investigating-more-than-800-australian-clients-of-mossack-fonseca-20160403-gnxgu8.html |title=Panama Papers: ATO investigating more than 800 Australian clients of Mossack Fonseca |first=Neil |last=Chenoweth |date=April 4, 2016 |newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald |access-date=April 4, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160405071305/http://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/panama-papers-ato-investigating-more-than-800-australian-clients-of-mossack-fonseca-20160403-gnxgu8.html |archive-date=April 5, 2016 }}</ref> Eighty names match to an organized crime intelligence database.<ref>{{cite news |url = http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/04/22/senate-look-further-panama-papers-tax-havens |title=Senate to look further at Panama Papers tax havens: A Senate committee says multinational companies have resorted to obfuscation and contrariness to avoid explaining why they pay so little tax |author=AAP |date=April 22, 2016 |access-date=April 22, 2016 |publisher=SBS |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160423130756/http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/04/22/senate-look-further-panama-papers-tax-havens |archive-date=April 23, 2016 }}</ref>

Leaked documents examined by the [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation|ABC]] "pierced the veil of anonymous shell companies" and linked a Sydney businessman and a Brisbane geologist to mining deals in North Korea.<ref name=ABCkor>{{cite news |url = http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2015/s4438502.htm |title=Panama papers reveal evidence Australians are involved in deals with North Korea that could be in breach of sanctions |author1=Mark Willacy |author2=Lisa Main |author3=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |date=April 6, 2016 |access-date=April 29, 2016 |work=7.30 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160511224134/http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2015/s4438502.htm |archive-date=May 11, 2016 }}</ref> "Rather than applying sanctions, the Australian Government and the [[Australian Securities Exchange|ASX]] seem to have allowed a coach and horses to be ridden through them by the people involved in forming this relationship, corporate relationship with one of the primary arms manufacturers in North Korea," said Thomas Clark of the [[University of Technology Sydney]].<ref name=ABCkor />

David Sutton was director of AAT Corporation and EHG Corporation when they held mineral licenses in North Korea and did business with Korean Natural Resources Development and Investment Corporation, which is under [[United Nations]] sanctions, and North Korea's "primary arms dealer and main exporter of goods and equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons, responsible for approximately half of the arms exported by North Korea."<ref name=ABCkor /> The geologist, Louis Schurmann, said British billionaire [[Kevin Leech]] was key to putting the deal together.<ref name=ABCkor /> Leaked documents also reveal the involvement of another Briton, Gibraltar-based John Lister.<ref name=ABCkor /> According to ABC, the [[Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Australia)|Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade]] was aware of these mining deals, which had also been brought up in the [[Australian Senate]], but nobody ever referred the matter to the [[Australian Federal Police]].<ref name=ABCkor />

On May 12, 2016, the names of former [[Prime Minister of Australia]] [[Malcolm Turnbull]], and former [[Premier of New South Wales]] [[Neville Wran]], were both found in the Panama Papers, due to the pair's former directorship of the Mossack Fonseca-incorporated company ''Star Technology Systems Limited''. Turnbull and Wran resigned from these positions in 1995, and the Prime Minister has denied any impropriety, stating "had [Star Technology] made any profits—which it did not regrettably—it certainly would have paid [[Taxation in Australia|tax in Australia]]."<ref name="ABC Turnbull">{{cite news |title = Malcolm Turnbull denies any wrongdoing after being listed in Panama Papers |newspaper = ABC News |date = May 11, 2016 |url = http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-12/turnbull-listed-in-panama-papers/7407424 |publisher=[[ABC News (Australia)]] |access-date=May 12, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160512104823/http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-12/turnbull-listed-in-panama-papers/7407424 |archive-date=May 12, 2016 }}</ref>

==== Cook Islands ====
Media initially reported that the Panama Papers lists 500 entities created under the jurisdiction of the Cook Islands, population 10,000, almost as many as Singapore, whose population is 5.7 million.<ref name=APNZ /> After the [[Winebox Inquiry|Winebox affair]], the Cook Islands gave New Zealand jurisdiction over tax matters.<ref>
{{cite web |title = Panama Papers whistleblower cites Pacific isles, NZ, for good reasons |author=Simon Louisson |work=The Standard |url = http://thestandard.org.nz/panama-papers-whistleblower-cites-pacific-isles-nz-for-good-reasons/ |date=May 8, 2016 |access-date=May 18, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160510031659/http://thestandard.org.nz/panama-papers-whistleblower-cites-pacific-isles-nz-for-good-reasons/ |archive-date=May 10, 2016 }}</ref>

==== New Zealand ====
New Zealand's [[Inland Revenue Department (New Zealand)|Inland Revenue Department]] said that they were working to obtain details of people who had [[tax residence]] in the country who might have been involved in arrangements facilitated by Mossack Fonseca.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-panama-tax-australia-idUSKCN0X102E |title=Tax authorities begin probes into some people named in Panama Papers leak |date=April 4, 2016 |first1=Jane |last1=Wardell |first2=Elida |last2=Moreno |work=[[Reuters]] |access-date=April 4, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160404020808/http://www.reuters.com/article/us-panama-tax-australia-idUSKCN0X102E |archive-date=April 4, 2016 }}</ref> [[Gerard Ryle]], director of the ICIJ, told Radio New Zealand on April 8, 2016, that New Zealand is a well-known tax haven and a "nice front for criminals".<ref>{{cite news |url = http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/78694086/nz-a-nice-front-for-criminals-panama-papers-journalist |title = NZ a 'nice front' for criminals |date = April 8, 2016 |access-date = April 10, 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160821073312/http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/78694086/nz-a-nice-front-for-criminals-panama-papers-journalist |archive-date = August 21, 2016 |url-status = live }}</ref> New Zealand provides overseas investors with foreign trusts and [[Look-through company|look-through companies]]. New Zealand government policy is to not request disclosure of the identity of either the settlor or the beneficiaries of the trust, and thus the ownership remains secret, and as a consequence, thus hiding the assets from the trust-holder's home jurisdictions. These trusts are not taxed in New Zealand. These trusts can then be used to acquire and own New Zealand registered companies, which become a vehicle by which the trust owners can exercise day to day control over their assets. These New Zealand-registered companies can be designed not to make a profit using loans from tax havens and other profit shifting techniques: the result being tax free income with the general respectability that has typically been associated with companies registered in New Zealand.

Prime Minister [[John Key]] responded May 7 to [[John Doe (whistleblower)|John Doe]]'s remark that he had been "curiously quiet" about tax evasion in the [[Cook Islands]] by saying that the whistleblower was confused and probably European. While the Cook Islands use New Zealand currency, "I have as much responsibility for tax in the Cook Islands as I do for taxing Russia." New Zealand does represent the Cook Islands on defence and foreign policy, but not taxation, he said.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/79731038/panama-papers-whistleblower-calls-out-john-key-over-silence-on-fraud-mecca |title=Panama Papers whistleblower confused – John Key |author1=Tracy Watkins |author2=Ellen Read |author3=Simon Maude |date=May 7, 2016 |access-date=May 8, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160821114912/http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/79731038/panama-papers-whistleblower-calls-out-john-key-over-silence-on-fraud-mecca |archive-date=August 21, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In distancing New Zealand from the Cook Islands, Key ignored the close ties between the two countries and the crucial role New Zealand had in setting up the Cook Island taxation system.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/8515361/Money-trail-leads-home-to-New-Zealand |title = Money trail leads home to New Zealand |website = stuff.co.nz |date = April 6, 2013 |access-date = May 15, 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161130135425/http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/8515361/Money-trail-leads-home-to-New-Zealand |archive-date = November 30, 2016 |url-status = live }}</ref>

==== Niue ====
Mossack Fonseca approached [[Niue]] in 1996 and offered to help set up a tax haven on the tiny South Sea island. The law firm drafted the necessary legislation, permitting offshore companies to operate in total secrecy. They took care of all the paperwork, the island got a modest fee for each filing, and it seemed like quite a deal, even if they were required by law now to provide all banking paperwork in Russian and Chinese as well as English.<ref name=DBNiue>{{cite news |url = http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/06/the-polynesian-rock-that-made-millions-from-panama-papers-crooks.html |title=Polynesian 'Rock' That Made Millions From Panama Papers' Crooks: How Niue, a coral outcropping with just 1,190 residents, rolled out the welcome mat for Mossack Fonseca, the law firm at the center of the massive records leak—and made a tidy profit |date=April 5, 2016 |access-date=April 26, 2016 |author=Michael Daly |work=Daily Beast |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160502191518/http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/06/the-polynesian-rock-that-made-millions-from-panama-papers-crooks.html |archive-date=May 2, 2016 }}</ref>

Soon the filings almost covered the island's year budget. The US government however made official noises in 2001 about laundering criminal proceeds and [[Chase Bank]] blacklisted the island and [[Bank of New York]] followed suit. This caused inconvenience to the population so they let their contract with Mossack Fonseca expire and many of the privacy-seekers on the banking world moved on.<ref name=DBNiue /> Some did stay however, apparently; the Panama Papers database lists nearly 10,000 companies and trusts set up on Niue, population 1200.<ref name=APNZ />

==== Samoa ====
Many recently created shell companies were set up in Samoa, perhaps after Niue revised its tax laws. The Panama Papers database lists more than 13,000 companies and trusts set up there. Samoa has a population of roughly 200,000.<ref name=APNZ>{{cite news |title=Panama Papers: The South Pacific's role |date=May 10, 2016 |agency=Associated Press |work=New Zealand Herald |url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11636649 |access-date=May 14, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160517051220/http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11636649 |archive-date=May 17, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>