Panama Papers

==== 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>