Denmark buys Panama Papers to help fight tax evasion

Denmark will buy leaked statistics from a Panamanian regulation firm that helped clients open offshore businesses to keep away from paying taxes, the Scandinavian us of a's taxation minister stated Wednesday.

Karsten Lauritzen said Danish tax government had obtained an nameless offer over the summer time to gather statistics from the so-referred to as "Panama Papers" that would contain up to six hundred human beings. The ministry said verbal exchange with the anonymous source changed into made thru encrypted channels.

Lauritzen says "the whole thing shows that it's miles useful records" and "we owe it to all Danish taxpayers who faithfully pay their taxes."

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"We ought to take the necessary measures which will capture tax evaders who conceal fortunes in, for example, Panama," Lauritzen stated in a statement. "consequently, we agreed that it's miles sensible to buy the fabric."

He said, with out elaborating, that "there may be essential troubles associated with shopping for leaked data," and taxation government "ought to be careful."

He brought that different events inside the 179-seat Parliament supported shopping for the documents, that are a part of a stash of documents leaked from regulation company Mossack Fonseca.

The data, which consists of statistics on 11.five million offshore holdings, changed into at first leaked to a German newspaper, which shared it with a worldwide community of investigative journalists, leading to a sequence of media reviews in April. In may additionally, the journalists made the names of 2 hundred,000 offshore entities available in a searchable database.

it's uncertain whether Denmark is the first u . s . a . to have offered or accessed the leaked records beyond what turned into made public.

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The repercussions of the leak were far-ranging. The uproar caused the resignation of the top minister of Iceland, and brought scrutiny to, among others, the leaders of Argentina and Ukraine, chinese language politicians, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his buddies.

"The fabric incorporates applicable and valid facts approximately numerous hundred Danish taxpayers," Lauritzen said. It become no longer clean what number of lawmakers sponsored the plan as there have been no public vote inside the assembly.

Lauritzen stated the data cost a single-digit million kroner, where 1 million kroner is equal to $a hundred and fifty,000.