As many as 189 individuals and companies in Vietnam were named in the Panama Papers after the ICIJ publicised information from the world's biggest data leak.

Panama Papers is the world's biggest data leak

On May 9, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published information on offshore banking. The database is still being updated.

As of now, up to 189 individuals and companies in Vietnam, both locally-owned and foreign-invested businesses can be found on the database. 23 individuals and companies acted as middlemen while 19 shell companies located overseas and 185 Vietnam-based companies, mostly in Hanoi and HCM City are so far listed.

19 overseas companies in Vietnam have headquarters in the British Virgin Islands and only one is located in Panama.

As many as 189 individuals and companies in Vietnam were named

The Panama Papers are the leak of 11.5m files from the database of the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm in Panama, Mossack Fonseca, from 1977 to December 2015.

The records were provided to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung by an anonymous source. 140 politicians and at least 29 billionaires from Forbes list of top 500 Richest were named on the papers.

It shows the real assets of wealthy individuals and how they can keep personal financial information secret. Some of the shell corporations were used for illegal purposes, including fraud, theft of state property, tax evasion, and evading international sanctions.

Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson and Spain’s Industry Minister José Manuel Soria had to resign over the Panama Papers. So far no-one in Vietnam has resigned based on the exposure.

The full list of individuals and companies can be found at https://offshoreleaks.icij.org.

Dtinews