The Justice Department has an open criminal investigation into the Panama Papers, according to a letter the department sent this week.
Related Story: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2587617
The letter, sent by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of Manhattan to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, states that the department “opened a criminal investigation” in the southern district of New York. The query did not elaborate, but requested that someone from the organization speak with Bharara about details surrounding the papers.
The documents, leaked from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca and obtained by ICIJ more than a year ago, exposed around 250,000 offshore accounts established by 14,000 people around the globe, but less than 300 of those reside in the United States.
The documents inspired the resignation of Iceland’s prime minister, and a member of Spain’s parliament, this month. British Prime Minister David Cameron has also been under fire after the revelation that he earned as much as $40,000 from an offshore fund months before taking office.
Related Story: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2587665
While no American officials have been incriminated, at least a half dozen individuals who are implicated have ties to the Clintons. The papers most notably revealed that Gabrielle Fialkoff, a finance director for Hillary Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign, and her brother, Brett Fialkoff, are both listed on a fund in the British Virgin Islands. Both reside in New York, where Bharara’s criminal investigation has been opened.
President Obama expressed his disapproval of Americans who store their assets offshore this month. “The problem is that a lot of this stuff is legal, not illegal,” Obama said. “A lot of these loopholes come at the expense of middle-class families, because that lost revenue has to be made up somewhere.”
