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Norwegian authorities still investigating 'over 60 cases' related to Panama Papers

The Local Norway
The Local Norway - [email protected]
Norwegian authorities still investigating 'over 60 cases' related to Panama Papers
The entrance to the Norwegian Tax Administration (Skattedirektoratet). File photo: Heiko Junge / NTB scanpix

The Norwegian Tax Administration (Skattedirektoratet) is a long way from completing its investigations into information leaked from Panama law firm Mossack and Fonseca.

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Sunday’s release of the Paradise Papers, a leak of 13.4 million documents, mainly from Bermuda-based leading offshore finance firm Appleby, could potentially add to the Norwegian investigations, reports NRK.

The Panama Papers, leaked in April 2016, were one of the biggest information dumps of the tax and financial affairs of royal, political, wealthy and criminal figures worldwide.

The papers showed how scores of individuals had concealed vast amounts of wealth in tax havens.

Since the release, 107 media organisations attached to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in 78 different countries have examined 11 million documents which cover a 40-year period.

That group includes Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, which reported that 200 Norwegians were mentioned in the documents.

“We took on around 200 cases, and now have around 60 cases that we have looked at in detail based on [the Panama Papers],” Skattedirektoratet director Hans Christian Holte told NRK.

“I am aware that [new] cases are on the way and have been oriented on some of what is coming,” Holte told NRK prior to the Paradise Papers release, without going into detailed on how he had been informed.

Leaks like the Panama and Paradise papers are good for tax authorities, he told the broadcaster.

“We are seeing leaks of this kind coming in different ways. There may be disloyal servants in these companies, and it could also be because of hacking attacks. What is most important for us is to create an openness around tax paradise constructions of this kind. So in that regard I would say that leaks like this have a clear useful purpose for those of us that work with this kind of question,” Holte said.

READ ALSO: Norway to 'Panama Papers' names: Turn yourselves in

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