Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Mossack Fonseca said it had been hacked by servers based abroad

Denmark will buy data leaked from the law firm at the heart of the Panama Papers scandal, Taxation Minister Karsten Lauritzen has announced.

An anonymous offer to sell data involving up to 600 Danish citizens was made to the tax authorities over the summer, he said in a statement.

"We owe it to all Danish taxpayers who faithfully pay their taxes," he said.

The decision was attacked as "deeply reprehensible" by a spokesman for one of the opposition parties.

Mr Lauritzen did not reveal the exact sum to be paid but it is believed to be about 9m kroner (£1m; $1.4m; 1.2m euros).

It is not clear whether Denmark is buying the information from the original source of the leak, who remains anonymous, or from another party.

Mr Lauritzen said that the Danish government communicated with its source via encrypted channels after being put in touch by a foreign tax authority.

The Panama Papers leak was the biggest in history. Some of the documents have been published by various media organisations but many remain unpublished.

Germany, France and the UK are all believed to have paid for data on bank customers in the past, including a German payment in 2014 for data leaked from the law firm involved in the Panama Papers, Mossack Fonseca.

Some 11.5m documents previously leaked from the firm to international media revealed huge offshore tax evasion.

'Wise to buy'

Mr Lauritzen said that Denmark "must take the necessary measures in order to catch tax evaders who hide fortunes in, for instance, Panama. Therefore we agreed that it is wise to buy the material".

But he accepted that there "may be fundamental problems associated with buying leaked information" and said tax authorities "should be cautious".

The proposal by the centre-right Venstre party - which rules as a minority government - is said by Danish media to have the support of the other two main parties in parliament, the centre-left Social Democrats and anti-immigration Danish People's Party.

But the Liberal Alliance, Venstre's former coalition partner, sharply criticised the idea. Tax spokesman Joachim Olsen said it might encourage the theft of private information to sell it on to the Danish authorities.

The Panama Papers, first detailed in April, revealed the hidden assets of hundreds of politicians, officials, current and former national leaders, celebrities and sports stars.

They listed more than 200,000 shell companies, foundations and trusts set up in tax havens around the world.

Mossack Fonseca said it had been hacked by servers based abroad and filed a complaint with the Panamanian attorney general's office. It said it did not act illegally and that information was being misrepresented.

Panama Papers - tax havens of the rich and powerful exposed

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption A huge leak of confidential documents has revealed how the rich and powerful use tax havens to hide their wealth

Eleven million documents held by the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca were passed to German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which then shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. BBC Panorama and UK newspaper The Guardian were among 107 media organisations in 76 countries which analysed the documents. The BBC does not know the identity of the source</s>Denmark will buy data leaked from the law firm at the heart of the Panama Papers scandal, Taxation Minister Karsten Lauritzen has announced.

An anonymous offer to sell data involving up to 600 Danish citizens was made to the tax authorities over the summer, he said in a statement.

“We owe it to all Danish taxpayers who faithfully pay their taxes,” he said.

The decision was attacked as “deeply reprehensible” by a spokesman for one of the opposition parties.

Germany, France and the UK are all believed to have paid for data on bank customers in the past but this may be the first time a government has agreed to pay for data leaked from the law firm involved in the Panama Papers, Mossack Fonseca.

Some 11.5m documents previously leaked from the firm to international media revealed huge offshore tax evasion.

Mr Lauritzen did not reveal the exact sum to be paid but it is believed to be at most 9m kroner (£1m; $1.4m; 1.2m euros).

“Everything suggests that it is useful information,” the Danish tax minister said.

“We must take the necessary measures in order to catch tax evaders who hide fortunes in, for instance, Panama. Therefore we agreed that it is wise to buy the material.”

At the same time, he accepted that “there may be fundamental problems associated with buying leaked information” and said tax authorities “should be cautious”.

The proposal by the centre-right Venstre party – which rules as a minority government – is said by Danish media to have the support of the other two main parties in parliament, the centre-left Social Democrats and anti-immigration Danish People’s Party.

But the Liberal Alliance, Venstre’s former coalition partner, sharply criticised the idea. Tax spokesman Joachim Olsen said it might encourage the theft of private information to sell it on to the Danish authorities.

The Panama Papers, first detailed in April, revealed the hidden assets of hundreds of politicians, officials, current and former national leaders, celebrities and sports stars.

They listed more than 200,000 shell companies, foundations and trusts set up in tax havens around the world.

Mossack Fonseca said it had been hacked by servers based abroad and filed a complaint with the Panamanian attorney general’s office. It said it not act illegally and that information was being misrepresented.

Panama Papers – tax havens of the rich and powerful exposed

Eleven million documents held by the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca were passed to German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which then shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. BBC Panorama and UK newspaper The Guardian were among 107 media organisations in 76 countries which analysed the documents. The BBC does not know the identity of the source

The documents show how the company helped clients launder money, dodge sanctions and evade tax

 Mossack Fonseca says it has operated beyond reproach for 40 years and never been accused or charged with criminal wrongdoing

IMAGE: Getty Images

 Image caption Mossack Fonseca said it had been hacked by servers based abroad

For more on this story and video go to: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-37299637</s>COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark's taxation minister says authorities will buy leaked data from a Panamanian law firm that helped customers open offshore companies to avoid paying taxes.

Taxation minister Karsten Lauritzen says Denmark's Customs and Tax Administration had received an anonymous offer over the summer to acquire data from the so-called "Panama Papers" that could involve up to 600 people.

Lauritzen says "everything suggests that it is useful information" and "we owe it to all Danish taxpayers who faithfully pay their taxes."

He said Wednesday other parties in Parliament supported buying some of the 200,000 documents leaked from law firm Mossack Fonseca, saying "the material contains relevant and valid information about several hundred Danish taxpayers."

He said the data cost a single-digit million kroner, where 9 million is equivalent to $1.4 million.</s>COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - Denmark will buy leaked data from a Panamanian law firm that helped customers open offshore companies to avoid paying taxes, the Scandinavian country’s taxation minister said Wednesday.

Karsten Lauritzen said Danish tax authorities had received an anonymous offer over the summer to acquire data from the so-called “Panama Papers” that could involve up to 600 people. The ministry said communication with the anonymous source was made via encrypted channels.

Lauritzen says “everything suggests that it is useful information” and “we owe it to all Danish taxpayers who faithfully pay their taxes.”

“We must take the necessary measures in order to catch tax evaders who hide fortunes in, for instance, Panama,” Lauritzen said in a statement. “Therefore, we agreed that it is wise to buy the material.”

He said, without elaborating, that “there may be fundamental problems associated with buying leaked information,” and taxation authorities “should be cautious.”

He added that other parties in the 179-seat Parliament supported buying the documents, which are part of a stash of documents leaked from law firm Mossack Fonseca.

The data, which consists of records on 11.5 million offshore holdings, was originally leaked to a German newspaper, which shared it with a global network of investigative journalists, leading to a series of media reports in April. In May, the journalists made the names of 200,000 offshore entities available in a searchable database.

It’s unclear whether Denmark is the first country to have bought or accessed the leaked data beyond what was made public.

The repercussions of the leak have been far-ranging. The uproar led to the resignation of the prime minister of Iceland, and brought scrutiny to, among others, the leaders of Argentina and Ukraine, Chinese politicians, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his friends.

“The material contains relevant and valid information about several hundred Danish taxpayers,” Lauritzen said. It was not clear how many lawmakers backed the plan as there had been no public vote in the assembly.

Lauritzen said the data cost a single-digit-million kroner. One million kroner is equivalent to $150,000.</s>Denmark has become the first country in the world to buy data from the Panama Papers leak, and now plans to investigate whether 500-600 Danes who feature in the leaked offshore archive may have evaded tax.

Denmark’s tax minister, Karsten Lauritzen, said he has paid DKK9m (£1m) for the information, which comes from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. He said an anonymous source approached the Danish government over the summer.

The source sent over an initial sample of documents and the government reviewed them. After concluding they were genuine, it secretly negotiated support for the controversial deal from political parties in parliament, the minister said.

“Everything suggests that it is useful information. We owe it to all Danish taxpayers who faithfully pay their taxes,” Lauritzen said, admitting that he had originally been “very wary”. He added: “The material contains relevant and valid information about several hundred Danish taxpayers.”



The Panama Papers, published in April, were the biggest leak in history. The archive includes 12.7m documents. There are details of offshore companies – half of them incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, a UK tax haven – as well as of secret “beneficial owners”.

An anonymous source, “John Doe”, gave the archive to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. An international consortium of journalists from 180 media organisations including the Guardian examined the leaked files, which featured several heads of state and politicians.



It is unclear if John Doe is the same source who sold information to the Danes. Lauritzen said he did not know who the source was. The government communicated with him – or her – via encrypted channels, he said, after being put in touch by a tax authority in another country.



This raises the prospect that other European countries may discreetly be buying data on their own citizens. In 2014, German tax officials paid about €1m (£850,000) for files from a much smaller Mossack Fonseca leak. They carried out raids on customers of Commerzbank, suspected of evading tax.

Tax authorities from around the world including HM Revenue and Customs asked journalists earlier this year to give them access to the Panama Papers archive. All approaches were declined. DR, Denmark’s state broadcasting corporation, refused a request from the country’s rightwing liberal government.

The government had already started an investigation into eight Danish banks. A preliminary report said the banks had not done enough to ensure offshore accounts weren’t used for money laundering or tax evasion. The authorities also asked police to investigate whether Nordea Bank, with 11 million customers, had complied with anti-money laundering directives.

This is the first time Denmark has chosen to buy information on suspected tax evaders. Dennis Flydtkjær, an MP with the Danish People’s party and a tax rapporteur, said that he was sceptical about the deal but that “in this case we can be prepared to bend our principles”.

He told Politiken newspaper that the country was losing billions to tax evasion and that it was a scandal. He declared: “This is a golden opportunity to show that we are actually going after people who cheat.”</s>LONDON -- Denmark will buy documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm at the heart of an offshore finance scandal, part of a growing global effort to clamp down on tax evasion by wealthy individuals, Denmark's tax minister said Wednesday.

A Danish government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity in keeping with department policy, said the cost of the data was less than $1.5 million, and the government hoped that the unpaid taxes recovered would more than offset the cost of the information.

It was unclear whether the documents came from the trove known as the Panama Papers, published in April, which contained millions of leaked confidential documents from the Mossack Fonseca law firm in Panama and ensnared politicians, businessmen and other prominent figures around the world.

The move by the Danish authorities, believed to be the first time that a government has publicly acknowledged paying for access to the documents, seems likely to raise ethical questions about governments buying private material that the law firm says was stolen.

The Danish tax minister, Karsten Lauritzen, a member of the center-right governing party, said he had every reason to believe that the data would prove useful.

"For many years Denmark has been in the forefront internationally when fighting tax evasion," he said in a statement. "We owe it to all Danish taxpayers who faithfully pay their taxes. We have to take the necessary measures to catch tax evaders hiding their fortunes in places like Panama, in order to avoid tax payments in Denmark. That's why we agreed it was wise to buy this material."

The Danish government official who spoke anonymously said that the country's Customs and Tax Administration had received an anonymous offer over the summer from a party willing to sell the data, and that the data involved 320 cases concerning up to 600 Danish taxpayers.

He said the purchase of the data likely would take place this month and that the move had received cross-party support.</s>What is the significance of Denmark buying data from the Panama Papers leak?

The Panama Papers are the biggest leak ever: 12.7m documents from the offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca. They amount to a who’s who of the international rich. They include details of the real or “beneficial” owners behind anonymous offshore companies. The leak includes passport scans, addresses, and email chains, typically between the firm, which has offices around the world, and other lawyers and banks. In short, a goldmine for any ambitious tax inspector.

Who is the source?

We don’t know. In 2015 an anonymous source approached Bastian Obermayer, a reporter with Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung. Over the next 12 months, the source gave Obermayer Mossack Fonseca’s entire internal database, updated in real-time instalments. After the Panama Papers were published the source wrote a manifesto, suggesting his motives were idealistic: to expose wrongdoing. The source called himself John Doe. It’s unclear if John Doe has now sought to cash in on the leak by selling selective chunks of information to European and other governments, or if the source is someone else.

Has this happened before?

Yes. In 2014, the German government paid just under €1m for a previous – and much smaller – Mossack Fonseca leak. This led to a series of raids on those customers of Commerzbank, Germany’s second largest bank, whom the authorities suspected of tax evasion.

In 2006-07, Hervé Falciani took data from inside HSBC’s Swiss subsidiary. It showed how HSBC helped wealthy customers dodge tax. After fleeing to France, Falciani gave the HSBC files to French authorities. They shared them with other countries, including the UK. In January, British tax authorities admitted they had not prosecuted anybody.

Will other countries buy the data?

Probably. Denmark’s tax minister, Karsten Lauritzen, says another government put him in touch with the anonymous source. This means the source has approached at least one other tax authority. Germany is a likely candidate. In the past, several EU countries, including Belgium, have taken a tough approach to tax offenders. David Cameron did hold an anti-corruption summit in London following the Panama Papers revelations, but the UK has generally been reluctant to pursue offenders or investigate offshore leaks. It has so far not questioned employees at Mossack Fonseca’s UK office. The firm has closed branches in Jersey and the Isle of Man.</s>Your feedback is important to us!

We invite all our readers to share with us their views and comments about this article.

Comments submitted by third parties on this site are the sole responsibility of the individual(s) whose content is submitted. The Daily Star accepts no responsibility for the content of comment(s), including, without limitation, any error, omission or inaccuracy therein. Please note that your email address will NOT appear on the site.

If you are facing problems with posting comments, please note that you must verify your email with Disqus prior to posting a comment. follow this link to make sure your account meets the requirements. (http://bit.ly/vDisqus)</s>ISLAMABAD: Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique Thursday invited the Opposition parties for framing a joint and comprehensive legislation to investigate the Panama Papers and other corrupt practices.

Responding to allegations of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in the National Assembly, he said the investigation should not be any person specific but across the board.

“We should bring such a legislation which not only investigate corruption of the past but also shut doors for malpractices in the future,” he added.

He said two bills on Panama Papers from the government and Opposition had been tabled in the National Assembly and Senate.

“Government and Opposition bills should be discussed and a comprehensive legislation should be enacted for the investigation of Panama Papers and other corrupt practices,” he added.

He said that a parliamentary committee should also be constituted to bring unanimous legislation to address the issue.

He said that fair people from the government and Opposition should be inducted in the committee.

The minister said that the government was and is ready to sit with the Opposition parties to chalk out a way forward for investigation into the Panama Papers.

He said the Opposition parties during talks with the government themselves were of the view that the investigation should not be person-specific.

He said the Speaker’s decision on the disqualification references filed against the Prime Minister and the PTI Chairman is correct and this House endorses his decision.

The minister said that it is the tactics of the PTI Chairman to attack the personality of the Speaker and hurl allegations of rigging on him. It is the same Speaker who did not accept the resignation of the PTI MNAs, he added.

On the references filed against the Prime Minister, the Minister said that the four references furnished before the Speaker did not carry any documentary evidence.

Therefore, the Speaker did not find appropriate to forward the references to the ECP. He said that the Speaker also rejected one reference against the PTI Chairman and forwarded the second one to the ECP having the substantial material and evidence.

Khawaja Saad said that Imran Khan himself is the founder of offshore companies but he never gets tired of hurling accusations on others.

He asked Imran Khan to stop the politics of allegations and mud-slinging and demonstrate maturity in his political conduct.

The minister recalled that it was agreed if the judicial commission, formed to investigate the rigging of the general election, indicated engineered rigging, the PML-N will leave the government and if otherwise the PTI will take its allegations back. But he said Imran Khan backed out from the written agreement.</s>The Danish tax authority SKAT has been given the go-ahead by Parliament’s tax committee and the tax minister, Karsten Laurtizen, to purchase information regarding Danes listed in the Panama Papers that were leaked earlier this year.

According to DR Nyheder, the information for sale relates to 320 cases involving some 600 Danish tax payers, and it will be purchased from an anonymous source.

“SKAT has already sifted through a sample of the data material, which has been obtained for free,” SKAT wrote, according to DR Nyheder.

“It is on this basis that SKAT has evaluated that the information is adequately relevant and validates the launch of tax investigations into a number of companies and persons who are named in the material.” High profile

 It is unknown how much SKAT must shell out for the information, which is of great interest to the Danish authorities. Leaked by the global media in April, the Panama Papers comprises 11.5 million documents regarding secret accounts in tax havens that were leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. A number of high-profile individuals have been implicated as part of the leak, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, footballer Lionel Messi and the Icelandic prime minister, Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson, who has since resigned.
Denmark's government plans to buy the leaked Panama Papers containing Danish citizens.