MOSCOW, April 5. /TASS/. Russia’s Prosecutor-General’s Office will check media reports on Russians with offshore companies and accounts, Prosecutor-General’s Office spokesman Alexander Kurennoi said on Tuesday.
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"The Prosecutor-General’s Office of Russia will check information published in domestic and foreign media on a group of Russian individuals and legal entities allegedly possessing offshore companies and accounts," the spokesman said.
The check will aim to establish whether the actions of the Russian citizens indicated in these materials comply with the Russian legislation, the fundamentals of international law and our commitments before the international community for preventing the facts of corruption and countering the legalization of criminally obtained incomes, the spokesman said.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published on Sunday some 11.5 million documents revealing "the offshore links of some of the planet’s most prominent people." The leak includes material on hidden financial dealings of a range of Russian legal entities and individuals.
The reports dubbed the Panama Papers are based on information leaks from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, which provides assistance in registering companies in offshore zones.
The company’s full archive has not been published.
"We have not released the full database and we don't intend to," ICIJ Head Gerard Ryle told TASS.
According to Ryle, the publication of the Panama Papers on offshore companies and accounts "wasn't a story about Russia."
The publications also contained data on the offshore operations of some Russian individuals and legal entities.
"As you can see, it wasn't a story about Russia. It was a story about the offshore world," Ryle said.