KIEV, October 4. /TASS/. Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada’s Finance Committee, Daniil Getmantsev, from the Servant of the People party, on Monday refuted the involvement of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and his circle in offshore bank operations to the tune of $40 million, following the release of the Pandora Papers by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism (ICIJ).
"The Pandora Papers, despite being a fascinating reading about the heartbreaking story of our president and his former ‘offshore’ companies, has just one important detail missing. Within just over six months after Zelensky had taken power and sold off the above-mentioned offshore [assets], Zelensky's team adopted the first anti-offshore law which imposed taxes on foreign-controlled companies, developed regulation on transfer pricing, broadened the concept of foreign representation and imposed taxes on transactions on the sale of foreign assets abroad. A little while ago, laws were adopted for the automatic exchange of tax information about our residents with 100 countries worldwide," Getmantsev said on his Telegram channel on Monday.
The official states that "Zelensky did his best so that neither Zelensky nor anyone else in the country can make use of this great mechanism (offshore - TASS) without paying taxes to the budget".
The politician proposed that "representatives of political forces, happily seeking to score some political points over the offshore scandal, should demonstrated what they have done specifically to counter offshore companies in Ukraine".