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 Some of the documents have been published by various media organisations but many remain unpublished.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> 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> 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> 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> 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. </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> The law firm at the centre of the Panama papers leak is to close by the end of the month it announced today.

In a statement Mossack Fonseca said: “The reputational deterioration, the media campaign, the financial siege and the irregular actions of some Panamanian authorities have caused irreparable damage, whose obligatory consequence is the total cessation of operations to the public.”

Mossack Fonseca said it would “continue to call for justice” and said it would work with authorities to “demonstrate that no crime has been committed”.

Read more: Panama papers: Reaction to the revelations

The offshore firm shot to global prominence in 2016 after a cache of 11.5m documents from the firm was leaked to German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung (SZ).

The documents allegedly showed how Mossack Fonseca helped its clients launder money, dodge sanctions and evade tax.

Links to some of the world's most powerful figures were contained within the leaked data - including 72 current or former heads of state.

SZ worked with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and a range of other newspapers including the Guardian in the UK, La Nacion in Argentina and Le Monde in France to investigate the documents and publish stories based on their contents.

Former UK prime minister David Cameron came under political pressure after his father was named in the leak.

A spokesperson for the then PM initially said that it was a private family matter, before issuing a statement which said: "There are no offshore funds or trusts which the prime minister, Mrs Cameron or their children will benefit from in future."

The leaks claimed the scalps of two prime ministers, Pakistan’s PM Nawaz Sharif and Iceland’s PM Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, after their offshore financial dealings were exposed to public scrutiny.

Read more: Paradise Papers reveal very little we didn’t already know

The offshore legal sector suffered another blow in 2017 when 13.4m documents from the law firm Appleby were leaked.

The revelations from the so called paradise papers were less explosive than those from the earlier Panama Papers, however the leak still exposed the financial affairs of prominent individuals such as Lord Ashcroft, a major donor to the Conservative party, Arsenal shareholder Alisher Usmanov, and former US secretary of state Rex Tillerson. </s> COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark said on Tuesday it suspected an Iranian government intelligence service had tried to carry out a plot to assassinate an Iranian Arab opposition figure on its soil.

The alleged plot, which Denmark's foreign minister said he believed the Iranian government was behind, prompted the Nordic country to call for fresh European Union-wide sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

A Norwegian citizen of Iranian background was arrested in Sweden on Oct. 21 in connection with the plot and extradited to neighboring Denmark, Swedish security police said.

The Norwegian has denied the charges and the Iranian government also denied any connection with the alleged plot.

The attack was meant to target the leader of the Danish branch of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA), Danish intelligence chief Finn Borch Andersen said.

ASMLA seeks a separate state for ethnic Arabs in Iran's oil-producing southwestern province of Khuzestan. Arabs are a minority in Iran, and some see themselves as under Persian occupation and want independence or autonomy.

"We are dealing with an Iranian intelligence agency planning an attack on Danish soil. Obviously, we can't and won't accept that," Andersen told a news conference.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi dismissed the accusations. "This is a continuation of enemies' plots to damage Iranian relations with Europe at this critical time," Tasnim news agency quoted him as saying.

The EU is trying to save big powers' 2015 deal with Iran that curbed its nuclear activity in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions after the United States withdrew from the pact and reimposed far-flung financial penalties on Tehran.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen called the planned attack "totally unacceptable" and said British Prime Minister Theresa May had voiced her support for Denmark during a meeting in Olso.

Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen told a press conference he believed the Iranian government was behind the attempted attack.

"In light of the latest development, Denmark will now push for a discussion in the EU on the need for further sanctions against Iran," Samuelsen said. Denmark's ambassador in Tehran had been recalled for consultations, Samuelsen added.

"We congratulate the government of Denmark on its arrest of an Iranian regime assassin," U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a tweet. "We call on our allies and partners to confront the full range of Iran's threats to peace and security."

Andersen said the arrested Norwegian citizen had denied charges in court of helping a foreign intelligence service plot an assassination in Denmark.

On Sept. 28, Danish police shut two major bridges to traffic and halted ferry services from Denmark to Sweden and Germany in a nationwide police operation to prevent a possible attack.

A few days earlier, the Norwegian suspect had been observed photographing and watching the Danish home of the ASMLA leader, police said.

In November 2017, Ahmad Mola Nissi, an Iranian exile who established ASMLA, was shot dead in the Netherlands. The Danish security service then bolstered police protection of the ASMLA leader in Denmark and two associates.

Last month, Iran summoned the envoys of the Netherlands, Denmark and Britain over a Sept. 22 shooting attack on a military parade in Khuzestan in which 25 people were killed.

Iran accused the three countries of harboring Iranian opposition groups.

Another Arab opposition group, the Ahwaz National Resistance, and the Islamic State militant group both claimed responsibility for the parade attack, though neither has provided conclusive evidence to back up their claim.

Last week, diplomatic and security sources said France had expelled an Iranian diplomat over a failed plot to carry out a bomb attack on a rally in the Paris area by an exiled Iranian opposition group.
Denmark's government plans to buy the leaked Panama Papers containing Danish citizens.