The German government on Monday said it hoped the revelations from the so-called "Panama Papers" will spur global efforts to combat tax evasion and money laundering. "We hope the current debate will turn up the heat," finance ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger told a news briefing. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has long been at the forefront of the world-wide fight against money fraud and tax havens. "We can harness this momentum and express the hope that restrictions will be imposed," but such practices "cannot be abolished with a simple click of the fingers," Jaeger said.
The meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington next week will provide an opportunity to put the issue back on the agenda. "And we will take the initiative in this direction," Jaeger pledged. The Panama Papers are a massive leak of 11.5 million documents allegedly exposing the secret offshore dealings of aides to Russian president Vladimir Putin, world leaders and celebrities including Barcelona striker Lionel Messi.
An investigation by more than 100 media groups, described as one of the largest such probes in history, revealed the hidden offshore assets of around 140 political figures. The vast stash of records was obtained from an anonymous source by German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and shared with media world-wide by the International Consortium.
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