Several major German banks and the engineering concern Siemens became the focus of media attention in connection with the “Panama Papers” of the International Consortium for Investigative Journalism (ICIJ), reports "Deutsche Welle".
Germany, according to Suddeutsche Zeitung cooperating with ICIJ, is mentioned in two news stories: the first deals with the German financial institutions, and the second discusses a large multinational company focused on the production of electronics and power equipment.
Summing up the investigation of the numerous offshore companies registered by the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, the journalists came to the conclusion that "the German banks help their clients to evade taxes."
However, the financial institutions are not yet specified. Nevertheless, the journalist Georg Mascolo said: "We'll have to think long to tell which of the German banks were not involved in such operations."
In contrast to the banks, "the Panama Papers" reveals the name of a particular German concern –Siemens. The Suddeutsche Zeitung journalists indicate that concern employees willingly used "black cash", and it is about millions. Probably it refers to new details of a scandal starting since 2006.
In November 2006, the Munich prosecutor's office raided the headquarters of Siemens, as well as the apartments and houses of some of the employees. The investigating authorities have stated that suspect the representatives of the group of bribing officials that provided the concern lucrative contracts, mainly abroad. At first they talked about bribes in the tens of millions of euro. But the scandal has continued to grow. It soon became clear that the bribes group spent more than a billion. The most involved in corruption was the division responsible with the sale of Siemens fixed telephone equipment.
Along with Germany, in the "Panama Papers" reveal 10 more countries: Brazil, Iceland, Switzerland, Ukraine, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, China and Guinea. The materials referred to the names of dozens of major political figures and their entourage.
In particular, there are mentioned deals, in which, according to the journalists, are involved the King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, relatives of President Xi Jinping and of President Ilham Aliyev. Based on the information that the Prime Minister of Iceland Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson allegedly was involved in offshore frauds, he is threatened with resignation.
Among other well-known persons referred to in the investigation are the footballer Lionel Messi, one of the members of the Ethics Committee of FIFA Juan Pedro Damiani, and the actor Jackie Chan.