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Panama Papers - Jurgen Mossack resigns; Cameron admits he profited from father's investment

Associated Press Friday, 8 April 2016, 06:21 Last update: about 10 years ago

2:45 a.m.

Venezuela's president says his government will investigate any citizens named in the "Panama Papers" leak.

President Nicolas Maduro is asking the chief prosecutor to look into Venezuelans whose names appear in leaked documents that originated with a Panama-based law firm that helps individuals and businesses set up secretive offshore bank accounts and shell companies.

Maduro promised Thursday to investigate any wrongdoing exposed in the leak, while repeating his claim that political enemies of Venezuela's socialist government are involved in media reporting on the documents.

Venezuelans whose names have appeared in connection to the leak include a former top military officer, a former state oil company official and a security official who worked at the presidential palace during the administration of the late President Hugo Chavez.

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12:15 a.m.

The German-born lawyer who co-founded the Panamanian-based Mossack Fonseca law firm at the center of the "Panama Papers" uproar has resigned from a council advising the Central American country's government on foreign policy.

Panama's Foreign Ministry said Thursday that lawyer Jurgen Mossack (photo above) resigned this week from the honorary, unpaid post on the National Council of Foreign Relations, which is an informal advisory board.

Mossack and his partner, Ramon Fonseca, had been political heavyweights in Panama until Sunday's publication of news stories on the financial affairs of the world's rich and famous. The stories were based on a trove of 11.5 million documents from the law firm offering details on secretive shell companies.

Fonseca had been a member of Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela's Cabinet until February.

9:50 p.m.

One nagging question since the Panama Papers story broke is why so few prominent Americans have so far shown up holding offshore accounts.

The lawyer at the center of the scandal has an explanation: he prefers not to have them as clients.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Ramon Fonseca said that he and his German-born partner at Mossack Fonseca like to vacation in the U.S., but they have longstanding ties to Europe and have always focused their business there and Latin America. The few American clients the firm has taken are mostly to handle visas and other requests from Panama's burgeoning expatriate retirement community.

Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung, the newspaper that first obtained the 11.5 million confidential documents that make up the Panama Papers, said the files included copies of 200 American passports and 3,500 shareholders in offshore companies listed U.S. addresses. That's a small fraction of the more than 220,000 offshore companies Mossack Fonseca says it has created in the past four decades.

9:40 p.m.

After days of headlines about his family's financial affairs, British Prime Minister David Cameron has acknowledged that he profited from his father's investments in an offshore tax haven.

Cameron told ITV news Thursday that he and his wife Samantha sold shares worth 31,500 pounds (currently $44,300) in Blairmore Holdings in early 2010, before Cameron became prime minister.

A leak of millions of documents from a Panamanian law firm has disclosed the financial arrangements of wealthy people — including the British leader's late father, Ian Cameron, who died in 2010.

There is no suggestion he acted illegally.

David Cameron's office has released several previous statements saying the prime minister and his family "do not benefit from any offshore funds" — but not specifying whether they had done so in the past.

7:00 p.m.

An Argentine prosecutor is asking for an investigation into President Mauricio Macri's role in offshore companies, the latest fallout from a massive leak of documents in Panama that has dogged the South American nation's leader all week.

Federal prosecutor Federico Delgado made the request Thursday to Judge Sebastian Casanello, according to a formal court document obtained by The Associated Press. Under Argentine law, such a request is the precursor to charges, which must be decided on by the judge.

Delgado argues that an investigation is necessary to see whether Macri "maliciously" omitted his role in two offshore companies in his annual tax declarations.

Macri, a conservative who took power in December, has repeatedly said they were family businesses and he was figurehead that received no salary.

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