Probes opened in Europe, Australia over offshore dealings

France, Spain and Australia have all opened legal probes following media revelations from a vast trove of leaked documents about offshore financial dealings known as the Panama Papers.

The tax evasion revealed in the documents “is likely to concern French taxpayers,” the French financial prosecutors’ office says as it announces it is opening a preliminary investigation into money laundering and tax fraud.

Australian tax investigators say they are probing more than 800 Australian clients of Mossack Fonseca, which says it has operated beyond reproach for four decades and has never been charged with a criminal offense.

Spanish state prosecutors also open a money laundering probe, a judicial source said.

There is no word from Israel on opening any probes against the some 650 firms and 800 shareholders named in the papers.

— AFP