The Panamanian government has said it is willing to cooperate with investigations commenced by countries even as it stressed on “zero tolerance” on such matters. This is despite India not having a tax treaty with Panama which allows seeking information.

“The Panamanian Government will vigorously cooperate with any request or assistance necessary should any judicial proceedings arise. The Government of Panama leads a policy of zero tolerance toward any aspect of its legal or financial system that is not handled with high levels of transparency,” according to the Foreign Ministry of Panama.

In an effort to enhance monitoring and combating of illicit activities, Panama has seven new laws in place which expand the list of offences and regulate non-traditional financial sectors such as law firms and real-estate businesses “in order to increase transparency and curtail abuse of our financial centre,” sources told BusinessLine .

The Panamanian government introduced a slew of measures to limit the use of bearer shares by Panamanian entities in January. The new regulations stipulate that legal entities that have issued bearer shares must deliver those to the custody of authorised agents and regulated financial entities.

Money laundering

In 2015, Panama was removed from the Grey List of Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), a G-7 initiative founded in 1989 to fight money laundering.

On Monday, a Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca leaked 11.5 million secret documents revealing names of several rich and famous around the world holding offshore bank accounts and shell firms.

Indians in the list

The list features 500 Indian nationals such as Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, KP Singh and Harish Salve, among others.

Meanwhile, India has set up a special multi-agency group to look into the matter, as the government is committed to detecting and preventing generation of black money.

The multi-agency probe team that was formed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will have sleuths from the investigative units of CBDT, FIU and FT & TR division and representative of RBI.

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