Information contained in formerly secret files have revealed that Portugal's IGCP - the treasury agency for managing public debt - the national railways company Comboios de Portugal and the Social Security department between them have chanelled more than €130 million of public money through Jersey and Jordan.
The IGCP held €130 million in CP bonds issued from a financial vehicle based in the tax haven of Jersey.
The Social Security department had €170,000 in shares of a listed drugs company in London, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, but the unusual investment was made via Jordan, a tax haven.
The CP investment was sold in 2016 but there has been no comment from the railway company as to why it was necessary to use a tax haven to invest in pharmaceuticals when its magement was meant to be running a Portuguese railway service.
The Prime Minister António Costa has been keen to push through measures that prevent public bodies from making investments and issuing debt using offshore tax havens.
In a statement today, the government confirmed the above public institutions indeed held or had held the amounts reported.
The Ministry of Finance confirmed that it "is studying the mechanisms necessary to ensure that there are no public entities with investments in tax havens without prior knowledge and authorisation of the Government member responsible for finance" - this is not quite the same as the ban that Costa wanted but it is a step forward in accountability.
The Panama Papers is the name given to a leak of documents from Mossack Fonseca lawyers, based in Panama, which helped its clients create shell companies in tax havens.
The press is wading through the information as is the taxman and public prosector, keen to identify those whose tax affairs are less than clear cut.
Comments
Social Security should be 'money in:money out' less collection and distribution costs, not investments in overseas companies. Surplus should be in government bonds or fixed term deposits, NOT speculative share purchases.
Ed - can you find out what other crazy investments Social Security invests in on the taxpayer's behalf?
Push me, pull you?
Unless the officials running them were using some siphoning system..
Unfortunatetely the consequences of this are that all readers believe that the named people committed criminal acts - which is definitely NOT proven. Doing so these journalists putted themselves above the Law and the Courts as they incriminated and condemned all concerned persons. And why did they do that ? "Sensational stories" are proven to sell very well - and that was the real drive for this "unique consortium of international journalists" (sic)
A question in general: how much offshore companies are operating illegally in Portugal in the field of "properties" ? NONE of the 150.000 companies... as they are all registered with Finançcas and are duly
paying IMI taxes. As this is considered as "dull information" of course no newspaper is printing such... reality !
Said journalists complaining that publishing - at least a year late - that the now crashed bank BANIF was a very shaky bank indeed, so triggering a rush for the doors by depositors was not their fault. But the fault of the Bank of Portugal and BANIF who had - Yes, you've heard this phrase many times before on ADN .... a DUTY OF CARE to keep their customers informed in the previous year.
Are you deliberately missing the point?
Of course offshore companies are not illegal - nobody has ever suggested that they are and many in Portugal still own Portuguese property through offshore companies.
What is illegal is the purpose to which many offshore companies are put, which is to evade tax.
Luxleaks and Swissleaks showed evidence of tax evasion on a grand scale. The Panama Papers showed offshore company and bank account traffic details in forensic depth.
How is this effort "journalistic bullshit and nonsense"?
Nobody is seeking a ban, just declarations of offshore income.
The government earlier said that it thought there were no institutions with offshore accounts - why would it be keen to make sure Portuguese departments were banking in Portugal if offshore was so above board?
90% of what is said about the Luxleaks, the Swissleaks and now the Panamaleaks is pure "journalistic bullshit and nonsense".