Elected leaders and top
officials from around the world are responding with denials and outrage to
allegations that they used secret offshore companies and accounts to hide
billions of dollars.
The
media reports, based on a massive leak of documents, allege the existence of a
clandestine network involving associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin,
and business ties between a member of FIFA's ethics committee and men indicted
for corruption.
The
Kremlin has dismissed the allegations as "a series of fibs," while
the FIFA official has described them as "ridiculous" and "outrageous."
But some governments are acting on the information -- authorities in the U.K.,
Australia and Mexico have pledged to investigate for possible cases of tax
evasion.
Several
news organizations published reports Sunday into more than 11 million documents
leaked from a law firm in Panama that allegedly helped set up secret shell
companies and offshore accounts.
The
documents go back decades and reference 12 current or former world leaders, as
well as 128 other politicians and public officials, according to the International Consortium of
Investigative Journalists, which carried out the yearlong
investigation in cooperation with more than 100 different news organizations.
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