Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, the Icelandic president first elected to office in 1996 as a political science professor turned politician, has become the second national politician linked by the Panama Papers to offshore bank accounts, coming only three days after he denied an such connections.
The revelations come less than a month after the nation’s then-Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson was driven out of office over similar ties discovered in the massive leak of emails and files from a Panamanian law firm.
From the Reykjavík Grapevine:
President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson does in fact have connections to at least one offshore account, despite contentions to the contrary with CNN.
While the President told viewers of CNN that neither he nor his wife, Dorrit Moussaieff, have any connection to offshore accounts, The Grapevine has received documents that show this contention to be false.
The matter concerns a British company called Moussaieff Jewelers Limited (MJL), which is Dorrit’s family’s business. According to the Directors’ Report and Financial Statements for MJL in 2006, Lasca Finance Limited (LFL) – a company registered in the British Virgin Islands of which Dorrit’s parents are shareholders – was paid interest payments by MJL from at least 2000 until 2005, which was the last time we saw reported interest. Lasca also appears in the widely-reported Panama Papers leak.
In 2006, LFL all but disappears, and a new company appears in Hong Kong: Moussaieff Limited, of which Dorrit’s mother is the sole director and shareholder, and has been active through at least March 31, 2015. While not defined as a tax shelter by Icelandic law, Hong Kong does rank in second place on the Financial Secrecy Index.
Grapevine art director Sveinbjorn Palsson has created the perfect video mashup to accompany the story:
H/T to Birgitta Jónsdóttir.
eats shoots 'n leaves 