MOSCOW (Sputnik) – France and Panama plan to hold a finance minister meeting amid tensions sparked by the Panama Papers leak allegations, Panama’s government said in a statement.
According to the statement cited by Channel News Asia on Saturday, the meeting is planned to be held in Paris, as proposed by French President Francois Hollande and his Panama counterpart Juan Carlos Varela on Friday.
Panama's president described the move as "wrong and unnecessary," as quoted by Channel News Asia, but said that his country was not planning any retalitory measures.
Earlier this month, Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung revealed alleged involvement of a number of former and current world leaders in tax haven schemes using the information reportedly obtained in a data leak from Mossack Fonseca, a Panama firm that specializes in selling offshore companies.
The company responded by refusing to validate the information contained in the leaks and accused reporters of gaining unauthorized access to its proprietary documents. It warned that using unlawfully-obtained data was a crime that it would not hesitate to punish by legal means.
