The Pandora Papers, released by the ICIJ on Sunday following a two-year journalist investigation, is a dossier of more than 11.9 million confidential files, exposing over 35 current and former world leaders, as well as more than 330 politicians and officials worldwide, who allegedly committed various kinds of financial wrongdoing through offshore companies.
Spain "is one of the countries championing" the fight against "tax fraud and offshoring of profits" internationally and recalled that it has already acted on the other journalistic investigations on alleged tax evasion behaviors, such as the Panama Papers or "whenever it obtains indications of alleged opaque and fraudulent activities," the Ministry of Treasury said, as quoted by El Pais.
Among Spain's public figures mentioned in the dossier are the Manchester City football club manager, Pep Guardiola, Spanish singer Julio Iglesias, as well as the ex-mistress of the former head of state, Juan Carlos - Corinna Larsen - and around 600 other Spanish citizens, according to the newspaper which participated in the investigation.
Between 2018 and 2020, the Spanish Ministry of Treasury carried out 2,116 inspections of the citizens with large assets, having liquidated more than $1.6 billion in outstanding taxes.