Kathmandu, April 4

The Panama Papers, so far, have not shown engagement of Nepalis in tax evasion or money laundering through the use of companies established in tax havens.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which has obtained 2.6 terabyte data on internal operations of Panama-based Mossack Fonseca one of the world’s leading firms in incorporation of offshore entities has exposed names of country leaders, politicians and public officials engaged in shady deals as of now.

The Washington DC-based ICIJ will release the full list of companies and people linked to Mossack Fonseca in early May.

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By May, however, names of few Nepalis are expected to surface, as an infographic prepared by The Irish Times, which had investigated the matter with the ICIJ, shows engagement of ‘seven Nepali shareholders’ in the shady deals. The Irish Times has not elaborated what ‘shareholders’ mean.

“I have already asked the Financial Intelligence Unit, under Nepal Rastra Bank, to coordinate with concerned international agencies to confirm whether Nepalis were engaged in the latest incident,” Damodar Regmi, director general of the Department of the Money Laundering Investigation, told The Himalayan Times.

“We will also coordinate with the Financial Action Task Force, an international body that creates standards for fighting financial crime, on this issue.”

However, this is not the first time leaked documents have exposed Nepalis’ connection to offshore companies. Earlier, the ICIJ had leaked names of 13 people, who had established companies in offshore destinations.

Since Nepal does not allow its citizens to open companies abroad, the government had initially said it would take action against them. But the government, so far, has not penalised them.