Romania's tax authority ANAF seeks details in #PanamaPapers

#PanamaPapers | ANAF looking to get access to Romanians involved in offshore scandal

Newsroom 11/04/2016 | 14:13

After the tax administration agency ANAF said it created a group tasked with looking at potential local links with the Panama Papers scandal, the fiscal authority has taken a step further.

“The ANAF has initiated procedures to gain access to all documents involving Romanian individuals and companies from Romania, which are included in the PanamaPapers case,” said the institution, which is headed by Dragos Doros, in a statement for HotNews.ro news portal.

The authority said that the documents will be processed in confidentiality, taking into account the fiscal secret.

Some 100 Romanian names appear in the documents leaked from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, according to journalists at Rise Project.

Businessman Frank Timis, who appears in the papers, said he started companies in tax heavens to pay less in taxes.

Meanwhile, Romanian businessman Ion Tiriac rejected the allegations that he had all his fortunes parked in an offshore account. Tiriac said he had only a private foundation registered in Panama, which had its own management board.

The Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) is also looking into the Panama Papers, to see whether it can help in any way ongoing investigations, said Daniel Horodniceanu, the chief prosecutor of DIICOT.