The Russian Prosecutor General's Office will investigate data contained in the Panama Papers about Russians involved in offshore companies, press secretary Alexandr Kurennoi said Tuesday, the Interfax news agency reported.
?€?The main goal of the inquiry will be to find out if Russian nationals mentioned in the documents acted according to the norms of Russian laws ?€¦ and our obligations to the international community in counteracting corruption,?€? Kurennoi said.
The statement was the response of the Prosecutor General's Office to the Panama Papers ?€” more than 11 million documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca ?€” published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on Sunday.
The data implicates 72 current or former heads of state. The documents also detailed a trail of transactions that leads from Bank Rossiya ?€” a Russian bank on the EU and U.S. sanctions list ?€” to various countries including Switzerland and Panama.
Through a series of complex financial offshore deals, the funds were then allegedly shuffled back into the pockets of close associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin's, reportedly making them millions of dollars.