News & events
Panama Papers Leak Sparks Protests in Iceland Over Prime Minister’s Secret Finances
THOUSANDS OF PROTESTORS rallied outside Iceland’s parliament, the Althing, on Monday, to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, one day after his secret use of offshore accounts was revealed in the leaked Panama Papers. - 4 April, Robert Mackey, The Intercept
Gunnlaugsson was the first world leader to be confronted directly about secret financial dealings detailed in the massive leak, abruptly walking out of a television interview with Sweden’s state broadcaster SVT on Sunday when asked to explain his own interest in Wintris, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands that had bonds in three Icelandic banks that collapsed in 2008.
Before Gunnlaugsson fled the room, under questioning by Johannes Kr. Kristjansson, founder of the crowd-funded investigative site Reykjavik Media, the first part of the interview was conducted in English by Sven Bergman of SVT. Those first four minutes — posted on YouTube by an Icelandic blogger, Lára Hanna Einarsdóttir — are worth watching in full for the skillful way Bergman got the prime minister to explain why his government so aggressively pursued tax dodgers.
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