Two Latvian officials mentioned in «Panama Papers»

Take note – story published 7 years ago

The so-called Panama Papers mention Riga City Council member Igors Kuzmuks and State Police's senior inspector Tatjana Kungurova, according to a Finance Ministry's report on analysis of the publicly-available information concernig the Panama Papers.

As previously reported, about 11.5 million tax documents leaked from Panama's Mossack Fonseca law firm showed that the company had been helping the world's wealthy politicians and celebrities to hide their assets from tax authorities.

As LSM discovered at the time of the leak, Mossack Fonseca also had an office in Riga, which has since closed. 

The Finance Ministry's report says that an analysis of information available on offshoreleaks.icij.org, where the Panama Papers were published on May 9, concluded that Latvia's name was associated with 2,951 offshore legal entities, 162 private individuals, 18 mediators and 153 addresses. Among the private individuals mentioned in the Panama Papers, two officials from Latvia have been identified.

Igors Kuzmuks has been a public servant since July 1, 2009, he is currently a member of the Riga City Council. According to the Mossack Fonseca files, Kuzmuks was the director of the company Werbwnec Ventures Corp. from March 16, 2005 to March 10, 2006.

On the other hand, Tatjana Kungurova, currently a senior inspector at the State Police, was a shareholder/owner of UPPM International Limited, according to the Panama Papers.

On June 17, Kungurova told anti-corruption officers that she had never registered any companies, did not know anything about UPPM International Limited, and could not explain why her name was mentioned in the Panama Papers in connection with the said company.

The Corruption Prevention Bureau has looked into all information available on Kuzmuks and Kungurova, including both officials' tax returns for 2013, 2014 and 2015, and ascertained no facts suggesting that they may have violated the Law on Prevention of Conflict of Interest in Activities of Public Officials.

Information on Kungurova has been forwarded to the State Police for further investigation.

Meanwhile, the State Revenue Service found 140 persons associated with Latvia on offshoreleaks.icij.org, of which 121 private individuals and two legal entities have been identified.

Of these, 28 were included in the Finance Police's database over criminal procedures and other materials not associated with the leaked Panama Papers.

The Revenue Service also concluded that 66 persons from Latvia mentioned in the Panama Papers had offshore companies and assets. The probe is continuing.

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