UK government funds trawl of Panama Papers

A new UK taskforce, announced on 10 April, will pursue criminal leads in the ‘Panama Papers’, the leaked trove of 11.5m documents from law firm Mossack Fonseca identifying owners of corporate structures used in tax evasion and money laundering. Prime Minister David Cameron has promised up to £10m in funding. The taskforce, led jointly by HM Revenue & Customs and the National Crime Agency, will also draw on resources from the Serious Fraud Office and the Financial Conduct Authority; it will report on progress later this year and Parliament will be updated. HMRC is already investigating 700 lines of enquiry with a Panama connection.