By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Perry Christie yesterday defended the financial practices of the Bahamas as he insisted that the “truth will come out” amid the leak of confidential documents that names this country as a key tax haven for some of the world’s wealthiest people who at times seek to launder money, dodge sanctions and evade taxes.

The data leak is known internationally as the “Panama Papers”.

Speaking of the international scandal for the first time yesterday, Mr Christie said the Bahamas is an “honest and trustworthy” jurisdiction that is fully compliant with international practices.

He expressed confidence that the country would be exonerated, despite being ranked as the third most popular tax haven used by the Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca, the source of the data leak.

The prime minister explained that officials have also looked at tightening banking practices. He was asked to speak on this matter on the sidelines of the Inter-American Development Bank’s four-day conference at the Baha Mar convention centre.

“In everything you do the truth will come out,” Mr Christie told reporters. “And so no one can deny the truth. It is just always a challenge when people leak things.

“Now with respect to the truth, the truth is the most important thing going forward and countries have to find a way to be able to be comfortable with their relations with other countries that they are able to have a relationship with.

“Here in the Bahamas we feel that we have been in compliance. We are still in compliance and we have a jurisdiction that is an honest (and) trustworthy jurisdiction. But we stress that it is a jurisdiction where we offer facilities to people that are lawful and permissible and whenever there is a question we respond to that question. Whenever there is a challenge we respond to that challenge.”

He continued: “When you ask us about anti-money laundering, we have passed the strongest legislation. When you ask us about anti-terrorism legislation we passed the strongest legislation. When you ask us to be accountable we have demonstrated that we have a transparent accountable jurisdiction. All of these things we do and many times we have to sit and watch jurisdictions that are imposing these standards on us. They don’t have the same strict adherence to these things that they are asking us to have.”

Asked if he was of the view that the Bahamas should share more of its banking information with international counterparts, Mr Christie said this country is already doing this.

“We have treaties with different countries. We have a very transparent jurisdiction and whether it’s the United States of America, whether it’s the OECD countries, whether it’s countries in the region, whether it’s countries in South America we do that.

“For example we have looked at the tightening of banking policies in our country and we have decided that we have to look for new products in financial services. So we’ve gone into Latin America, we’ve gone into Mexico, we have gone into Brazil with programmes and new products that we think will offer them a facility in our country that is above board and one that does not hide things away from people.

“So we feel that even though there is this notion out there that countries like the Bahamas are used to hide money, we have the opportunity to have relations with countries one on one or bilateral relations. We have to make decision as to whether or not we take a multilateral approach or a bilateral approach to this and the country is making all the decisions.”

According to international reports, 11 million documents were leaked by Mossack Fonseca to a German news agency, which contacted the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) to help analyse the data. Mossack Fonseca is said to have played a major role helping clients use offshore centres.

Data from the leaks reveal information about at least 12 current or former heads of states and 17 relatives/friends of country leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.

One world leader named in the report with ties to a Bahamas offshore company is Maurico Macri, the current president of Argentina. According to the Panama Papers, he is listed as being a former director of Fleg Trading Ltd, a company incorporated in the Bahamas in 1998 that was dissolved in January 2009.

The report says Mr Marci did not disclose the company as an asset when he was mayor of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina.

The Free National Movement has since called for heightened vigilance to prevent money laundering and tax evasion in the wake of the international leak.