WILLEMSTAD – According to the leader of the coalition party PAIS and also Member of Parliament, Alex Rosaria, the situation around the so called Panama Papers is worrisome for Curaçao. For this reason he has prepared some questions for the Minister of Finance, Dr. Jose Jardim.

“The situation is dangerous because you see more and more that the world is becoming more dangerous if you don’t comply with the international rules. We need to take steps against those who are evading taxes, tax fraud, money laundering, terrorism financing. We also have to act against those who do not want their country to approve the sanction law to act against these people,” said Rosaria.

“We as Curaçao don’t want to be a financial center like Panama. Panama made the choice to do things a certain way. We’ve known that for a long time. They are not transparent. We as Curaçao have chosen for a high quality and transparent financial center. We want to keep the rules.”

Rosaria said that this whole situation with the Panama Papers, in which he believes there are more details to come, must be an eye opener for Curaçao. “An eye opener in the sense that you need to continue following the rules if you don’t want to be connected with illegal financial practices.”

Rosaria also indicated that he doesn’t have any details if Curaçao has ties to the Panama Papers. “I just want to reiterate that we have to be careful with these types of constructions, because some bad news can give you a negative image.”

The Panama Papers include approximately 11.5 million documents – more than the combined total of the Wikileaks Cablegate, Offshore Leaks, Lux Leaks, and Swiss Leaks. The data primarily comprises e-mails, pdf files, photo files, and excerpts of an internal Mossack Fonseca database. It covers a period spanning from the 1970s to the spring of 2016.

Bron: CuracaoChronicle