SYDNEY: Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is named in the Panama Papers, it emerged Thursday, causing an unwanted headache for the multi-millionaire former banker in the middle of an election campaign.
He is listed as a former director of a British Virgin Islands company, Star Technology Services Limited, set up by Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca in the 1990s.
The link was uncovered by the Australian Financial Review, days after details on more than 200,000 secret offshore companies associated with the tax haven company were published.
The use of shell companies, foundations or trusts in offshore jurisdictions is often legal and Turnbull rejected any wrongdoing.
“Can I just say to you that as the article acknowledged, there is no suggestion of any impropriety whatsoever,” he told reporters on the campaign trail in Melbourne ahead of national polls on July 2, which are shaping up as a close race.
