Menu Close

Joseph Stiglitz has quit the “Panama Papers” commission – Editor

Canadian reformer Dr Janet Eaton has drawn our attention to a Reuters report published in the Telegraph [1]. Nobel Prize-winning economist Prof Joseph Stiglitz said on Friday, after resigning from the “Panama Papers” commission, that the committee set up to investigate lack of transparency in Panama’s financial system itself lacks transparency.

The leak in April of more than 11.5 million documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, dubbed the “Panama Papers”, detailed financial information from offshore accounts and potential tax evasion by the rich and powerful.

Mr Stiglitz and Mark Pieth (a Swiss anti- corruption expert), joined a seven member commission tasked with probing Panama’s notoriously opaque financial system, but they say they found the government unwilling to back an open investigation.

Both quit the group on 5th August after stating that the Panama government refused to guarantee the committee’s report would be made public.

“I thought the government was more committed, but obviously they’re not” Prof Stiglitz said. “It’s amazing how they tried to undermine us”.

Source 1. The Telegraph (UK), 6 Aug 2016 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/06/nobel-economist-stiglitz-quits-panama-papers-probe-over-lack-of/

Leave a Reply