The
resignation of the prime minister, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, was
the first prominent political fallout from the document leaks, which
have shed unflattering light on the private financial activities of many
rich and powerful people around the world.
Mr.
Gunnlaugsson’s resignation was announced on television by Sigurdur Ingi
Johannsson, a government minister and the deputy chairman of his
Progressive Party, and it was confirmed by the state broadcaster, RUV.
Mr. Gunnlaugsson had insisted on staying in office
after the leaked documents revealed that he and his wealthy partner,
now his wife, had set up a company in 2007 in the British Virgin Islands
through the law firm, Mossack Fonseca. The documents also suggested
that he sold his half of the company to her for $1, on the last day of
2009, just before the implementation of a new law that would have
required him as a member of Parliament to declare his ownership as a
conflict of interest.
Mr.
Gunnlaugsson had said that the leak contained no news, adding that he
and his wife, Anna Sigurlaug Palsdottir, had not hidden their assets or
avoided paying taxes.
But the company, Wintris Inc., lost millions of dollars as a result of the 2008 financial crash, which crippled Iceland,
and the company is claiming about $4.2 million from three failed
Icelandic banks. As prime minister since 2013, Mr. Gunnlaugsson was
involved in reaching a deal for the banks’ claimants, so he is now being
accused of a conflict of interest.
When
asked by Swedish and Icelandic television journalists about Wintris
before the publication of the leaks, Mr. Gunnlaugsson stormed out,
saying that the journalists had obtained the interview “under false
pretenses.” He and his wife then issued statements about “journalist
encroachment” in their private lives and said they had done nothing
wrong.
Source: NYT