On 5 April 2016, Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson resigned. He later clarified that he was just “temporarily stepping aside” for an “unspecified amount of time”, but it seems unlikely he will return to office before Iceland’s next election in the early autumn. The Prime Minister’s de-facto resignation came in the wake of the Panama Papers revelations, an unprecedented leak of over 11 million documents from offshore companies listed by the Panamanian company Mossack Fonseca.
The Panama documents revealed that Gunnlaugsson’s wife owned Wintris Inc, an offshore firm that held millions of dollars in claims on Iceland’s collapsed banks. The former Prime Minister maintains that his wife paid all relevant Icelandic taxes, and no evidence of tax evasion or avoidence has come to light. However, critics argue that the revelations represent an undisclosed conflict of interest because Gunnlaugsson’s government has been negotiating the value of the claims on Iceland’s failed banks.
There is no evidence that Gunnlaugsson personally benefited during the negotiations. It is unknown if Wintris Inc was among the debtors that have received money, but the negotiations were led by Iceland’s Central Bank and Finance Ministry, not the Prime Minister’s office. Nothing has come to light suggesting that the Prime Minister lobbied in favour of Wintris Inc. In fact, Iceland’s handling of the collapse of its major banks has been held up as a model by many analysts.
Compared to political scandals currently playing out in places like Brazil and South Africa, the Wintris Inc revelations are relatively mild. However, while South African’s Jacob Zuma and Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff cling to power, Gunnlaugsson has been dumped from office.
Was Iceland’s Prime Minister right to resign? Did the Panama Papers revelations make his position untenable? Or was public outrage out of proportion to the scale of the scandal? Let us know your thoughts and comments in the form below, and we’ll take them to policymakers and experts for their reactions.
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Well, in his country he has no choice as the people rise up. But, tax evasion needs to be sorted out ASAP with a flat rate tax on the gross profits. Forget digital money, the mega rich will just pay hackers to by pass it and they will still evade tax.
His quick resignation after popular discontent show how sensitive Icelanders are. In other countries, where corruption is routine, people do complain, but corruption being so widespread, values are compromised and nothing changes and corruption rules. Icelanders rock!!!
Nah, Icelanders are used to quite a bit of scandals and corruption. It was merely this straw that broke the camels back after a lot of awful stuff, including privatizing public things to family friends, reducing taxes on the rich while raising them on food and other crazy stuff.
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Yes he was but if we are demanding politicians abide by the same laws as we do then they must be afforded the same right to privacy, he was right to resign for being immoral not for being a crook.
what he did may have been immoral but unfortunately being immoral is not illegal.
The real question is ‘Why as Juncker not resigned for doing precisely the same thing?’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/11902939/EUs-Juncker-releases-secret-Luxleaks-tax-advice.html
“Resign” , EU should keep in the jail those spiders : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4I-B-VhliU
No, he should have been sacked!
yes, or even better sacked, hhis claims that he did not avoid taxes should be investigated. It is interesting though isn’t that no doubt if half the EU commissioners, meps, or leaders of most of our EU national govs were found with similar stuff, they probably wouldn’t even offer to resign…make the UE more accountable like Iceland is!
Sacked immediately.
Must be detained.
ABSOLUTELY!
Yes, we have the right to expect morality from our leaders. Tax evasion should be a crime. Why should the rich have this privilege when the ordinary person must pay taxes on all income? It is corruption when those in power profit from either the laws they make or the laws they do not make.
io vorrei fare un’ osservazione che nessuno ha fatto. Se ad un gatto si mette del cibo a disposizione come può va a mangiare , non sarebbe meglio tenere quel cibo protetto dal gatto ? Se ci sta la libera circolazione dei capitali …..non è qui il problema ? O sbaglio ?
of course!
Iceland is a good country and it isn’t as corrupt as most of the world nor is it ridden by other Western ambitions and interests. I would hate to see it become like the rest of the world. Yes. He did the right thing. People spoke. They listened.
oh, you are so wrong. There is wayyyy to many corrupt politicians in Iceland, and for a past few days it has been a circus here, SDG could have left with at least some dignity, but no he chose other wise
Nah, we’re full of nepotism and corruption; it’s just less obvious. The right wing parties have been in government for so long that they all but control the bureaucracy as well and private interests receive preferential legislative treatment all the time.
After the problems that Iceland has had with its banking system, it is only right that the PM should resign. It is not a problem of legality but of morality.
he deserves to be put all his life in prison …. but it’s none of my own business
Important to distinguish evasion from avoidance as the latter is not illegal but unethical. In latter case strict CFC rules must be in place in each country to catch the profit shifting in tax heavens. In former case he simply goes to prison.
It’s the bare minimum. He is still his parties leader and the new PM is his avid supporter.
We in Iceland will continue to protest until the whole corrupt government goes and we get to vote!
and today iceland released the jailed bankers early after changing the law…. the country is full of corruption
and today iceland released the jailed bankers early after changing the law…. the country is full of corruption
He even counters that he’s actually resigned, claiming to have “stepped aside for an undecided period of time” and so it was announced by his ministry. :P
Also, he appointed a member of his own party, who’s been an apologist for him, as his successor and as for himself, he plans to remain the head of his party and a member of parliament. :P
Yes, Icelanders elected him to deal with banking scandals and corruption. So for his wife to have been involved in tax evasion that he no doubt took part of under her name….his career is done.
The problem is based to all the others that are shameless and they do not resign even when they are destroying european countries and make european peolple suicide ,loosing their homes and stealing the money from their honest work to pay the corrupted bankers artificial crisis..
Yes, he was right to resign. Indeed, he should have resigned much earlier than he did, instead of playing out this ridiculous drama.
Even if he didn’t break any laws, and even if all taxes were paid, he did own a 50% stake in an offshore company in a well known tax haven. And he sold his share to his wife for $1 the day before a new law took hold that would have required him to declare it publicly. But he chose to hide it and lie about it. Why? Because he didn’t trust his voters. He didn’t trust that his voters would understand his predicament, so he chose to hide it so he wouldn’t lose votes. So in that sense, he indeed did profit from hiding this fact, because in 2013 (when his party won the election and he took over as prime minister), the voters were weary and distrustful and he certainly would have lost a considerable amount of votes if this fact would have been known. And he wouldn’t have been able to use his number one angle during the elections as forcefully: He promised to take money from the offshore funds (or vulture funds) that owned a stake in the icelandic banks and give it to the public and lower people’s debts.
Rafeiro.
Of course yes.we shall not accept anymore corrupyed politicians…
It’s not enough! All european corrupted politics must be forced to justice and to jail!
What kind of a question is this?
Iceland’s (???) I think YES, IS RIGHT THAT THE P. M. OF ICELAND RESIGNED! GO OUT!
http://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/politics_and_society/2016/04/05/prime_minister_has_not_resigned_sends_press_release/ !!
yes. No more tax runner
Yes!!!
A more interesting question today is why Dave Cameron is still in charge in the UK. He fudged and deceived for four days in a row, before admitting the obvious: yes he has benefitted from an offshore company that paid no taxes.
In 2013, Cameron did his best to inhibit EU efforts to tackle tax evasion and fraud, while at the same time pretending to be vigorously tackling tax fraud in the UK:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/apr/07/david-cameron-offshore-trusts-eu-tax-crackdown-2013
OUT CAMERON!
As many have said before me, he should have stepped down earlier and do it for real. He still sits in the parliament and he still denies any wrongdoing. He might not have benefited financially on the offshore company but it was still very unethical not to tell about it especially when the company had claims on the fallen banks. (and why keep money in a tax-haven to begin with, since it will always been seen as iffy?)
What’s more, though, in my opinion, is the fact that we have now for three years had a prime minister who is trying to keep up a sinking Icelandic krona, denying people of so much as exchanging some krona’s to 50 euros to send as a birthday present to a teenage relative in Europe, unless they have a plane-ticket to prove they are travelling abroad. Locking people in a economic system with the krona, but at the same time keeping his own money abroad! He wants everybody else to trust the Icelandic banking system and currency but doesn’t seem to do so himself.
The current government is done. They have, from the day they were elected, lowered the taxes on the top 1% and at the some time made taxes on food, books etc. higher. The have starved the health- and education systems, probably in order to make it easier to privatize, raced their own wages retroactive in time while disabled people and the elderly get paid way under the minimal wages (and did of course not get a retroactive race). Just to name a few of their “accomplishments”. There has seldom, or never, in modern times been as much poverty in Iceland and it is still rising.
The current government also still sees no wrongdoing in the way the former/resting prime minister has handled his affairs which shows a lack of ethics that can’t be tolerated. They are done.
Anna thank you for this fascinating info. Now I understand why the Pirate Party is leading the polls in Iceland
Anna- that’s a great comment & a lone voice from the “decent folks”!
It is also a reflection of the present destructive capitalistic global & EU political malaise where mischievous politicking and “our” representatives are time and again uncomfortably caught by brave investigating journalists. This confirms again not to trust any (smooth talking) politician.
Most have lost their ethical & moral compass! “Enlargements on all fronts”- including greed and dishonesty becomes the “neo- Feudalists” norm, to rule unhindered over us taxpaying serfs. Many- unfortunately- remain unawares.
Yes he should and all the rest of them who have an office they are not fit for should have the principals we look for in those who lead us. They too must resign in order to make way for people who are fit for purpose. And do it in ‘our’ best interests.