Pandora Papers leak prompts calls for action in Asia

BANGKOK (AP) — Malaysia's main opposition leader called Monday for information found in the Pandora Papers data leak to be discussed in Parliament, after learning the country's former finance minister and several current officials might have been involved with offshore firms set up in tax havens.

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim asked for a debate of this “urgent issue, as it has mentioned some big names in the country.” He identified former Finance Minister Daim Zainudddin as well as current Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz and three other politicians.

“I believe this matter is in the interest of the people, because it is also mentions the names of government and opposition political figures,” he wrote in a Facebook post to which he attached his formal request for a parliamentary debate.

Zafrul, a banker who was appointed finance minister last year, said in a statement that he had ended ties with the holding company and bank mentioned in the report by 2010. He suggested he was considering suing online news portal Malaysiakini, the only Malaysian media organization that was listed as being involved in the leak of documents to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

“I have referred the matter to my lawyers for further advice and appropriate action," he said.

Media organizations around the world collaborated through the ICIJ to review and report on nearly 12 million files obtained by the consortium from 14 offshore entities.

Elsewhere in the region, the periodical that collaborated on the document leak from Indonesia, the weekly Tempo magazine, reported that a government minister, Luhut Pandjaitan, had served as the CEO of a Panama-incorporated oil and gas company, Petrocapital SA.

His spokesman, Jodi Mahardi, confirmed that Panjaitan, the...