TAIPEI, Taiwan – No Taiwan politicians are among the 90 Taiwanese passport holders whose names were found among the massive trove of leaked files from the Panama-based offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca, according to an initial report released by CommonWealth Magazine on Wednesday, April 6.

The magazine said that after seven months of analysis, it has found 2,725 offshore companies listed in the 11.5 million leaked documents known as the “Panama Papers” to have connections with Taiwan.

At least 90 persons employing the services of Mossack Fonseca in setting up these offshore firms are R.O.C. passport holders.

Further comparisons of available personal information for local public figures such as their addresses, telephone numbers, identification documents and passport information, etc., with the Panama Papers have not yet turned up any involvement of local politicians, the magazine added.

The magazine is the only media outlet from the Chinese-speaking world to be invited by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) to go through the documents.

Panama Papers: Secret accounts of the rich and powerful

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AFP, Reuters, The Star/ANN

The ICIJ in turn gained access to the Panama Papers via German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, which received them from an anonymous source.

The magazine has pointed out that Mossack Fonseca has no branches in Taiwan and is not a major offshore agency used by local banks, law firms or accounting firms.

Most of the intermediates between local clients and the Panamanian law firm are small cross-strait consulting firms, the magazine said.

The magazine identified author and singer Nicky Wu as one of the R.O.C. nationals found to have set up offshore firms in the Panama Papers.

According to the database, Wu used the firm Horizon Sky Technology Limited to co-operate with Hong Kong-based Sun Entertainment Culture Limited.

Wu found fame in late 1980s as the heartthrob in the popular Taiwanese boy band Little Tiger Team.

He has focused his career in mainland China in recent years and has become one of the top-earning entertainers in Greater China. Local media outlets put Wu’s worth at more than NT$1.7 billion (S$71 million).

Chinese media reported that in late March, mainland Chinese-listed online video company Beijing Baofeng Technology acquired a 60-per cent stake in Straw Bear, a media company founded by Wu in 2003, for 3.1 billion yuan (S$647 million).

Wu said via his agent on Wednesday that he has always complied with regulations in his dealings and his company is a legally registered firm.

The Panama Papers revealed how some of the world’s leaders, top politicians, business people, the superrich, star athletes and their families employed complex ways to exploit offshore tax havens.

Not all dealings in the Panama Papers are illegal or unethical. The ICIJ has pointed out on its website that “there are legitimate uses for offshore companies, foundations and trusts.”

Yangon – Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday vowed to press for the release of political prisoners and student activists, hinting that a mass amnesty may be imminent as her government seeks to stamp its mark on power in the former junta-run nation.

Suu Kyi’s administration, stacked full of democracy activists who spent years incarcerated by the military, took power last week ending nearly half a century of repressive army domination.

In her first statement since assuming a new broadly-defined role as state counsellor, Suu Kyi said: “I am going to try… for the immediate release of political prisoners, political activists and students facing trial related to politics”.

She did not provide a specific timeline in the statement, which was released on Facebook.

The routine jailing of dissidents was one of the most egregious acts of the former junta, stirring international outcry and support for Suu Kyi’s pro-democracy movement.

Suu Kyi herself spent some 15 years under house arrest, while many current National League for Democracy lawmakers served time in the country’s notorious prisons.

While the quasi-civilian government that replaced the junta in 2011 freed hundreds of political detainees, it also oversaw the detention of scores more, particularly those involved in land and education protests.

Dawn of a new era in Myanmar as Aung San Suu Kyi’s party takes over

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AFP, Reuters

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, 90 political prisoners were in jail and more than 400 activists were facing trial as of February.

The vast majority were arrested before last November’s landmark elections, which Suu Kyi’s NLD won in a landslide.

Among them are some 40 students facing a mix of charges including unlawful assembly and rioting over education reform protests in March 2015 that were violently broken up by baton-wielding police in the central town of Letpadan.

Another 30 or so students are on bail but facing similar charges.

Suu Kyi is barred from the presidency by the junta-era constitution and has anointed her school friend and close aide Htin Kyaw to act as her effective proxy.

That means she does not have the direct power to order an amnesty.

But the role of state counsellor, which she was officially given to her by President Htin Kyaw on Wednesday, allows her to liaise between the executive and legislative branches.

The position was specially crafted for the leader by MPs from her party and is expected to help Suu Kyi live up to a pre-election vow to rule “above” Myanmar’s president.