'Panama Papers' linked firms named after James Bond films

Washington, April 7: The Panama law firm at the centre of the huge leak of data on offshore financial accounts reportedly incorporated a string of companies named after James Bond films.

Among the 11 million documents leaked from the firm Mossack Fonseca that specialises in setting up complex offshore corporate structures, are files showing that the firm established companies named after James Bond movies and villains, ABC News reported.

The files include companies named "Goldfinger", "SkyFall", "GoldenEye", "Moonraker", "Spectre" and also "Blofeld", the arch Bond nemesis fond of remote island lairs, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which investigated the files alongside 100 other media outlets, wrote in an article on Wednesday.

The files also include "correspondence from a man named Austin Powers, apparently his real name and not the movie character, and Jack Bauer, a real person whom a Mossack Fonseca employee entered into the firm's database as a client after the employee "met him at a pub", the article said.

Jack Bauer was also the character portrayed by actor Kiefer Sutherland in the hit TV series "24".

The investigations around the Panama Papers began being published on Sunday, and have shone an unusual light on the closed world of offshore corporations.

The documents are the biggest whistleblower leak in history and, so far, the alleged revelations have appeared to lay bare the financial dealings of former spy chiefs, criminals and officials, including friends of Russian President Vladimir Putin and relatives of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

IANS