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IPFS News Link • Corruption

Iceland PM Resigns Following Protests Over Offshore Investments

• bloomberg.com

The Panama secrecy leak claimed its first casualty after Iceland's Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson resigned following allegations he had sought to hide his wealth and dodge taxes.

The decision was announced in parliament after the legislature had been the focus of street protests that attracted thousands of Icelanders angered by the alleged tax evasion efforts of their leader. Gunnlaugsson, who will step down a year before his term was due to end, gave in to mounting pressure from the opposition and even from corners of his own party.

"What this exemplifies more than anything else is that there's a growing lack of tolerance over the way that the international financial system has been gamed and rigged by corrupt elites," Carl Dolan, director of Transparency International's EU division, said in a phone interview from Brussels.


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