Hong Kong innovation minister, Polytechnic University embroiled in Panama Papers leaks
Documents show that Nicholas Yang was involved with two companies set up by the institution through Panamanian law firm Mossack-Fonseca in the British Virgin Islands
Polytechnic University has been found to have secretly set up two companies registered in an offshore tax haven, one of them set up through a top staff member who became Hong Kong’s IT minister, according to the latest batch of Panama Papers studied by the South China Morning Post .
The university management, including then vice-president Nicholas Yang Wei-hsiung, established the firms in the British Virgin Islands in 2012 and 2013.
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While it is not illegal to do so, the revelation has raised questions on whether it is appropriate for a publicly funded academic institution to engage in a practice normally associated with tax avoidance and hiding wealth.
Details of Yang’s involvement, coming just five months after he took office as secretary for innovation and technology, were in leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
Yang’s exact role was not clear, but he facilitated the transfer of shares between the university’s business arm, PolyU Enterprises, and one of the firms.
The university on Friday confirmed that the two BVI companies were set up “to hold the investments of PolyU in companies that are no longer active in operation”, adding that it was “more cost-effective” to hold and manage them that way.