Passport mystery: Japanese men discover they’re company reps of dating websites in new Panama Papers leak
Leaked files show passports of at least four Japanese nationals were used for identification when the offshore companies were established
A newly released tranche of documents among the so-called “Panama Papers” appears to show some Japanese were unwittingly registered as representatives of companies in a Caribbean tax haven via leaked passport information.
The companies operated Japanese-language dating websites and were registered in Anguilla, a British overseas territory.
They apparently used the names of Japanese people without their permission to dodge responsibility in case of trouble.
Like the initial massive document leak in 2016, the latest files from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca & Co. were obtained by the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung and shared with a group of international journalists.
The new files show copies of passports of at least four Japanese nationals and faked mobile phone bill statements were used for identification when the offshore companies were established.
The files also include exchanges of emails involving a person called “Kariya”, Mossack Fonseca’s Hong Kong branch and others between 2015 and 2016.