Ecuador’s president faces tax investigation after Pandora Papers

The disclosures based on the vast trove of documents — or the Pandora Papers — sparked calls for investigations in other countries after The Washington Post and media partners led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published stories this month revealing the shadowy offshore financial universe of the wealthy and powerful.

The reports have rocked Czech elections, kicked off an impeachment bid in Chile and prompted pledges of a crackdown on dirty money in the United States.

In Ecuador, the secret files from 14 companies that provide offshore financial services showed that former banker Lasso, who took office as president in May, had ties to offshore companies and trusts including in Panama and the U.S. state of South Dakota.

The inquiry by a commission of the National Assembly of Ecuador this month will look into whether the president broke a 2017 law that bars presidential candidates and public officials from holding assets in foreign tax havens.

The complaint that led to the second probe, the investigation by the attorney general’s office, came from a former presidential hopeful and Indigenous leader, Yaku Pérez. He urged authorities on Thursday to examine allegations of tax evasion linked to offshore firms, noting that the cache of records also named Lasso’s wife and children.

But the 65-year-old president has said he ended his involvement in the firms identified in the Pandora Papers when he ran for head of state again. (He previously ran for president twice.) He is reported to have said in a letter to the legislature that he would speak to lawmakers at the presidential palace once he was aware of all the allegations made in the case.