British Prime Minister David Cameron was accused of "hypocrisy" and Argentine President Mauricio Macri will face a judge Friday as world leaders and the rich and powerful continued to face scrutiny over the so-called Panama Papers — millions of leaked documents that link them to secretive offshore companies and bank accounts established by law firm Mossack Fonseca.
Tom Watson, the deputy leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, accused Cameron of having double standards after it was revealed that the prime minister profited from an offshore trust set up by his late father Ian Cameron, a stock broker. Watson said that while Cameron could not be held to account for the actions of his father, he "can for hypocrisy."
"(The prime minister) said sunlight is the best disinfectant and wasn't entirely straight with the British people about what his own financial arrangements were. That wouldn't be so bad if he hadn't also been lecturing very prominent people about their own tax arrangements, some he called morally wrong."
Cameron previously refused to say whether he made any money from the fund, called Blairmore Holdings. In a televised interview Thursday he then said that prior to becoming the British leader he sold shares from the fund worth about $48,000. He said that his father's fund was not set up avoid taxes and he himself paid taxes on the shares he sold.
"I don't have anything to hide. I'm proud of my dad and what he did and the business he established. I can't bear to see his name being dragged through the mud," Cameron said.
As well as being president of South America's second-largest economy, Macri is the son of an Italian-born tycoon and one of Argentina's wealthiest people. His name showed up on documents related to two offshore companies. The files were obtained from Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca by an anonymous source and given to a German newspaper.
Macri contests any wrongdoing. "I want to tell you once more today that I have told the truth and that I have nothing to hide," Macri said in a televised speech from the presidential palace on Thursday.
"I not only filled out an initial statement saying that I was not a shareholder (in the offshore companies), that as a director I never received any retribution, but I also did it since the first day that I came into office, and I took all those papers to the anti-corruption office."
He will nevertheless be in court Friday to certify before a judge that the information he provided is true and accurate.
Earlier in the week Iceland's prime minister stepped aside as a result of the leak that showed he and his wife owned a secretive company registered in the British Virgin Islands.
