Nobel-Winner Stiglitz Quits Panama Papers Probe Citing Transparency Issues

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz was a part of the committee created to investigate Panama's financial system.

The Panama Papers scandal was a leak of millions of documents from law firm Mossack Fonseca containing information about some of the world’s richest people’s alleged offshore accounts and tax evasion practices.

However, on Friday, Stiglitz told Reuters he had resigned from the commission as the group itself lacked of the transparency it was supposed to encourage. The government doesn't  support an open investigation, nor guarantees their findings will be made public, the award winner said.

Swiss anti-corruption specialist Mark Pieth joined the Indiana-native in his defection. Talking about how the committee had found evidence of terrible crimes like money laundering for child prostitution networks, Pieth said, “We're being asked to do this as a courtesy for them [the Panamanian government?] and we're paraded in front of the world media first, and then we're told to shut up when they don't like it.”

"We can only infer that the government is facing pressure from those who are making profits from the current non-transparent financial system in Panama," Stiglitz concluded as he left the investigational group for good.

On the other hand, one of the five remaining members in the committee, Panamanian national Alberto Aleman, said the investigation remains transparent, and the group committed to the task of delivering the report to the country’s President Juan Carlos Varela.

“Then the president of Panama will decide when and how it will be made public," he ended.

Who’s Involved

Among the people named in the Panama Papers are at least four heads of state and two former ones; two more heads of government, and another eight former ones; and more than 80 other government officials from countries ranging from Algeria to the U.K. Also implicated in the scandal were a lot of professional athletes, entertainment personalities and artists, and a long list of business people, including:

• Adidas AG (ADR) ADDYY former CEO Robert Louis-Dreyfus.
• Secom Co Ltd (ADR) SOMLY co-founders Makoto Iida and Juichi Toda.
• Aqueel Hassan and Tanwir Hassan, owners of Yum! Brands, Inc. YUM Pizza Hut branch in Pakistan.
• Royal Dutch Shell plc (ADR) (NYSE: RDS-A) former chairman John Jennings.
• Citigroup Inc C former CEO Sanford I. Weill.