Panama Papers does not automatically implicate anyone, says Khairy

KUALA LUMPUR: The Panama Papers does not automatically implicate anyone in crimes, says Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin (pic).

He said there was a lot of information in the Panama Papers, published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism (ICIJ).

“We don’t know what the full extent of the contents of the paper are.

“It is obviously dominating the headlines. So, we will see what happens. I mean even Lionel Messi is there, but it doesn’t automatically implicate anybody in any crime,” he told reporters at the parliament lobby on Tuesday.

ICIJ on Monday reported that members of the Malaysian government and their families were among those who own offshore companies in Singapore and the British Virgin Islands.

To this Khairy, who is also a Rembau MP, said many of the people mentioned were doing business before they were in politics.

“People set up offshore vehicles for many reasons in the course of doing business.

“Some of these people were in business before they were in politics. So we will see what happens,” he said.