April 29 2016
The Panamanian trust set up by Mossack Fonseca to buy the Onetai station in Taranaki has a Uruguayan connection that may not have brought to the attention of ministers who approved its sale.
Onetai station was bought for $6 million in 2014 through the trust, Coel & Muir, which was established in Panama by law firm Mossack Fonseca. The purchase has come under scrutiny in the wake of the “Panama Papers leak” which exposed how the wealthy used Mossack Fonseca to move their wealth around the world.
The documents released by the OIO appear to show the government agency was uncertain about Coel & Muir’s ownership after receiving the purchase application. Land Information Minister Louise Upston had previously said the OIO – which needs to approve large or sensitive foreign purchases – was aware of one application from an organisation that was associated with Mossack Fonseca. She said in Parliament on April 7 that it had received a request for information from Inland Revenue in relation to the application.
The OIO initially refused to release the identity of the applicant on the grounds that would “prejudice the maintenance of the law”. But it relented and released a raft of documents on Thursday evening following an appeal by Stuff to the Ombudsman’s Office and in the wake of the Labour Party revealing Coel & Muir as the buyer of the sensitive land. Coel & Muir was established in Panama in July 2013.