April 6, 2016
A leading transparency activist in Chile has become the first Latin American to lose his job after being linked to at least five offshore companies in the Panama Papers. Gonzalo Delaveau resigned as the head of the Chile Transparente, the Chilean chapter of the Berlin-based group Transparency International, after his name appeared in the massive leak that has highlighted how much money is moved around the world under the cover of secret firms.
Delaveau’s resignation stands out among the dozens of high-level Latin American politicians, business figures, celebrities, and sports stars who appear in the documents from the now infamous Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca that specialized in setting up offshore businesses for the world’s rich and powerful. Delaveau’s departure from Chile Transparente on Monday appeared inevitable after Transparency International made it clear there would be consequences for the group as a whole if he stayed. Though moving money around with the help of shell companies is mostly legal, it can provide cover for money laundering and tax evasion, and appears at odds with transparency advocacy by definition. “We are deeply troubled by what has happened with the Chair of our chapter in Chile,” José Ugaz, Transparency International’s chair, said in a statement released on Tuesday. “With Delaveau’s resignation our Board decided to halt its efforts to sanction the chapter.”
Ugaz stressed that there is no indication that Deleveau, a lawyer, broke any law through his involvement in the five companies, all of them domiciled in the Bahamas. “But, for us, that is not the point,” he said. With the issue all over the world’s front pages thanks to the Panama Papers, Transparency International has launched a campaign to require public registers of all companies in ways that make it much harder to hide either illicit wealth or keep ownership secret.