Chilean President Sebastian Piñera and Czech Prime Minister Andrei Babis denied their involvement in the schemes described in the publications.
Materials with the name of Sebastian Pignera were published by the Chilean edition Siper, which participated in the study of documents from the “Pandora's Archive”. According to documents leaked to investigators, the Piñera family, including his wife Cecilia Morel, were the main shareholders of the Minera Dominga mining company. Taking into account the share of businessman Carlos Delano, close to Piñera, they owned 56% of the enterprise. In 2010, Delano bought a stake in Piñera and other partners for $ 152 million. Financial transactions were carried out through an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands, according to published documents. In Chile, the Minera Dominga mine is adjacent to the Humboldt Penguin National Sanctuary.
A statement with a commentary on the appearance of Piñera in the “Pandora's Archive” was published by the press service of the Chilean leader's administration. “The above-mentioned events concerning the sale of the Dominga mine have already been thoroughly investigated by the Attorney General's Office and the courts in 2017, and the prosecutor’s office has recommended that the case be closed due to lack of corpus delicti, compliance with the law and non-participation of President Sebastian Pignera in the said operation,” the statement said.
Czech Prime Minister Andriy Babis also made a refutation through his Twitter account. According to investigative journalists, Andrei Babish bought real estate in France for € 15 million, including a castle on the Cote d'Azur. The money was spent through an offshore, which he did not declare contrary to the requirements of the law.
“Well. I expected them to cling to me right before the elections in order to harm me and influence the elections in the Czech Republic … I have never done anything illegal or wrong, but this does not prevent them from trying to denigrate me again, ”he wrote.
No a je to tady. Čekal jsem, co na mě těsně před volbami vytáhnou, aby mě poškodili a ovlivnili české volby. Neexistuje žádná kauza, kterou by na mě mohli vytáhnout za dobu, co jsem v politice.
— Andrej Babiš (@AndrejBabis) October 3, 2021
The Pandora Archives report was published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). It is based on 11.9 million confidential documents related to the operation of the most popular offshore zones in the world. More than 600 journalists from 150 media organizations, including the BBC from Great Britain, The Washington Post from the USA, Le Monde from France and others, took part in the analysis of the documents. On the basis of these documents, they reported on the possible involvement of a number of major politicians and businessmen in offshore schemes, including those in violation of the laws of their countries.
