The government has revealed more than 30 individuals and companies are under active investigation for criminal or serious civil offences linked to financial wrong doing uncovered by the Panama Papers.
It said in a statement that hundreds more are "under detailed review" by its taskforce for tax fraud and financial malpractice.
The 11.5m papers, known as the Panama Papers, were published earlier this year by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and the Guardian newspaper, and indicate banks, law firms and even politicians had been failing to follow legal requirements in their tax affairs.
In April this year, FTAdviser reported advisers were bracing themselves for a backlash from HM Revenue & Customs following the revelations, and later that month British firms started to receive letters from the Financial Conduct Authority as a result of the Panama Papers' findings.
The government's taskforce was created later in April to analyse information available from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists' Panama Papers data leak.
To date, the taskforce has opened 22 civil and criminal investigations into 22 individuals for suspected tax evasion.
It also also identified a number of leads relevant to a "major insider-trading operation" led by the Financial Conduct Authority and supported by the National Crime Agency.
According to the government, it has identified nine potential professional enablers of economic crime, who all have links with known criminals, and placed 43 high net-worth individuals under special review, whilst links to Panama are further investigation.
Additionally it has established links to eight active Serious Fraud Office investigations, and identified two UK properties and a number of companies relevant to a National Crime Agency financial sanctions enquiry.
The taskforce has also identified 26 offshore companies whose beneficial ownership of UK property was previously concealed, and whose financial activity has been identified to the National Crime Agency as potentially suspicious.
A total of 64 firms have been contacted with the aim of determining their link to embroiled law firm Mossack Fonseca and some other individuals have come forward to the taskforce independent of any contact from them.
A Joint Financial Analysis Centre has also been established by the taskforce to aid its work.
HM Revenue & Custom’s director general for customer compliance, Jennie Granger, said the net is closing in on tax evasion and economic crime and there are no safe havens for hiding money offshore.
She said: "The vast majority of individuals and businesses pay their fair share and it’s on their behalf that the taskforce has made so much progress on so many fronts.
"The taskforce is leading the world on the acquisition and analysis of data that has enabled us to uncover and take swift action on evidence of wrongdoing – regardless of how deeply hidden the arrangements are. It will also enable us to identify those jurisdictions where regulatory oversight requires improvement."
ruth.gillbe@ft.com
