Businessmen react to listing in Panama Papers

The spokesman for EPH, Daniel Častvaj, issued a statement on Monday in connection with the Panama Papers leak, which named billionaire Daniel Křetinský and 282 other Czechs among thousands of others. The papers are thought to make clear how the world elite take advantage of tax havens. In the statement, Mr Častvaj said that Mr Křetinský had never made use of Panamanian or other anonymous structures to hide the ownership structure of his businesses; nor, he said, had the businessman ever made use of illegal or unethical means in the area of tax planning. The press release called the ownership of EPH, EP Industries, Czech News Centre and other groups “fully transparent”. The PPF Group also reacted to the listing of billionaire Petr Kellner, saying that property owned on the Virgin Islands dated back to when Mr Kellner and his wife had lived and conducted business there. Mr Kellner is the majority owner of PPF.

Author: Jan Velinger