美对巴拿马文件泄露事件展开刑事调查
US prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation “regarding matters” related to the ‘Panama Papers’ leak of documents that have revealed secret offshore bank accounts linked to the rich and powerful.
美国检方已对与“巴拿马文件”(Panama Papers)泄露“有关的事情”展开刑事调查，遭泄露的文件曝光了与权贵群体有关的秘密离岸银行账户。
Preet Bharara, US attorney for the Southern District of New York, disclosed the probe by his office in a letter to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. In the letter, which was posted on the Guardian’s website and has been authenticated by the Financial Times, is seeking to speak with an ICIJ employee about the data leak.
纽约南区联邦检察官普里特巴拉拉(Preet Bharara)在致国际调查记者联盟（International Consortium of Investigative Journalists，简称ICIJ）的信件中，披露了他的办公室展开的这项调查。这封发布在英国《卫报》(Guardian)网站上的信件，经英国《金融时报》鉴定是真实的。在信中，巴拉拉希望与ICIJ工作人员就此次数据泄露事件进行谈话。
Earlier this month ICIJ and other news organisation published multiple stories based on 11.5m files leaked from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, one of the largest offshore law firms. The stories revealed offshore accounts linked to David Cameron, a close friend of Russian president Vladimir Putin and Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, who was toppled by the revelations.
本月早些时候，ICIJ和其他新闻机构基于巴拿马莫萨克丰塞卡律所（Mossack Fonseca，全球最大的离岸律所之一）外泄的1150万份文件发布了多篇报道。这些报道揭露了与戴维愠蕓伦(David Cameron)、俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔渠京(Vladimir Putin)的一位密友、以及冰岛总理西格蒙杜尔戴维贡劳格松(Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson)有关的离岸账户。西格蒙杜尔已因这些爆料而下台。
The US Justice Department has been cracking down on American citizens and the bankers, lawyers and others who helped them evade paying taxes by hiding income in undeclared offshore bank accounts for nearly a decade.
将近十年来，美国司法部一直在打击逃税的美国公民、以及帮他们逃税的银行家、律师和其他人员。这些美国人逃税的手法是将收入隐藏在未申报的离岸账户里。
In 2009 UBS paid a $780m fine and signed a deferred prosecution agreement admitting it helped scores of Americans evade taxes. Other bank settlements followed, including a guilty plea by Credit Suisse in 2014, and dozens of individuals were charged.
2009年，瑞银(UBS)支付了7.8亿美元罚款并签署了一份延期起诉协议，承认自己曾帮助几十名美国人逃税。后来另外一些银行也与美国当局达成和解协议——瑞信(Credit Suisse)还于2014年在这件事上认罪——数十名个人受到指控。
The US has alleged in most of its cases that the banks and middle men helped Americans evade taxes by concealing their accounts in Europe and Asia. The bulk, if not all, of the revelations in the Panama Papers leak relates to non-US citizens. It is not clear whether the US is looking into whether Americans used the law firm to evade taxes that DoJ is unaware of, or if the authorities’ interest is related to specific investigations that are not necessarily tax cases, or something else.
美国当局指控称，在其调查的多数案件中，银行和中间人通过隐瞒美国人在欧洲和亚洲的账户来帮助他们逃税。巴拿马文件泄露事件中曝光的内容，大多（如果不是全部的话）是关于非美国公民的。目前尚不清楚美国当局是想调查有没有美国人利用这家律所从事了他们未注意到的逃税行为，还是对未必与税务案有关的特定调查感兴趣，又或是有什么别的目的。
