President Connected To Panama Papers

President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson does in fact have connections to at least one offshore account, despite contentions to the contrary with CNN.

While the President told viewers of CNN that neither he nor his wife, Dorrit Moussaieff, have any connection to offshore accounts, The Grapevine has received documents that show this contention to be false.

The matter concerns a British company called Moussaieff Jewelers Limited (MJL), which is Dorrit’s family’s business. According to the Directors’ Report and Financial Statements for MJL in 2006, Lasca Finance Limited (LFL) – a company registered in the British Virgin Islands of which Dorrit’s parents are shareholders – was paid interest payments by MJL from at least 2000 until 2005, which was the last time we saw reported interest. Lasca also appears in the widely-reported Panama Papers leak.

In 2006, LFL all but disappears, and a new company appears in Hong Kong: Moussaieff Limited, of which Dorrit’s mother is the sole director and shareholder, and has been active through at least March 31, 2015. While not defined as a tax shelter by Icelandic law, Hong Kong does rank in second place on the Financial Secrecy Index.

Although when Dorrit changed her legal residence from Iceland to the UK in 2013, she told reporters at the time that she ran MJL, an annual report from MJL in 2015 lists her mother as the director.

The news comes just one week after Ólafur announced he would be running for a sixth term in office.

This reporting is the result of a joint effort by The Grapevine and Kjarninn, following a tip we received from presidential hopeful Ástþór Magnússon. Additional reporting by Jón Trausti Sigurðarson and York Underwood.

You can download and read the documentation on the matter for yourself below:

2000-MJL_FinanceStatement
2001-MJL_FinanceStatement
2003-MJL_FinanceStatement
2005-MJL_FinanceStatement
2006-MJL_FinanceStatement
2006 MJL Report
2007-MJL_FinanceStatement
2010-MJL_FinanceStatement
2011-MJL_FinanceStatement
2013-MJL_FinanceStatement
2015-MJL_FinanceStatement
Lasca-Finance-MossacFonseca-List