Local authorities say there is an ongoing effort and commitment for the government to fight financial crime, tax evasion, money laundering and financing terrorism after Cook Islands was named in the Pandora Papers – the leaked cache of 11.9 million financial records.

The Pandora Papers is the name given to the confidential information unlocked from 14 offshore financial service providers – including Asiaciti Trust that has a branch in the Cook Islands.

The information was uncovered by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and was shared with 150 media partners.

Cook Islands Finance, the statutory body established to promote and develop the country’s financial services industry, said there was an ongoing effort and commitment for the government to fight financial crime, tax evasion, money laundering and financing terrorism.

“In 2018 the Cook Islands received an outstanding report from the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (a regional body of the Financial Action Task Force) rating the Cook Islands anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism regime as one of the best in the world, superior to a number of the larger and more recognised international financial centres,” Cook Islands Finance said in a statement.

“The Cook Islands has continually demonstrated its overriding commitment to meet all of its international obligations clearly proving itself to be compliant and responsible.”

The statement said the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) carry out regular audits of all licenced trustee companies for compliance with that regime.

A spokesperson on behalf of the two organisations (FSC and FIU) said the Cook Islands takes combating financial crime seriously.

“At the frontline of this effort, we recognise the high risk of our international financial sector to potential misuse by criminals,” said the spokesperson.

“As a result of this we allocate a significant portion of our time and resources to ensure our work is targeted toward preventing, detecting and disrupting the facilitation of financial crime through our international financial sector.”

The spokesperson also said the financial sector is an important source of economic diversification for the Cook Islands and is not dependent on borders.

According to The Times of Israel, Beny Steinmetz, an Israeli mining magnate was revealed in the Pandora Papers for attempting “to squirrel away $1 billion in Cook Islands”.

Also revealed in the Papers, “politically connected” Sri Lankan, Thirukumar Nadesan, who is married to a former member of Sri Lanka’s parliament, used the Cook Islands for a trust fund.

According to an ICIJ article, Asiaciti Trust which is among the 14 offshore financial service providers, set up a trust for Nadesan in New Zealand and moved it to the Cook Islands in 2012.

The media release from Cook Islands Finance said the journalists that released the Pandora Papers were pursuing a narrative to discredit the offshore services industry.

“There are many legitimate reasons for individuals to incorporate international companies and to set up international trust structures and all Cook Islands licensed trustee companies are obligated to ensure international entities comply with domestic and international requirements,” the release said.