BUSINESS

The Latest: UK's Cameron slams 'hurtful' allegations

Staff Writer
Columbus CEO

LONDON (AP) — The Latest on the publication by a coalition of media outlets of an investigation into offshore financial dealings by the rich and famous (all times local):

15:45 p.m.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has lashed out at "deeply hurtful and profoundly untrue" claims made about his late father's financial arrangements.

Cameron told lawmakers in the House of Commons Monday that his father set up an offshore firm for investment purposes and not to avoid tax.

He said the firm, Blairmore Holdings, was set up following "an entirely standard practice and ... not to avoid tax."

Cameron has been under pressure since his father, Ian Cameron, was identified as a client of a Panamanian law firm that specializes in helping the wealthy reduce their tax burdens.

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12:55 p.m.

A Spanish digital news site has published documents showing that Spain's acting minister of industry, energy and tourism was a director of a Bahamian offshore company in 1992, three years before he entered politics.

A September 1992 document obtained by El Confidencial names Jose Manuel Soria and another man as the directors of the company named U.K. Lines.

But another document from November 1992 says Soria's name was submitted by mistake and asks for him to be replaced by his brother, Luis Alberto Soria.

Soria and his ministry did not immediately comment on the report published Monday.

Soria last week told reporters that people named in the massive leak of documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca that specializes in setting up offshore companies have an obligation to explain themselves quickly.

El Confidencial says the company was dissolved in March 1995. Soria was elected three months later as mayor of the city of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.