UNES and Pachakutik present information on Guillermo Lasso’s alleged involvement with ‘offshore’ in Panama

Legislators Mónica Palacios, from Unión por la Esperanza (UNES), and Salvador Quishpe, from the Pachakutik (PK) movement, will present before the Commission on Constitutional Guarantees and Human Rights of the National Assembly, which investigates the so-called Pandora Papers, documentation that, According to them, it determines that the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, indirectly maintains assets or capital in tax havens in Panama.

The complaints, made separately to the press on October 25, refer to the alleged existence of the company offshore Banisi in Panama, which, they said, is owned by Guillermo Lasso Mendoza, and which in 2020 would have transferred shares to the first president’s children.

The Constitutional Guarantees Commission, chaired by legislator José Cabascango (PK), is still analyzing new appearances within the investigation process on an alleged involvement of the head of state in the so-called Pandora Papers, which is a leak of files in which they name Lasso Mendoza as beneficiary of assets and capital in tax havens.

The members of the Commission, in the next few hours, will evaluate if they request more time to present the report on the Pandora Papers, taking into account that the president did not want to attend two calls to appear on this issue and, on the contrary, invited the legislators to the Carondelet Palace to receive their version, which was not accepted by the assembly members. On November 6, the deadline to present the report to the plenary session expires, according to the schedule approved by the assembly members.

Legislative commission investigating Pandora Papers may request an extension of the deadline to present its final report

Assemblywoman Mónica Palacios, at a press conference and surrounded by legislators from her bench, assured that the president lied to the country in the sworn declaration to be a presidential candidate, pointing out that he had no assets in tax havens.

Palacios showed an Official Gazette of Panama, in which, according to Palacios, the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, in 2020 transferred his shares in the company Prieto Overseas SA to his children in a new company offshore called Banisi International Foundation, on September 10, 2020.

The legislator also explained that Guillermo Lasso in 2007 created the first company in Panama, called Banisi SA, which was a bank in Panama that received capital from his family and friends, according to the legislator, evading taxes.

That in 2012 he created the second company, called Banisi Holding SA, and completely absorbs Banisi SA; and in 2015 Prieto Overse SA was created, which absorbed the rest of the companies.

In 2020, the capital transfer is made to the beneficiaries of Guillermo Enrique Lasso Alcívar, Santiago Xavier Lasso Alcívar, Juan Emilio Lasso Alcívar, María de Lourdes Lasso Alcívar and María Mercedes Lasso Alcívar. With this, the UNES legislator affirmed, President Guillermo Lasso indirectly continues to be the owner of all the companies offshore, and so far that is the corruption plot.

He mentioned that he is not in a fight between the right and the left of the country, but that it is intended to show that President Guillermo Lasso does not have the moral quality to be the president of Ecuador, because he asks Ecuadorians to put their shoulders and pay taxes to leave from the crisis, when he has his money out to evade taxes.

Legislator Salvador Quishpe gave the Guarantee Commission a copy of an audit carried out by Deloitte Touche to Banisi Bank, which, according to the president himself, is his property, which must be corroborated, the legislator said.

If that is true, he added, the first president could be incurring the prohibition indicated in article 4 of the Organic Law for the Application of the Popular Consultation, carried out on February 19, 2017, that is, the prohibition of occupation and performance of positions in the public sector to the direct or indirect owners of goods or capital, of any nature, in jurisdictions or regimes considered as tax havens.

Quishpe told the press that Banise Bank is domiciled in Panama, and that what it does this October 25 is to deliver to the legislative commission that investigates Pandora Papers a report of an audit made in 2020 to Banisi, which corroborates that there is such a bank in Panama, assured the national legislator of Pachakutik. (I)