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The Luxembourg government denied news reports Monday that the country has provided a tax haven to corporations and the wealthy in the reopening of a half-decade-old scandal.
The OpenLux investigation, by media organizations including Le Monde in France and Süddeutsche Zeitung in Germany, reported that politicians, celebrities, multinational companies and royal families funneled money through Luxembourg to lower their tax bills and avoid scrutiny.
“Luxembourg rejects the claims made in these articles as well as the entirely unjustified portrayal of the country and its economy,” the government said in a statement. It sought to rebut allegations of shortcomings in its anti-money laundering rules or tax practices.
The League party of Italy has a “secret fund” based in Luxembourg, Le Monde wrote, while people close to the Venezuelan regime have extracted corrupt funds and organized criminals had corporate entities in the country.
The investigation, which trawled through Luxembourg’s register of beneficial owners, found 90 percent of companies in the grand duchy had foreign owners.
The report follows up the LuxLeaks investigation, based on a trove of leaked documents in 2014, which heaped political pressure on Jean-Claude Juncker just as the country’s former prime minister was becoming European Commission president.
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