[courtesy of iclickart]
North Korea was found to have managed a secret fund for arms trade and development by using a British banker to set up a secret offshore paper company in a tax haven, South Korea's online news outlet Newstapa reported.
Nigel Cowie was behind DCB Finance Limited, registered in the British Virgin Islands as a front company of Daedong Credit Bank, which was sanctioned by Washington in 2013 for its role in supporting Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs, Newstapa said.
The revelation was based on analysis of internal documents leaked from Mossack Fonseca, a Panama law firm known for helping clients conceal assets.
The report came as Washington and its allies stepped up a diplomatic push to implement strict sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council in March against the isolated country following its nuclear and long-range rocket tests.
In cooperation with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Newstapa has investigated the documents obtained first by a German newspaper. The documents have been analyzed by news organizations worldwide, which discovered the names of global sports and movies starts as well as prominent politicians and relatives who were allegedly involved in covert transactions.
The 2013 US sanctions target North Korean's main foreign exchange institution in an effort to try to choke off cash to the regime in Pyongyang. At that time, the US Treasury said DCB Finance had carried out international financial transactions as a way to avoid scrutiny by institutions trying to avoid doing business with North Korea.
DCB Finance was set up in 2006 by Cowie and Kim Chol-sam, a North Korean official who was sanctioned by Washington in 2013. They were also involved in opening another paper company, Pheonix Commercial Ventures Limited, in the Virgin Islands, Newstapa said. Cowie moved to North Korea in 1995 and became the first head of Daedong Credit Bank.
The Panama Papers reveal Mossack Fonseca failed to notice Cowie's companies were linked to North Korea. In 2010, however, the law firm severed relations with the two North Korean front companies, Newstapa said.]
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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