April 5 – Banned UEFA President Michel Platini’s Panamanian bank account was declared to the authorities in Switzerland, where he lives, his lawyer insisted in an interview published by French newspaper Le Figaro.
Platini, whose ban prevented him from standing for FIFA president in February, was one of the prominent sports officials named in the Panama Papers leak that has rocked the world of offshore financial secrecy.
The leak has exposed a string of alleged tax-avoiding schemes but Platini’s lawyer said his account was totally above board.
“Holding bank accounts through companies is not illegal as long as they are declared, which was the case here,” the lawyer was cited as saying.
The Le Figaro interview came 24 hours after a tranche of documents leaked from law firm Mossack Fonseca triggered investigations into possible financial wrongdoing by politicians and other high-profile figures, including several prominent sports officials, around the world.
Platini is currently awaiting the outcome of his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against his six-year ban relating to the so-called “disloyal payment” of SFr2 million made to him by FIFA in 2011 and authorised by the now deposed Sepp Blatter who is also banned.
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