POROSHENKO DEFENDS OFFSHORE ACCOUNTS

BERLIN The president of Ukraine became the latest prominent politician to deny wrongdoing Wednesday after his name was linked to secretive offshore accounts arranged by a Panama law firm.

The revelations have raised suspicion that such offshore entities were set up to avoid taxes, but Petro Poroshenko, pictured, denied that was the purpose in his case. Rather, he said, it was necessary to create an offshore holding company to put his candy business in a blind trust when he became president of Ukraine in 2014.

“This is absolutely normal procedure, and I think this is the main difference from the naming of all the political figures in this Panama list,” Poroshenko said.

“If we have anything to be investigated, I am happy to do that,” he said. “But, this is absolutely transparent from the very beginning. No hidden account, no associated management, no nothing.”

Reports, based on a trove of confidential documents from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, have purported to expose the offshore arrangements of public officials around the world.

Iceland’s prime minister, Sigmundur Davið Gunnlaugsson, became the first casualty of the affair Tuesday, stepping down two days after a video was aired showing him breaking off a television interview over questions about his family’s offshore dealings.