EU slammed for not knowing of key official’s offshore firm

BRUSSELS >> The European Union’s executive body was accused Thursday of failing to properly check the business interests of its top officials after leaked documents showed its former competition chief was a director of an offshore company based in the Bahamas.

Critics pounced on the revelation that Neelie Kroes, who led the European Commission’s powerful anti-trust unit between 2004 and 2010 and is now a paid adviser to Uber and Bank of America, had an undisclosed interest in a company in the Bahamas as further evidence of the commission’s lax approach to vetting.

As a result, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is facing calls to tighten up the rules on potential conflicts of interest. Juncker was already under pressure to do so following the news this summer that his predecessor, Jose Manuel Barroso, had taken a top job at investment bank Goldman Sachs.

Kroes’ name was one of the most high-profile to emerge in a cache of documents of the Bahamas’ corporate registry that was leaked Wednesday by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and media partners.

The leak revealed the names of directors and owners of more than 175,000 Bahamian companies, trusts and foundations, ranging from prime ministers and princes to convicted felons.

The disclosures follow the international uproar over the leak of the so-called “Panama Papers” earlier this year that revealed details on offshore accounts that helped foreigners shelter their wealth. Like Panama, the Bahamas, a chain of 700 islands in the Atlantic Ocean, is a renowned tax haven.