Panama Papers: Iceland's Prime Minister, Chile's Head of Anti-Corruption Group Resign

Can you guess which is Icelandic and which is Chilean?

Icelandic PM

CNN — After widespread calls for his resignation, Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson stepped down Tuesday — an apparent casualty of the Panama Papers leaks.

Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson, the deputy chair of Gunnlaugsson’s Progressive Party, announced the Prime Minister’s resignation Tuesday on national public broadcaster RUV.

Chilean Head Of Transparency International

The Independent — The head of the Chilean branch of an international anti-corruption organisation has resigned after being linked to offshore companies in a huge leak of financial documents.

Gonzalo Delaveau, the former president of Transparency International in Chile, was named in the cache of files known as the Panama Papers.

Live look at world leaders meeting:

Monday I shocked the world and reported — on Barstool Sports — on the Panama Papers, the biggest data leak in history. The number of leaked documents, 11.5 million, is MASSIVE.

For scale, Edward Snowden — the most famous (or infamous) leaker in history — leaked 1.7 million NSA docs in 2013.

There’s a lot of moving parts in such a deep pile of data, but the general theme is corruption. Corruption among the powerful, the rich, the famous. Monday we talked mostly about the content of the leaks; yesterday we saw the earliest casualties of the leaks.

Icelandic PM, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson

Now that we’ve got some individual casualties it’s a good opportunity for us to dig a little deeper into the specifics of peoples’ sketchiness. See how bad it really is — Or see if it’s blown out of proportion. With over 11 million docs, expect to see quite a bit of both.

In Sigmundur here’s case, who must be the most Icelandically-named person of all time, it’s closer to blown out of proportion than it is to twisted, consequential corruption. It’s all about Wintris, an offshore shell company bought by he and his wife in 2007. They bought it from Mossack Fonseca, the Panama firm at the center of the leak, and used it as a vehicle to invest millions of dollars inherited from her parents.

The problem? When entering Parliament in 2009, Sigmundur did not disclose his connection to Wintris. That’s against the rules. People don’t like when politicians break the rules, especially when doing so to hide their personal connection to millions of doll-hairs.

Now, is this the type of corruption that robs society of funds, programs and general aide, stifling its ability to grow efficiently? No. It’s much more a case of Sigmundur and his wife making secret efforts to protect both her family inheritance and his political reputation.

They clearly failed. In fact, in a recent statement about the issue, Sigmundur wrote:

“My political participation and the policies I have fought for have resulted in her wealth being decreased.”

But these details matter little. His opposition has used all this to politically scream “LIAR!” They have vigorously demanded a resignation. Protests have erupted in the streets.

So Tuesday he resigned.

Chilean Anti-Corruption Head, Gonzalo Delaveau

Now, Gonzalo here is a little different. Not necessarily in a bad way. He has been the head of the Chilean branch of Transparency International, a group that fights corruption and, you guessed it, LOVES transparency. Can’t get enough of it. They sprinkle that shit on their cereal and, as you can tell from Gonzalo’s picture, even mix it into their shampoo. Especially near the crown.

The Panama Papers linked Gonzalo to 5 offshore companies. He is also the director of a company owning a majority stake in Los Andes Copper, a Canadian development company. So far, none of the companies he’s been linked to have reportedly committed any illegal wrongdoing. But he handed in his resignation just hours after Chile’s IRS announced an “intense followup” on the Panama Papers leak.

A clearer reason to understand Gonzalo’s snap resignation? Context:

The country is currently dealing with political and corporate corruption scandals that have left the public angry and eroded the Government’s popularity.

In conclusion? These guys actually aren’t bad guys. At least the evidence thus far has not suggested so. More they’re both just not-as-transparent-of-guys-as-they-could-have-been. And if that’s the worst of their crimes, they might turn out to be a couple of the cleanest of the Panama Papers corruptionites.