Ecuador鈥檚 President Guillermo Lasso speaks after meeting with leaders of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), at the Carondelet Palace in Quito, on Octubre 4, 2021. AFP
QUITO 鈥� Ecuador鈥檚 legislature on Sunday voted to open an investigation into whether President Guillermo Lasso broke the law by keeping assets in tax havens, after the Pandora Papers leaks.
Lasso, Ecuador鈥檚 first right-wing president in 14 years, is among scores of politicians, businessmen and celebrities who appear in the Pandora Papers, an investigation by an international consortium of journalists that exposed secret offshore accounts.
The probe of Lasso鈥檚 activity will be conducted by the country鈥檚 Constitutional Commission within 30 days, the legislature said in a statement.
The investigation is meant to determine whether the 65-year-old president 鈥渕ay have breached鈥� the norm that 鈥減rohibits candidates and public officials from having their resources or assets in tax havens,鈥� the legislature said.
According to the Pandora Papers, Lasso controlled 14 offshore companies, most of them based in Panama, and closed them after the passage of a law in 2017 that prohibited presidential candidates from having companies in tax havens.
Lasso, who took office in May, has said that years ago he had 鈥渓egitimate investments in other countries鈥� and that he got rid of them to compete in the presidential election.