2 Prime Ministers ousted over offshore accounts in BVI
However, in global politics the tiny British Overseas Territory with less than 40 thousand residents has also caused two powerful international countries to lose their Prime Ministers.
Iceland PM out in 2016 over BVI offshore
It was in April of 2016, with a financial scandal engulfing him following the release of the Panama Papers, that the Iceland Prime Minister was asked to explain his involvement in an offshore company. It was revealed that Sigmundur D. Gunnlaugsson held shares in a company that allegedly invested in Iceland's troubled banking sector.
The Guardian reports that Gunnlaugsson co-owned a British Virgin Islands–registered company called Wintris Inc., which reportedly held shares worth nearly $4 million in three Icelandic banks that collapsed during the financial crisis of 2008.
The revelation came from a trove of more than 11 million internal documents from a Panama-based law firm leaked to German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with reporters around the world via the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
It was reported that Gunnlaugsson sold his 50% stake to his wife for a symbolic $1.00 at the end of 2009, eight months after he was elected to Parliament as an MP for the cenre-right Progressive Party.
The ousted Prime Minister failed; however, to declare an interest in the company Wintris either then or when he became prime minister in 2013. Following weeks of protests, Mr Gunnlaugsson resigned in April 2016 over his BVI Offshore account and accusations of conflicts of interest.
Pakistan
Another Prime Minister that recently got the boot was Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. It was last month that the Pakistani Supreme Court made a decision that disqualified him from office over undeclared assets held in an offshore company in the BVI.
Sharif, 67, resigned during his third stint as prime minister shortly after the Supreme Court ruled on July 28, 2017 that he should be disqualified and ordered a criminal probe into his family's wealth.
Sharif's disqualification stems from the Panama Papers leaks in 2016 which appeared to show that Sharif's daughter and two sons owned offshore holding companies registered in the British Virgin Islands and used them to buy properties in London.
The judges in July alleged Sharif did not declare a small source of income that the veteran leader disputes receiving.
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