Appleby is hitting back at the intense media coverage its connection to the “Paradise Papers” scandal has caused.
The top offshore law firm said that the media is wrong to characterise the incident as a leak.
“We wish to reiterate that our firm was not the subject of a leak but of a serious criminal act and our systems were accessed by an intruder who deployed the tactics of a professional hacker,” it said.
The firm lashed out at allegations of what could be perceived as failings in its business practice standards.
“Operating in highly regulated jurisdictions, we face an ever-increasing level of compliance obligations. Our overriding objective is to have the procedures and policies to ensure that we have 100% compliance with our obligations. This is a major undertaking and Appleby invests significantly in compliance professionals and processes, not only to put in place the requisite procedures and policies but also to review constantly our current practices to see where there can be improvement,” Appleby said.
The firm said it is grateful for the support of its clients, referrers, intermediaries, local governments, financial institutions, the general business community, and even its rivals.
“We wish to apologise to our clients and to our colleagues for the difficulties which have arisen from this incident. We remain committed to working with each and every client to talk to them about what has happened so that they can understand its impact on them and in order to support them with their own reporting requirements. We also remain committed to the highest standards of client service and confidentiality,” the firm said.
The incident involves 13.4m documents detailing financial activities of about 120,000 people and companies connected to assets worth around US$10 trillion. Famous people and organisations linked to the papers include Queen Elizabeth II, Apple, Bono, Facebook, Lewis Hamilton, Nike, Twitter, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and Uber.
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