Berlin- German F1 driver, Nico Rosberg’s contract has been mentioned in the Panama Papers leak.
The leak which is by far the largest of its kind ever includes politicians, movie stars, superstars and other sports personalities.
The leak from the Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca tells about the offshore accounts of the world’s wealthiest people which has sent shockwaves around the world.
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According to ADR, a German public broadcaster, said that Rosberg’s name is among those like football star Lionel Messi mentioned in the massive data leak, relating to his latest F1 contract with Mercedes.
And according to ARD, the contract between Germany’s 2014 and 2015 world champion runner-up Rosberg with Mercedes was “made with a company called Ambitious Group Limited”, based in the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean.
The company “officially belongs to two other companies headquartered in Jersey (the Channel Islands)… and administered by the law firm Mossack Fonseca”, the German TV channel said.
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The address of the “front company” in the Virgin Islands is “the same as that under which hundreds of other companies are registered in the Mossack Fonseca files”, ARD revealed.
“It is (however) not clear that the money passed through this company,” ARD pointed out, noting that there were no elements in the documents indicating that Daimler AG (owner of Mercedes) or Rosberg did anything illegal with this arrangement.
“Neither Mercedes nor Rosberg wanted to explain why the driver was hired via the Caribbean,” ARD added.
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It will be interesting to see how Mercedes and the current championship leader Rosberg respond to these allegations.