Denmark pays anonymous source to get Panama Papers data

The Danish tax authority said on Thursday  it had paid an anonymous source almost six million kroner (0.81 million euros, USD 0.9 million) for leaked data from the Panama Papers on hundreds of Danes.

The government justified the payment earlier this month saying it needed to take all necessary measures to catch tax evaders. "The material contains the number of files on Danes that we expected and the quality is on a par with the sample cases we were given before," Jim Sorensen, a division head at the agency, said in a statement.

The agency would now analyse the material in more detail, he said. The Danish government said on September 7 that it would pay an amount in the "lower millions" of kroner to the anonymous source for information on between 500 and 600 Danish taxpayers from the Panama Papers.

In April, media outlets published details of murky offshore financial dealings gleaned from 11.5 million leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm -- the so-called "Panama Papers". The leaks saw a host of high-profile politicians, celebrities and sports stars embarrassed over their assets in tax havens.