Ecuador officials, including attorney general and Correa’s cousin, named in ‘Panama Papers’

Attorney General Galo Chiriboga

Among the thousands of names that appear in the ‘Panama Papers’, hacked records of secret offshore assets and business deals, are those Ecuador Attorney General, Galo Chiriboga, former Central Bank president and cousin of President Rafael Correa, Pedro Delgado, and Rommy Vallejo, former director of Ecuador’s intelligence service.

The 11.5 million documents that comprise the ‘Panama Papers’ were hacked from a Panamanian law firm that has established more than 200,000 offshore companies for clients wishing to shield financial assets and transactions from public view. The documents were turned over to an international consortium of journalists who published their preliminary findings on Sunday.

Among the names that appear in the documents are close associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Argentinian President Mauricio Macri, British Prime Minister David Cameron, the wife of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, and members of the Spanish royal family.

Former Central Bank Director Pedro Delgado.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the group releasing the information, say many more names will be revealed in coming weeks as they pour through the documents from the Panama City-based Mossack Fonseca law firm.

According to the first reports, Chiriboga and Delgado, purchased homes through companies set up by Mossack Fonseca. Vallejo is named with an associate as representative of the Quito office of Mossack Fonseca.

Chiriboga claims he had no contact with the company that financed his house in Quito, and says the transaction occurred before he was attorney general. Vallejo claims he was only a signatory on documents establishing the Quito branch of Mossack Fonseca and was not involved in business transactions.

Delgado, first cousin of Correa, did not comment. He lives in Miami, where he fled following a scandal in which he addmitted lying about his academic credentials. After he left the country, he was also implicated in what the government called an “inappropriate” Argentinian loan deal. He has been convicted by an Ecuadorian court in absentia and efforts are underway to have him extradited from the U.S.

Correa has said he is following the revelations closely and will let the “chips fall where they may.”