Turnbull named in Panama Papers

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Photo / AP

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been named in the Panama Papers as the fallout from the global scandal continues.

It has emerged that Turnbull was a former director of a company created and administrated by embattled law firm Mossack Fonseca in the 1990s.

However a spokesman for Turnbull told Fairfax the Prime Minister was not aware the company had been administered by Mossack Fonseca as the registered agent in Road Town, Tortola.

Turnbull was a former director of a British Virgin Islands company administered by Mossack Fonesca.

He joined the board of Star Mining NL with former New South Wales Premier Neville Wran in 1993, but both resigned two years later.

There is no suggestion Turnbull had acted improperly.

The news comes as the Federal Police will today make a court application to access records related to the James Ashby affair in a move that could derail the PM's campaign.

The Panama Papers are leaked records from Mossack Fonseca which provide a rare insight into the legal practice used to move money to decrease tax burdens.

The news linking Turnbull to the scandal comes just two days after the Panamanian law firm at the centre of the huge trove of leaked documents detailing offshore financial dealings says it will take legal action against an international consortium of journalists.

The Mossack Fonseca firm said that it had asked the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists to stop publishing information from the documents that it has said were obtained through a computer hack.

Earlier this week, the consortium published information about some 200,000 offshore entities in a searchable database.

It said that did not imply all those mentioned violated the law.

The firm says that in addition to being obtained illegally, the data is full of errors.

The consortium has published a number of stories detailing how world leaders, celebrities and businesses use such entities to hide money. the legal practice used to move money to decrease tax burdens.

- news.com.au