British Prime Minister David Cameron admitted Thursday that he profited from an offshore fund set up by his late father, as named in the so-called Panama Papers, but he denies doing anything wrong.
Cameron spoke to Britain's ITV television Thursday after his office issued several statements that neither seemed to confirm nor deny whether Cameron's family owned offshore funds.
"I want to be as clear as I can about the past, about the present, about the future because, frankly, I don't have anything to hide," Cameron said.
The Conservative prime minister told ITV that his family owned shares in the Bahamas-based Blairmore Holdings that were worth about $42,000.
He said he sold them in 2010, just months before becoming prime minister.
"Because if I was going to become prime minister, I didn't want anyone to say 'you have other agendas, vested interests,'" Cameron said.
The prime minister told ITV that he paid all the "normal" income taxes on the profits from the sale.
He said he is upset about the "unfair" treatment his father has been getting in the media, as well as other stories saying he grew up rich and privileged, which led to his becoming prime minister.
Cameron has not apologized for his wealthy childhood and says he has never pretended to be anything he is not.
Cameron's father, Ian, was a stockbroker who died just after his son became prime minister.
Ian Cameron's name is among the long list of the rich and famous in the more than 11 million documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.
Twelve current and former political leaders are included in the papers detailing hidden offshore bank accounts which, in some cases, may have been set up to hide assets and avoid paying taxes.
Publication of the Panama Papers already has cost one nation's leader his job. Iceland's Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson resigned this week after the documents showed that his wife owns a company in the British Virgin Islands that has $4 million in claims against Iceland's collapsed banks.
