Following on from reports at the weekend that a Maltese-registered company he was involved in had invested in a Lithuanian shopping mall, Bono has issued the following statement this evening to the BBC. In it, he says he welcomes a tax office probe into the deal, which he had been assured was fully tax complaint.
"I would be extremely distressed if, even as a passive minority investor in UAB2 in Lithuania, anything less than exemplary was done with my name anywhere near it," he states.
"I've been assured by those running the company that it is fully tax compliant, but if that is not the case I want to know as much as the tax office does, and so I also welcome the audit they have said they will undertake.
"I take this stuff very seriously. I have campaigned for the beneficial ownership of offshore companies to be made transparent.
"Indeed, this is why my name is on documents rather than in a trust. The fact is I welcome this reporting. It shouldn't take leaks to understand what's going on where.
"There should be public registries so that the press and public can see what governments, like Guernsey, already know."