Leaked documents reveal how a former EU commissioner failed to disclose her interest in an offshore company.
Documents from the Bahamian company registry show Neelie Kroes was a director of Mint Holdings from 2000 to 2009.The Netherlands politician, an EU commissioner from 2004 to 2014, should have declared all her company directorships.
Her lawyer Oscar Hammerstein said that her declaration of interests was made in good faith.
"Ms Kroes will inform the president of the European Commission of this oversight and will take full responsibility for it." he said.
Mr Hammerstein said Mint Holdings was set up to raise funds for an energy deal that never took place and the company never became operational.
He said she had not been removed as a director until 2009 because of an "administrative error".
Media leak
Ms Kroes was commissioner for competition from 2004 to 2010 and commissioner for digital agenda until 2014.
But there is no mention of Mint Holdings in her declarations in 2004 or 2010.
Ms Kroes' directorship was discovered among details of more than 176,000 companies set up in the Atlantic ocean tax haven that have been leaked to the media.
The files from the company registry in the Bahamas contain basic information about offshore companies, trusts and foundations registered on the islands.
They include names of directors, company administrators and other corporate documentation for entities incorporated between 1990 and 2016.
The Bahamas has been criticised for holding out against international attempts to improve transparency and crack down on tax evasion and avoidance - last year the EU listed the Bahamas among 30 unco-operative tax havens.
The 1.3 million files were obtained by the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and media partners including BBC Panorama and The Guardian.
The ICIJ plans to combine the new Bahamas data with information from previous offshore leaks - including the Panama Papers - to create the largest public registry of offshore entities in history.
Failed deal
Mr Hammerstein told the BBC that Mint Holdings had been established in 2000 in relation to a deal to buy assets belonging to the US energy firm Enron.The proposed Enron deal, worth an estimated $7bn (£5.3bn), would have involved the sale of some of Enron's international holdings including power plants, utility holdings and oil and gas reserves.
At the time the deal was being negotiated, Enron shares were at an all-time high. But the company collapsed the following year when it was discovered that Enron had been hiding huge debts off its balance sheet.
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