British actor Emma Watson has become caught up in the Panama Papers scandal. Picture: Nicholas Kamm/AFP

The UK’s Spectator magazine discovered Watson’s name in the newly released searchable database of more than 200,000 offshore companies published yesterday.

According to the leaks from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson is a beneficiary in an offshore company based in the British Virgin Islands tax haven.

Setting up an offshore company is not illegal, and being named in the leaks does not suggest any wrongdoing. But they can be used to hide money from authorities.

The Times reports Watson purchased a £2.8 million ($5.5 million) home in London in 2013 via an offshore company, Falling Leaves Ltd, set up a month earlier.

A spokesman for the 26-year-old star said she, “like many high-profile individuals, set up an offshore company for the sole purpose of protecting her anonymity and safety”.

“UK companies are required to publicly publish details of their shareholders and therefore do not give her the necessary anonymity required to protect her personal safety, which has been jeopardised in the past owing to such information being publicly available,” he said.

“Offshore companies do not publish these shareholder details. Emma receives absolutely no tax or monetary advantages from this offshore company whatsoever — only privacy.”

Watson is the latest in a list of high-profile celebrities, politicians and business leaders to have been named in the leaks, which have already led to the resignation of Iceland’s prime minister.

Other big names include the King of Saudi Arabia, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the godfather of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s daughter, football star Lionel Messi, actor Jackie Chan, and the father of British Prime Minister David Cameron.

The Australian Taxation Office says it is investigating around 800 Australians in relation to the Panama Papers revelations.