Among the major business figures recently identified with activities in the tax haven of Bermuda is White House economic advisor Gary Cohn — and he says he doesn't mind a bit.

Cohn, the former Goldman Sachs executive who directs President Donald Trump's National Economic Council, was named in the leaked "Paradise Papers" from a Bermuda-based law firm as an officer of 22 business entities in the island nation. He described their creation as a routine part of commerce in a globally integrated economy.

"I found out about them in the newspaper," Cohn explained in our Speakeasy interview. "Goldman Sachs had them. Because I worked at Goldman Sachs, in the division I was running at the time, I became an officer of those companies by the mere position I had. I didn't have money in them."

The purpose, he said, was to use Bermuda as a gathering spot for investors from different countries.