The Panama Papers form a leaked set of 11.5 million confidential documents created by the Panamanian corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca that provide detailed information on more than 214,000 offshore companies, including the identities of shareholders and directors. The documents identify (as directors and shareholders of such companies) current government leaders from five countries — Argentina, Iceland, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates — as well as government officials, close relatives and close associates of various heads of government of more than 40 other countries, including Brazil, China, Peru, France, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Syria and the United Kingdom. Comprising documents created since the 1970s that amount to 2.6 terabytes of data, the papers were supplied to the Süddeutsche Zeitung in August 2015 by an anonymous source, and subsequently to the U.S.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The papers were distributed to and analyzed by about 400 journalists at 107 media organizations in more than 80 countries. The first news reports based on the set, along with 149 of the documents themselves, were published on April 3, 2016, and a full list of companies is to be released in early May 2016.
Panama Papers Series
Panama Papers: information sharing could bust open secretive companies in tax havens
Apr 05, 2016 04:09 am UTC|
Insights & Views Law
The essence of the problem highlighted in the major leak from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca is that the governments of tax havens still allow intermediary firms to establish shell companies or trusts and dont...
Panama Papers Series
From Panama papers to Brazilian bribes: why corruption is so bad
Apr 05, 2016 00:04 am UTC|
Insights & Views Law
The news is currently filled with stories of corruption.
A global group of media outlets just broke the story of secret offshore bank accounts in Panama, which suggests widespread corruption in the Russian government...
Panama Papers Series
Panama Papers: this is a chance to fix a long broken system
Apr 04, 2016 16:12 pm UTC|
Insights & Views
In every crisis there lies an opportunity. And that applies even to a crisis as large and potentially scandalous as that revealed by the so-called Panama Papers.
Over the coming days and weeks the financial behaviour of...
Panama Papers Series
Panama Papers: the nuts and bolts of a massive international investigation
Apr 04, 2016 16:05 pm UTC|
Insights & Views Law Politics
The reporting of the Panama Papers which has been based on a massive global analysis of documents leaked from law firm Mossack Fonseca outlining how the worlds elite use tax havens is a remarkable feat of collaboration...
Panama Papers Series
With Pirates on the horizon, Iceland's government may not survive the Panama Papers
Apr 04, 2016 15:41 pm UTC|
Insights & Views Law
The release of the Panama Papers will have a huge impact around the world. But Iceland deserves some particular attention.
According to documents leaked from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, several Icelandic...
Panama Papers Series
All you need to know to start with Panama leak
Apr 04, 2016 11:46 am UTC|
Commentary Politics Law
Panama Leak is being considered as the biggest leak of secretive documents ever, which saw prominent people from politics, sports, and businessmen set up companies offshore basically to hide their wealth and possibly evade...
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