Panama Papers leak 11.5 million documents, exposing public officials
On Sunday, April 3, 11.5 million confidential documents exposing a widespread system of global tax evasion were made public as a result of a hack. The documents, which were records of the Panamanian corporate service provider and law firm Mossack Fonseca, were obtained by an anonymous source, shared with the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, and then passed to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The ICIJ then shared the documents with a network of international media partners, including the Guardian and the BBC.
The documents, referred to as the “Panama Papers,” include emails, database files, and PDFs from Mossack Fonseca that show how the firm specializes in creating shell companies used to hide their client’s assets. The Panama Papers are the biggest leak in whistleblower history and provide evidence for how public officials, celebrities, athletes, business executives, and political leaders across the world use offshore accounts to transfer wealth. The implications of such practices has already caused Iceland’s Prime Minister, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, to step down after documents were uncovered to show a potential conflict of interest.
