Luke Harding - What are the Panama Papers? A guide to the biggest data leak in history
The Panama Papers are
an unprecedented leak of 11.5m files from the database of the world’s fourth
biggest offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca. The records were obtained from an
anonymous source by the
German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which shared them with the International Consortium of
Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The ICIJ then shared them with a
large network of international partners, including the Guardian and the BBC.
What do they
reveal?
The documents show the
myriad ways in which the rich can exploit secretive offshore tax regimes.
Twelve national leaders are among 143 politicians, their families and close
associates from around the world known to have been using offshore tax havens.
A
$2bn trail leads all the way to Vladimir Putin. The Russian
president’s best friend – a cellist called Sergei Roldugin – is at the centre
of a scheme in which money from Russian state banks is hidden offshore. Some of
it ends up in a ski resort where in 2013 Putin’s daughter Katerina got married.
A lengthier overview
of the revelations can
be found here.
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