The Biggest Data Leak in History
- By Sydny Shepard
- Apr 04, 2016
The Panama Papers, documents that show the myriad of ways in which the rich can exploit secretive offshore tax regimens, are an unprecedented leak of 11.5 million files from the database of the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca. The records were obtained from an anonymous source by a German newspaper, which then shared them with the International Consortium or Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The ICIJ then moved quickly to share the documents with a large network of international partners, of which include the BBC and the Guardian.
The documents reveal twelve national leaders, among 143 other politicians, along with their families and close associates from around the world have been using offshore tax havens. A $2 billion trail leads to Vladimir Putin, the Russian president.
Among the national leaders with offshore wealth include Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Ayad Allawi, ex-interim prime minister and former vice president of Iraq, Petro Poroshenk, president of Ukraine, Alaa Mubarak, son of Egypt’s former president and the prime minister of Iceland, Sigmundur Davio Gunnlaugsson.
Mossack Fonseca is a Panama-based law firm whose services include incorporating companies in offshore jurisdictions such as the British Virgin Islands. Its website boasts a global network of 600 people working in 42 different countries. Mossack Fonseca operates in tax havens including Switzerland, Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands, and in the British crown dependencies Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man.
The leak is one of the biggest ever – larger than the US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks in 2010, and the secret intelligence documents given to journalists by Edward Snowden in 2013. There are 11.5m documents and 2.6 terabytes of information drawn from Mossack Fonseca’s internal database.
The Guardian reports that the firm won’t discuss specific cases of alleged wrongdoing, citing client confidentiality, but it robustly defends its conduct. Mossack Fonseca says it complies with anti-money-laundering laws and carries out thorough due diligence on all its clients. It says it regrets any misuse of its services and tries actively to prevent it. The firm says it cannot be blamed for failings by intermediaries, who include banks, law firms and accountants.
About the Author
Sydny Shepard is the Executive Editor of Campus Security & Life Safety.