In a first of its kind, over 100+ news agencies are releasing simultaneously the Panama Papers
A storm is coming – thus starts the headling of Süddeutsche Zeitung, a respected German newspaper, as it details what transpired in a room that had some of Iceland’s most powerful bankers, executives, and investors who were asked to answer to special investigator Olaf Hauksson. A tall man with a heavy build, Haukkson has spent the past six years investigating the transactions that brought Iceland’s economy to its knees in October 2008. Welcome to the expose Panama Papers.
[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]T[/dropcap]This is just one story. ICIJ (The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists) provides an in-depth look into the sprawling, secretive industry of offshore that the world’s rich and powerful use to hide assets and skirt rules by setting up front companies in far-flung jurisdictions.
Based on a trove of more than 11 million leaked files, the investigation exposes a cast of characters who use offshore companies to facilitate bribery, arms deals, tax evasion, financial fraud and drug trafficking.
The pages are interactive – i. e. you can click on any image and get the low-down on all their dealings. ICIJ can even keep you, the reader up-to-date if you sign up for their newsletter via email.
There are two main tabs on the left top corner, Country leaders and Politicians/ public officials. You can click on either one to get additional information, names and assets etc. On the right hand side, there are two Filters available for you to narrow down the search – Region and Country.
[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]F[/dropcap]or instance, if you click on India, you will see the names of two individuals. Clicking on Anurag Kejriwal, leads to all the different deals he was involved in. An excerpt is reproduced below for your reference:
Note: If you see a blank rectangle above, most likely the site is overloaded. The salient points are summarized here.
You can click on the < or > arrows in the above graphic to find out more about individuals in the region. Clicking on the > button, will lead you to Xi Jingping, the current premier of China and the stunning rise of his brother-in-law Deng Jiagui.
Panama Papers
[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]T[/dropcap]he Guardian of UK reports that The number of documents being released is bigger than WikiLeaks and Snowden’s revelations. The biggest off-shore facilitator company is Mossack Fonseca. What is Mossack Fonseca, how big is it, and who uses offshore firms? Key questions about one of the biggest ever data leaks in the history. Here are some breaking events that will give you an idea of how much impact these leaks are having:
- Revealed: the $2bn offshore trail that leads to Vladimir Putin
- Iceland’s PM faces snap election over revelations
- FIFA faces new credibility crisis over leaked papers
In Summary
This is just the beginning. In the next few days, expect many more revelations to come tumbling out. Here is a graphical illustration of the Off-shore tax haven industry over the last 40 years.
Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
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