In one of the largest data leaks to ever be released, the Panama Papers have exposed how hundreds of world leaders, public officials and billionaires have been hiding their fortune through shady off-shore accounts.
The massive leak, shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, uncovered a web of global corruption all tied to Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm that has been facilitating tax havens and hiding stashes worth billions.
World leaders, including Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson and former prime minister of Iraq Ayad Allawi, have all been linked to off-shore companies managed by the Panama-based firm.
Gilbert Straub, who funneled $50,000 to the Watergate burglars, has also been involved with the firm’s shady practices among drug kingpins, tax dodgers and pedophiles who use the company for illicit gains.
The firm defended itself, saying it “does not foster or promote illegal acts,” in a letter to the media.
Movie star Jackie Chan owns multiple companies managed by Mossack Fonseca. Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images
Movie star Jackie Chan owns multiple companies managed by Mossack Fonseca.
An entire network was discovered linked to Putin, with up to $2 billion on the money trail surrounding him, the records showed.
While Putin’s name has been kept hidden from the documents on the reports, money has been siphoning and spreading through a network of the Russian president’s closest allies and friends.
“He takes what he wants,” Karen Dawisha, a U.S. political scientist who’s followed Putin’s reign, told the investigative collective. “When you are the president of Russia you don’t need a written contract. You are the law.”
The damning report also outs the sketchy business practices of Iceland’s prime minister Gunlaugsson, who rose to prominence after the country’s financial crisis.
The political leader secretly co-owned Wintris with his wife, an off-shore company worth millions, then used the Panama firm to sell his half to her for $1 in 2009, according to Mossack Fonseca documents.
The prime minister walked out of an interview on March 11 when he was confronted about his off-shore dealings.
He is now expected to face calls for a snap election after the papers revealed the off-shore connections, with the country's former prime minister calling on him to resign.
Ayad Allawi, the former prime minister of Iraq, who has received support from the U.S. during his rise to power, controlled an off-shore company in Panama and owned a $1.5 million house in England through Mossack Fonseca.
So far, the investigation has revealed more than 214,000 shell companies from over 200 countries involved with Fonseca.
The leaks look to be only the tip of the shady banking iceberg, as Mossack Fonseca is only the fourth largest provider of offshore services, the Guardian reported.
At 2.6 terabytes, the leak is estimated to be 100 times larger than WikiLeaks, with 11.5 million documents, going as far back as 1977.
The Mossack Fonseca leak was first provided to German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung over a year ago by an anonymous source with encrypted internal documents.
More than 400 journalists in over 80 countries have sifted through the millions of documents for the investigative report, which went live on Sunday afternoon.
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