The Big Leak

Arnulfo Franco/AP

First there was Wikileaks, then Edward Snowden's revelations, and now we have the Panama Papers, the leak that puts those two to shame, in terms of the amount of information released. It comes from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca and was given by an anonymous source to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which noted in its story that “The data provides rare insights into a world that can only exist in the shadows. It proves how a global industry led by major banks, legal firms, and asset management companies secretly manages the estates of the world’s rich and famous.” Mossack Fonseca is the fourth-largest offshore law firm in the world. One of its main businesses is helping people incorporate companies in places like Switzerland, the British Virgin Islands, and other tax havens. While this practice is associated with hiding assets and therefore is popularly thought of as illegal, it very often isn't. The leaked data relate to more than 200,000 companies, but the interesting part is that it apparently includes individuals like Russia's Vladimir Putin (through circuitous routing) and Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, the prime minister of Iceland (story, video): http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/03/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-panama-papers
   The story according to Süddeutsche Zeitung: http://panamapapers.sueddeutsche.de/articles/56febff0a1bb8d3c3495adf4/