In the News The Panama Papers

If you didn't know about this, you must've been living under a rock.

Basically, The Panama Papers is history's biggest data leak.



The Panama Papers are a set of 11.5 million confidential documents of over 214,000 offshore companies, compiled by Panama law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca & Co.

Primarily linked to corruption, the offshore companies may have been used in tax evasion, drug trafficking and fraud. The Panama Papers also illustrate how some of the worlds richest people can hide assets away from the public eye.



Back then in early 2015, an anonymous source by the pseudonym "John Doe" transacted these documents to a German newspaper, in which information from these documents transact as far back as the 1970s and altogether totaled 2.6 terabytes of data. After the leak on 3 April 2016, the same German newspaper enlisted the help of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists(ICIJ) to distribute and analyse the information. The ICIJ plans to publish a full report of the companies involved in early May.


More than 100 people have been listed in the Panama Papers, and the list is still growing.

Some notable people include:

• President of the United Arab Emirates and Emir of Abu Dhabi
• President of Iceland
• President of Ukraine
• President of Argentina
• Deceased Father of British Prime Minister David Cameron
• Some random dude from North Korea
• Actor Jackie Chan
• Son of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak
• Family members of Chinese Leader Xi Jinping, including brother-in-law
• Grandson-in-law of Mao Zedong, the first leader of Communist China
• 3 friends of Russian President Vladimir Putin
• Husband of Canadian Senator Pana Merchant

No US associates were mentioned in the Panama Papers. Coincidence...?





Personally I think it's too early to make decisions and stands. The list of "corrupt" leaders and rich guys are always growing, plus the official list isn't published yet. This is currently the big thing apart from the Ecuador earthquake, so I wonder what are everyone's reactions to the Panama Papers leak?



"German Newspaper: Why are you doing this?"
"John Doe: I want to make these crimes public."