The leaked Panama Papers, which contain information on 214,488 offshore entities connected to people in more than 200 countries and territories, were reviewed by more than 370 journalists hailing from 76 nations.
In the largest media collaboration ever undertaken, journalists working in more than 25 languages had dug into Messrs Mossack Fonseca’s working patterns and had succeeded in tracing the secret dealings of the law firm’s customers around the world.
Apart from 12 current and former world rulers, Messrs Mossack Fonseca’s clients also include 140 politicians and public officials from around the planet.
“The Irish Times” writes: “They also include at least 33 people and companies blacklisted by the US government because of evidence that they’ve done business with Mexican drug lords, terrorist organisations such as Hezbollah or rogue states like North Korea and Iran. The data includes emails, financial spreadsheets, passports and corporate records revealing the secret owners of bank accounts and companies in 21 offshore jurisdictions. The leaked files show the firm regularly offered to backdate documents to help its clients gain advantage in their financial affairs. It was so common that in 2007 an email exchange shows firm employees talking about establishing a price structure – clients would pay $8.75 for each month farther back in time that a corporate document would be backdated.”
