Panama Papers on steroids
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The largest investigation in journalism history exposes a shadow financial system that benefits the world’s most rich and powerful.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) obtained the trove of more than 11.9 million confidential files and led a team of more than 600 journalists from 150 news outlets, including Oštro, that spent two years sifting through them, tracking down hard-to-find sources and digging into court records and other public documents from dozens of countries.
The leaked records come from 14 offshore services firms from around the world that set up shell companies and other offshore nooks for clients often seeking to keep their financial activities in the shadows. The records include information about the dealings of nearly three times as many current and former country leaders as any previous leak of documents from offshore havens.
In an era of widening authoritarianism and inequality, the Pandora Papers investigation provides an unequaled perspective on how money and power operate in the 21st century – and how the rule of law has been bent and broken around the world by a system of financial secrecy enabled by the U.S. and other wealthy nations.
The findings by ICIJ and its media partners spotlight how deeply secretive finance has infiltrated global politics – and offer insights into why governments and global organizations have made little headway in ending offshore financial abuses.
“We're looking at a system here that is harming people, and it's important that people know about it,” says ICIJ's director Gerard Ryle.
