Panama Papers Scandal is the biggest leak of documents in the history, after wikileaks in 2010. The documents depicts how rich and powerful use tax heavens to hide their wealth. The files were leaked from law firm Mossack Fonseca database.
Who Is Mossack Fonseca?
Mossack Fonseca is a Panamanian law firm considered one of the world’s most secretive companies. The files show how the company was able to launder money and avoid tax for its clients.
Who is in papers?
There are links to current and former heads of state and government in the data. The close relative or associates of various influential personalities like:
- Russia’s President Vladimir Putin
- China’s President Xi Jinping
- Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko
- Argentina President Mauricio Macri
- The late father of UK Prime Minister David Cameron
- Three of the four children of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
- FIFA officials
and many more are believed to be mentioned in the papers.
Around 500 banks and their subsidiaries, 15000 Shell companies are registered with Mossack Fonseca.
Which Tax havens are mentioned in papers?
Some of the tax havens mentioned in the papers are:
- British Virgin Islands
- Macao
- The Bahamas
- Panama
- Switzerland
- Cyprus
These places have great deal of banking secrecy and mostly non-existence of taxes on financial transactions, thus making it attractive for tax evaders.
Who leaked Panama Papers?
There were around 11.5 million documents obtained by German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). Various journalists from 76 countries conducted research and analysed these documents over a year.
References
https://panamapapers.icij.org/
http://www.bbc.com/
https://www.theguardian.com
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