A massive leak of more than 11.5 million documents exposed the offshore accounts of current and former world leaders, The Center for Public Integrity reported Sunday.
The investigation of the files, known as the Panama Papers, was published Sunday by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The investigation “exposes a cast of characters who use offshore companies to facilitate bribery, arms deals, tax evasion, financial fraud and drug trafficking,” according to the website.”Behind the email chains, invoices and documents that make up the Panama Papers are often unseen victims of wrongdoing enabled by this shadowy industry.”
The report exposes hidden information about how banks and lawyers hide dealings with people such as prime ministers, plutocrats and criminals.
The documents have information about Russian President Vladimir Putin, about England’s gold heist in 1983 and about bribery allegations regarding soccer’s governing body, FIFA.
The files include nearly 40 years of records and information about more than 210,000 companies in 21 offshore jurisdictions.
Edward Snowden tweeted about the news on Sunday.
“Biggest leak in the history of data journalism just went live, and it’s about corruption,” he tweeted with a link to the Panama Papers.
Source: The Hill
