All about Panama Papers leak
A huge leak has recently exposed how the rich and powerful people across the world, including politicians, businessmen and actors, use tax havens to hide their wealth.
Over 500 Indians, including film stars Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, DLF owner K P Singh, and Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani's elder brother Vinod Adani have been allegedly linked to the leaked files that clearly show how clients were able to launder money, dodge sanctions and avoid tax.
These files were leaked from one of the world's most secretive companies, a Panamanian law firm called Mossack Fonseca.
Mossack Fonseca & Co. is a Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider founded in 1986 and has grown to have more than 40 offices worldwide.
What are Panama Papers?
The Panama Papers are a leaked set of 11.5 million confidential documents that provide detailed information about more than 214,000 offshore companies listed by the Panamanian corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, including the identities of shareholders and directors of the companies. The documents show how wealthy individuals, including public officials, hide their money from public scrutiny. At the time of publication, the papers identified five then-heads of state or government leaders fromArgentina, Iceland, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, and the United Arab Emirates; as well as government officials, close relatives, and close associates of various heads of government of more than forty other countries. The British Virgin Islands was home to half of the companies exposed and Hong Kong contained the most affiliated banks, law firms and middlemen.
How it leaked ?
More than a year before the April 2016 release of the leaked documents, an anonymous source, who identified himself as "John Doe" offered German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) large caches of sensitive banking documents. The newspaper accepted and in the space of a year received 2.6 terabytes of data made up of Mossack Fonseca documents about 214,488 offshore entities with ties to public officials. The leaked documents number 11.5 million and were created between the 1970s and late 2015 by Mossack Fonseca.
The sheer quantity of leaked data greatly exceeds the Wikileaks Cablegate leak in 2010[23] (1.7 GB),[27] Offshore Leaks in 2013 (260 GB), the 2014 Lux Leaks (4 GB), and the 3.3 GB Swiss Leaks of 2015.
Who are the Clients of Mossack Fonseca ?
Several national leaders were named, including presidents Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates, Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine, King Salman of Saudi Arabia, as well as the Prime Minister of Iceland Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson. Former heads of state mentioned in the papers include Sudanese President Ahmed al-Mirghani, the Emir of Qatar Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and prime ministers of Georgia Bidzina Ivanishvili, of Iraq Ayad Allawi, of Jordan Ali Abu al-Ragheb, former prime minister of Qatar Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, former Ukrainian prime minister Pavlo Lazarenko, and Ion Sturza of Moldova.
The leaked files identified 61 family members and associates of prime ministers, presidents and kings, including the late father of British prime minister David Cameron, the brother-in-law of China's paramount leader Xi Jinping, the son of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, the children of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev,the nephew of South African President Jacob Zuma, the grandson of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the personal secretary of Moroccan King Mohammed VI, and the "favourite contractor" of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.
Former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
Other clients included less-senior government officials and their close relatives and associates, from over forty different countries, including Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Ghana, Greece, Guinea, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Malta, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Poland, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, Spain, Syria, Taiwan, United Kingdom, Venezuela and Zambia.