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The Panama Papers

Hashtag #PanamaPapers

No, the Panama Papers is not the title of a John Grisham thriller, it’s today’s top story in many LatAm countries and across the world.

What are they?
The Panama Papers are a huge trove of legal records from Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm, revealing

the secretive offshore companies used to hide wealth, evade taxes and commit fraud by the world’s dictators, business tycoons and criminals.

They were

initially obtained by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and subsequently the subject of a yearlong investigation, led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and involving more than 100 publications from nearly 80 countries

Süddeutsche Zeitung [WARNING: MUSIC STARTS RIGHT AWAY] About the Panama Papers

The ICIJ report: Giant Leak of Offshore Financial Records Exposes Global Array of Crime and Corruption.
Millions of documents show heads of state, criminals and celebrities using secret hideaways in tax havens

In this story

  • Files reveal the offshore holdings of 140 politicians and public officials from around the world

  • Current and former world leaders in the data include prime ministers of Iceland and Pakistan, the president of Ukraine, and the king of Saudi Arabia

  • More than 214,000 offshore entities appear in the leak, connected to people in more than 200 countries and territories

  • Major banks have driven the creation of hard-to-trace companies in offshore havens

Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project OCCRP report: ICIJ/OCCRP Panama Papers project yields unprecedented access to high level offshore corruptionOne of the biggest leaks in journalistic history reveals the secretive offshore companies used to hide wealth, evade taxes and commit fraud by the world’s dictators, business tycoons and criminals.

How big was it?

Who’s in it?

Ian Bremmer is tweeting lots of clever graphs on the PP.

More:
Time.com

With more than 2.6 terabytes of data comprising more than 11.5 million documents, the release of Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca’s records this week represents one of the largest data leaks in history—bigger than both the intelligence records revealed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden three years ago and the U.S. diplomatic cables made public by WikiLeaks in 2010.

“Venezuela” shows up on 241,000 documents in the Panama. PapersLeaked files include names of ex-presidential security chief and wife, who amassed a fortune
Panama Papers: Who did what

Macri and Messi, too?

The Panama Papers leak explained

A new word: Putinophobia!

“It is clear that the degree of ’Putinophobia’ has reached such a level that it is impossible a priori to speak well of Russia,” Mr. Peskov said in comments carried by state news agencies.

O Globo (link in Portuguese) says that Russia’s accusing former CIA agents of being behind the leak.

How secret offshore money helps fuel Miami’s luxury real-estate boom

Video below the fold,

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