PANAMA PAPERS - Panama Papers is a massive leak of 11.5 million documents from a law firm that reveals how the world’s current rich people, politicians and celebrities hide their money in Panama.
The leak came in news on 3 April 2016 after a German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung published a report on the same.
It said that Panama's Mossack Fonseca, one of the world's most secretive offshore law firms, operated with impunity for decades in its efforts to help clients launder money and avoid tax.
Termed as the biggest leak in the history, Panama Papers reveals the set of 11.5 million documents and 2.6 terabytes of information. It provides detailed information (identities of shareholders and directors of the companies) about more than 214000 offshore companies listed in corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca.
It shows countless ways being used by wealthy to exploit secretive offshore tax regimes.
The leak is larger than the US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks in 2010, and the secret intelligence documents given to journalists by Edward Snowden in 2013. There are 11.5m documents and 2.6 terabytes of information drawn from Mossack Fonseca’s internal database.