ROBERT PALMER
T H E P A N A M A P A P E R S The biggest data leak in history
ROBERT PALMER
Robert Palmer is a policy analyst and campaign leader with Global Witness , investigating how the financial system facilitates corruption and developing practical policy solutions to prevent abuses of this system . In 2011 , Robert exposed the role of financial institutions which had handled $ 64bn of Libyan state assets .
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08 n April 3 , 2016 we saw the largest data leak in history . The Panama Papers exposed rich and powerful individuals hiding vast amounts of money in offshore accounts . What does this mean ?
There was a whole slew and deluge of stories coming out from the leak of 11 million documents from the Panamanianbased law firm , Mossack Fonseca . The files show how Mossack Fonseca clients were able to launder money , dodge sanctions and avoid tax . In one case , the company offered an American millionaire fake ownership records to hide money from the authorities . This is in direct breach of international regulations designed to stop money laundering and tax evasion .
The release of these papers from Panama lifted the veil off a tiny piece of the secretive offshore world . We have been given an insight into how clients , banks and lawyers go to companies like Mossack Fonseca and see the mechanics of how this whole world operates .
Revealed in the Papers were links to 12 current or former heads of state and government in the data , including dictators accused of looting their own countries . More than 60 relatives and associates of heads of state and other politicians are also implicated . The files also reveal a suspected billion-dollar money laundering ring involving close associates of Russia ' s President , Vladimir Putin . This might validate claims that Putin is secretly one of the wealthiest people in the world . Also mentioned are the brother-in-law of China ' s President Xi Jinping ; Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko ; Argentina President Mauricio Macri ; the late father of UK Prime Minister David Cameron and three of the four children of Pakistan ' s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif . The documents show that Iceland ' s Prime Minister , Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson , had an undeclared interest linked to his wife ' s wealth . He resigned shortly after these revelations became public . The scandal also touches football ' s world governing body , Fifa . Several documents suggest that a key member of Fifa ' s ethics committee , Uruguayan lawyer Juan Pedro Damiani , and his firm provided legal assistance for at least seven offshore companies linked to a former Fifa vice-president arrested last May as part of the US inquiry into football corruption .
The leak has also revealed that more than 500 banks , including their subsidiaries and branches , registered nearly 15,600 shell companies with Mossack Fonseca . There was also news that an ally of the brutal Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad has also got offshore companies .
This leak is hugely significant , because it shows the true scale of money laundering and the usage of tax havens . It reveals the