The world is pretty much aware of the massively leaked document database called Panama Papers.
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The database “allows users to explore the networks of companies and people that used – and sometimes abused – the secrecy of offshore locales with the help of Mossack Fonseca and other intermediaries”, the ICIJ said.
Doe added that the USA “can clearly no longer trust its fifty states to make sound decisions about their own corporate data”.
Yesterday, a joint investigation between ONE News, RNZ and journalist Nicky Hager detailed how tens of thousands of Panama Papers documents reveal how New Zealand, Niue, The Cook Islands and Samoa have become prime destinations for the rich to hide their financial secrets. The attorney general himself has also been named.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which has members worldwide, states that the database includes details for more than 320,000 accounts.
The ICIJ published this statement on its website along with the documents: “There are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts”.
But anti-poverty campaigners say shell companies can be used by the wealthy and powerful to shield money from taxation, or to launder the gains from bribery, embezzlement and other forms of corruption.
The ICIJ said one “longtime customer” of the firm was a US financier later sentence to 17 years in prison for fraud.
However, there is no suggestion that parties listed in the documents have broken the law or acted improperly.
The information was originally obtained from an anonymous source and given to reporters at the German newspaper Süddeustche Zeitung, who then asked ICIJ to organize a global reporting collaboration to analyze the files.
The data was leaked from Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca earlier this year, and threw a number of world leaders into public scrutiny, including Prime Minister David Cameron. The ICIJ said it was careful not to disclose any private information, such as bank accounts, email exchanges or financial transactions.
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When news of the leak broke in April, Australian mining giant BHP Billiton and security firm Wilson were among a bunch of companies identified as having links to Mossack Fonseca.
