A massive data leak from Mossack Fonseca, one of the world’s most secretive offshore law firms, reveals how a constellation of very rich individuals and shell companies have used tax havens to hide their wealth from regulators. How massive? The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which obtained the data, offers a helpful graphic, comparing the leak to the Edward Snowden leak, among others:
The leak implicates at least 12 current or former heads of state, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugson. It took some 400 journalists around the world, led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, to sift through the data.