Most U.S. media outlets have been relatively quiet about the “Panama Papers” scandal, one of the largest leaks in whistleblower history. The files, revealed by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists on Sunday, contain 40 years of records involving over 210,000 companies and 21 offshore jurisdictions. The information exposes the seemingly unethical financial activity of some of the world’s most powerful leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.
US coverage of #PanamaPapers should ramp up shortly… https://t.co/2FMivDekAP
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) April 4, 2016
Panama Papers on US front pages… or not pic.twitter.com/uCYw3IJuvk
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) April 4, 2016
Journalists acquired the files from a Panamanian law firm, hence the name “Panama Papers.” “The files are part of an unprecedented leak of millions of papers from the database of Mossack Fonseca, the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm,” reports The Guardian (UK). “They show how the rich and powerful are able to exploit secret offshore tax regimes in myriad ways.”
Late Sunday, The Guardian published an in-depth report of its findings, detailing Vladimir Putin’s staggering $2 billion offshore trail.
The Panama Papers: Roldugin, the cellist who holds the key to tracing Putin’s hidden fortunehttps://t.co/rIrXOcLkb5 pic.twitter.com/99mSMRGiNx
— Mannfred Nyttingnes (@MannfredNikolai) April 3, 2016
Like clockwork, the Kremlin has already deployed its propaganda arm, Russia Today, to launch a counter-offensive against the bad publicity.
Russian state media says Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels more convincing than Panama Papers expose on Putin pic.twitter.com/7vfZpnhGFJ
— Tom McKay (@thetomzone) April 4, 2016
#PanamaLeaks reveals more about Western journalism than Putin (Op-Edge by @Robert_Bridge) https://t.co/58bTPDYY1k pic.twitter.com/XHKDeh6Ruz
— RT (@RT_com) April 4, 2016
The leak also invokes non-political celebrities, including soccer star Lionel Messi, among others. While it’s not necessarily illegal to place money in offshore accounts, the leaks grant a revealing look at privileged lives of the world’s rich and famous. Foreign policy analyst Ian Bremmer provides a series of graphs, explaining the extent of offshore financial activity:
10 most popular tax havens #panamapapers pic.twitter.com/yZedv331HZ
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) April 4, 2016
Where the offshore money comes from.
Russia, China lead the pack. #panamapapers pic.twitter.com/amalqxx31v— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) April 4, 2016
A Who’s Who for #PanamaPapers. (so far…) pic.twitter.com/2oJT71Xsr0
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) April 4, 2016
Data on #PanamaPapers. So far… pic.twitter.com/6xkT4s58a5
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) April 4, 2016
Companies linked to #PanamaPapers… pic.twitter.com/Ibbwa0pBsi
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) April 4, 2016
Which countries have officials implicated in #PanamaPapers? Just a few: pic.twitter.com/Gy4m8VLu5b
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) April 4, 2016
The sheer scale of #PanamaPapers. pic.twitter.com/HFtSfHxe2t
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) April 4, 2016
Much of the information coming out of the leak is surfacing on social media, namely Twitter. The leak was celebrated by the world’s most (in)famous whistleblower, Edward Snowden, on Sunday:
Biggest leak in the history of data journalism just went live, and it’s about corruption. https://t.co/dYNjD6eIeZ pic.twitter.com/638aIu8oSU
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) April 3, 2016