Tuesday, April 5, 2016

FAQs on Panama Papers

1. What are the 'Panama Papers'?
The 'Panama Papers' are a set of confidential documents leaked from one of the biggest law firms of Panama - 'Mossack Fonseca'. The Panama Papers provide information about thousands of offshore entities, identities of their shareholders and directors. It listed various world leaders, public officials, billionaires, celebrities, sports stars and politicians.
2. How much data has been leaked and by whom?
a)  The leaked data consists of 11.5 Million Documents in around 2,600 GB taken from the Mossack Fonseca's internal database by one of its employees.
b)  These documents were obtained by Sueddeutsche Zeitung, a daily newspaper headquartered in Munich, Germany. Sueddeutsche shared the Panama Papers with the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and other news outlets, including the BBC, the Guardian and the Indian Express.
c)  Sueddeutsche mentioned that an employee at the law firm had leaked the data, telling the newspaper that he had risked his life in doing so.