Published: April 3, 2016
The Aftermath
Two years after the original Panama Papers leaks, the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung has received a fresh trove of leaked documents from Mossack Fonseca, the now-defunct Panamanian law firm.
To analyze and report on the new data, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has once again organized a collaborative investigation which includes the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and its partner centers.
The new leak consists of 1.2 million documents which mostly cover the years 2016 and 2017. Thus, they offer an almost first-hand account of the meltdown experienced by Mossack Fonseca in the wake of the unprecedented investigation that brought its practices to light in the first place.
The investigation of these new documents has enabled journalists to tie many loose ends, to uncover even more wrongdoing, and to reveal new twists and turns in what was once a hermetically closed world of offshore dealings.
Tycoon with Close Ties to Belarus Dictator Used Time Travel to Evade Sanctions A wealthy businessman dodged international sanctions with help from company service providers, including Mossack Fonseca. 13 October 2020 Read the article President Poroshenko’s Lawyers Go on the Defensive The original Panama Papers investigation revealed how Ukraine’s president, Petro Poroshenko, used offshore companies to maintain control of his candy empire — in contradiction of his official statements. A new leak of files shows how his lawyers scrambled to protect him behind the scenes as the publication date approached. 26 June 2018 Read the article Inside the Fall of Mossack Fonseca A second leak of internal documents reveals the panic and chaos that marked the beginning of the end of the "Panama Papers" firm. 20 June 2018 Read the article New Panama Papers Leak Reveals Fresh Financial Secrets Two years after the Panama Papers rocked the offshore financial system, a fresh document leak from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca reveals new financial details about an array of global elites, including soccer superstar Lionel Messi, the family of the Argentine president, and a former senior Kuwaiti official convicted of looting his country’s social security system. 20 June 2018 Read the article Panama Papers Yield Smoking Gun on Odesa Mayor’s Russian Passport Newly revealed Panama Papers files contain definitive proof that the mayor of the Ukrainian port city of Odesa, Gennadiy Trukhanov, has held Russian citizenship — something he has long denied. 20 June 2018 Read the article
The Original Investigations
One of the biggest leaks in journalistic history reveals the secretive offshore companies used to hide wealth, evade taxes and commit fraud by the world's dictators, business tycoons and criminals.
Panama Papers are documents obtained from a Panama-based offshore services provider called Mossack Fonseca. The documents were received by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).
Introduction: The Panama Papers What is Mossack Fonseca?
Reactions to the stories Panama Papers: Our Journalism Speaks for Itself
Who's in the Panama Papers?
Ilham Aliyev
President of Azerbaijan
Lionel Messi
Argentinian professional footballer
Petro Poroshenko
President of Ukraine
Vladimir Putin
President of Russia
See all 14 politicians and businesspeople
Top Stories
Panama Papers World-wide
Panama Papers Whistleblower Speaks Out: “Shell Companies are Putin’s Best Friend” The anonymous whistleblower behind the bombshell leak known as the Panama Papers has emerged anew to warn how offshore companies are enabling Russia’s war machine. 22 July 2022 Read the article Ukraine’s president offshores revisited: Swiss trust and millions moved out of Ukraine For six days in April, President Petro Poroshenko and his lawyers repeatedly said that none of the offshore companies Poroshenko set up in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), Cyprus and the Netherlands have bank accounts or conduct any financial activities. 20 May 2016 Read the article
The Source of the Panama Papers Speaks Income inequality is one of the defining issues of our time. It affects all of us, the world over. The debate over its sudden acceleration has raged for years, with politicians, academics and activists alike helpless to stop its steady growth despite countless speeches, statistical analyses, a few meagre protests, and the occasional documentary. 6 May 2016 Read the article A high-profile Russian partner of Ukraine’s top banker The second-largest state-owned bank in Russia, VTB, is on very good terms with the Kremlin. It has been sanctioned by the US and European Union (EU) for Russia’s annexation of Crimea. 5 April 2016 Read the article
Serbia: Local Businessmen show in Leaked Data Serbian businessmen are well represented in the records of Mossack Fonseca, a firm based in the offshore tax haven of Panama that helps clients worldwide avoid scrutiny and taxes. 5 April 2016 Read the article Parade of the Blacklisted Marches Through Firm’s Client List — and Syria’s Civil War Global law firm’s customers include suspected financiers of terrorism, nuclear weapons proliferators and gunrunners 4 April 2016 Read the article
Kazakhstan: President’s Grandson Hid Assets Offshore As the Kazakh economy was reeling from falling oil prices, its currency lost more than half its value. Documents show that Nurali Aliyev, the president’s grandson and Dariga Nazarbayeva’s son, had no second thoughts or conscience when deciding where to keep his money. 4 April 2016 Read the article Ukraine: The President’s Offshore Tax Plan When Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ran for the top office in 2014, he promised voters he would sell Roshen, Ukraine’s largest candy business, so he could devote his full attention to running the country. Instead it appears that the candy magnate was more concerned about his own welfare than his country’s. 3 April 2016 Read the article
Giant Leak of Offshore Financial Records Exposes Global Array of Crime and Corruption Firm helps CIA operatives and other characters — real or fanciful — from the world of espionage set up offshore companies to obscure their dealings 3 April 2016 Read the article Offshore Company Spent 3 Years Chasing Ivanishvili's Passport Bidzina Ivanishvili's wealth is not all hidden away in vaults. His 108,000 square foot glass house perches on a hill above the capital city of the country he returned to rule as prime minister after leaving for neighboring Russia as a young man and accumulating billions of dollars before moving back to Georgia in 2004. 3 April 2016 Read the article
Leak Ties Ethics Guru to Three Men Charged in FIFA Scandal Secret documents show how deeply the world of soccer has become enmeshed in the world of offshore havens. 3 April 2016 Read the article Kyiv Post owner Caught Up in Late 1990s Scandal Mohammad Zahoor, a Ukraine-based British millionaire of Pakistani origin, was caught up in a far-reaching investigation in 1998 by Ukrainian investigators examining whether politicians Yulia Tymoshenko and Pavlo Lazarenko might have worked together to control the gas industry in Ukraine. 3 April 2016 Read the article
Russia: Banking on Influence Russian President Vladimir Putin insists that while the Panama Papers stories published by OCCRP and its partner Novaya Gazeta are correct, they show no corruption or illegal activity on his part. Putin has called the stories a Western plot to destabilize his regime. 9 June 2016 Read the article Russia: The Cellist and the Lawyer Banking records obtained by OCCRP show that cellist Sergei Roldugin, Russian President Vladimir Putin's old friend, received money from an offshore company at about the same time it was being used to steal money from the Russian government in the notorious Sergei Magnitsky case. 26 April 2016 Read the article
Lithuanian ex-Football Head Exposed in Offshores Liutauras Varanavičius, the former president of the Lithuanian Football Federation (LFF), owned a shell company allegedly involved in multi-million deals with businesses belonging to Vladimir Romanov, a banker now living in Russia who is wanted by Lithuanian law enforcement. 14 April 2016 Read the article Moldova: The Offshore Connection of an ex-PM When former Moldovan Prime Minister Ion Sturza first heard about the Panama Papers, he posted a warning on his Facebook page to his former colleagues. 13 April 2016 Read the article
The General: An Armenian Master of Offshores Mihran Poghosyan holds two impressive titles: Major General of Justice, and Armenia’s Chief Compulsory Enforcement Officer. He could add a third to that: Master of Offshores. 8 April 2016 Read the article The Art of Secrecy Locked in the files of a Panama law firm are the answers to mysteries involving Van Goghs, Picassos, Rembrandts and other masterworks. 7 April 2016 Read the article
Murder by Poison Is Only One Clue To Offshore Dealings by Top Chinese Eight current and former members of the Politburo Standing Committee, the country's top decision makers, have relatives with secret offshore companies. 7 April 2016 Read the article Russia: How to Structure a Deal, Russian Style Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin goes back a long way with his friend, Sergei Chemezov. 7 April 2016 Read the article
Slovenia: Steroid King Pumps Up with Offshores Prosecutors in the US say Slovenian Mihael Karner is a major dealer in anabolic steroids, who since 2000 has pulled in more than US$ 50 million by illegal sales over the internet, using a global network of websites and intermediaries in the United Kingdom (UK) and Italy among other countries. 6 April 2016 Read the article The Offshore Refinery Israeli Benjamin Steinmetz, 60, is by any definition rich, with a fortune estimated by Forbes magazine at more than US$ 1 billion. 6 April 2016 Read the article
Spies and Shadowy Allies Lurk in Secret Thanks to Firm’s Bag of Tricks Firm helps CIA operatives and other characters — real or fanciful — from the world of espionage set up offshore companies to obscure their dealings 5 April 2016 Read the article
["Panama Papers World-wide", "what-is-unexplained-wealth"]
Odesa mayor hides construction business offshore Judging from Odesa Mayor Hennady Trukhanov’s latest income declaration, he has no foreign business interests. Zero. 27 May 2016 Read the article
Azerbaijan
People of Azerbaijan Bail out Failed Aliyev Mining Empire At the exact time Azerbaijani reporters were celebrating the release of their colleague, investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova, from prison, the president of the country quietly ordered his government to buy his daughters' failed mining venture. 26 May 2016 Read the article Azerbaijan First Family’s London Private Enclave Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva, daughters of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, and their cousins Mirjalal and Mir Jamal Pashayev, own multimillion dollar properties in London. 10 May 2016 Read the article
How the Family that Runs Azerbaijan Built an Empire of Hidden Wealth Documents peel away three layers of secret ownership in a conglomerate and lead to gold mines and overseas real estate 4 April 2016 Read the article Aliyevs Seek Five Gold Fields in Kyrgyzstan The First Family of Azerbaijan has a majority stake in another gold mining consortium, the Seychelles-based Redgold Estates, according to leaked documents 4 April 2016 Read the article
Aliyevs’ Secret Mining Empire The First Family of Azerbaijan has taken control of some of the country’s richest gold, copper and silver deposits through a network of offshore companies incorporated in the world’s most secretive jurisdictions, according to leaked Mossack Fonseca records. 4 April 2016 Read the article
Serbia
Serbia: See no evil In May 2014, lawyers from Budapest, Hungary, needed to arrange a power of attorney for an offshore company related to Serbian businessman Igor Sabo. 20 April 2016 Read the article Serbian Mayor's Friend Founds Offshores in Emirates Serbian businessman Vladimir Delić, who was involved in the 2004 privatization of a railroad parts company along with Belgrade Mayor Siniša Mali and his father, has opened an offshore company in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). 20 April 2016 Read the article
Czech Republic
Panama Papers: The Czech Republic Money laundering and tax evasion appear to be two reasons Czech citizens establish companies in offshore destinations. 11 April 2016 Read the article Czech Republic: Financial Log-Rolling Via Offshore Companies A collection of documents leaked from a secretive offshores services firm in Panama shines a light on how some Czech business operatives were clandestinely linked to others in some of the country’s more notorious financial scandals. 3 April 2016 Read the article
Czech Republic: The Million-Dollar Prosecutor High profile bankruptcy and criminal lawyer Josef Monsport’s business activities go far beyond simply protecting the interests of his VIP clients. He holds shares in three offshore companies worth US$ 101 million on paper. 3 April 2016 Read the article
Russia
Wringing Profits from the Russian Railways Aleksey Krapivin, the son of a close associate of Vladimir Yakunin, the former president of Russian Railways, runs a business empire built with state contracts that control several hundred million rubles in government funds spent on railroads in Russia. 5 April 2016 Read the article The Secret Caretaker Sergey Roldugin isn’t just one of Vladimir Putin's closest friends. He's connected with a group of companies that controlled a significant share of a secret business empire. 3 April 2016 Read the article
The Russian Offshore Patriots Several high level officials of the Russian government have hidden offshore companies in Panama and the British Virgin Islands. Analysis done by Novaya Gazeta and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project suggests that these limitations have done little to deter the Russian offshore patriots. 3 April 2016 Read the article Russia: A High Official goes Offshore The man who was once the deputy director of the body responsible for seeing that daily life ran smoothly for Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin secretly owned an offshore company in Panama for five years. 3 April 2016 Read the article
What are the Panama Papers?
Quick Fact 1 of 12
The Mossack Fonseca leak is one of largest in journalism history.
Quick Fact 2 of 12
The leak spans more than 11.5 million documents and contains 2.6 Terabytes of data.
Quick Fact 3 of 12
The documents range from 1977 to December 2015.
Quick Fact 4 of 12
214,488 different companies, trusts and foundations are mentioned in the documents.
Quick Fact 5 of 12
14,153 different clients are mentioned in the documents.
Quick Fact 6 of 12
The documents include 21 different jurisdictions, from the British Virgin Islands and Panama to Singapore, Isle of Man, Cyprus and Niue.
Quick Fact 7 of 12
12 different national leaders are named in the documents.
Quick Fact 8 of 12
128 other current or former politicians and public officails are mentioned in the documents.
Quick Fact 9 of 12
The documents mention 29 Forbes-listed billionaires.
Quick Fact 10 of 12
The leak refers to 202 different countries.
Quick Fact 11 of 12
The investigation was conducted by almost 400 journalists from around the world.
Quick Fact 12 of 12
109 different media organizations in 76 different countries worked together on investigating the Panama Papers, including OCCRP
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Introduction: The Panama Papers Background: What is Mossack Fonseca?
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