Edge’s News: What are the Pandora Papers?

Leaked files from 14 offshore service providers tie more than 330 public officials, including 35 world leaders, to offshore fortunes.

Dozens of world leaders and hundreds of public officials used offshore tax havens to hide assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars, a massive investigation has found.

The Pandora Papers, published on Sunday, are based on documents leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism (ICIJ) and exposed the offshore dealings of kings, presidents and prime ministers, including Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The leaked records come from 14 offshore services firms from around the world – from Vietnam to Belize to Seychelles.

Who was behind it?

The ICIJ – a network of reporters and media organisations – launched a two-year effort to sift through 11.9 million confidential files leaked to it, aided in that effort by more than 600 journalists from 150 media outlets.

The financial secrets of some of the world’s rich and powerful have been uncovered in the Pandora Papers. Here’s why it matters to you ⬇️

Read more: https://t.co/uyJgIj83bu pic.twitter.com/o1jA7ERS02
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 4, 2021

The team also verified the information from the 2.94-terabyte haul by cross-referencing it to public records from dozens of countries.

The ICIJ found that the documents were linked to more than 330 politicians and public officials, including 35 current and former national leaders, in more than 91 countries and territories.

“The records include information about the dealings of nearly three times as many current and former country leaders as any previous leak of documents from offshore havens,” read the full story here @edge.

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