The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) funded by George Soros will release on May 9 what they claim are the actual emails of the people behind offshore companies formed by Mossack Fonseca. More than 50% are not related to Panama companies, but IBCs from BVI and Bahamas, yet they are called the Panama Papers because they were formed by a law firm in Panama founded by a lawyer born in Fürth, Germany. None of the funds from the companies reported so far were kept in Panama banks - instead they were kept at banks in Switzerland, Channel Islands and Hong Kong who requested those companies for clients on whom presumably they conducted KYC due diligence searches.
None of that will matter because on May 9 the data base of all correspondence will be released, after being censored by ICIJ to make sure that no friends of its sponsors are disclosed (what they call "a careful release of basic corporate information"). Since ICIJ has threatened to release correspondence dating back to the formation of the firm in 1978, current and former clients should consult with legal counsel in their country about the consequences of this release.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists will release on May 9 a searchable database with information on more than 200,000 offshore entities that are part of the Panama Papers investigation.
The database will likely be the largest ever release of secret offshore companies and the people behind them.
The data comes from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, one of the top players in the offshore world, and includes information about companies, trusts, foundations and funds incorporated in 21 tax havens, from Hong Kong to Nevada in the United States. It links to people in more than 200 countries and territories.
When the data is released, users will be able to search through the data and visualize the networks around thousands of offshore entities, including, when available, Mossack Fonseca’s internal records of the company’s true owners. The interactive database will also include information about more than 100,000 additional companies that were part of the 2013 ICIJ Offshore Leaks investigation.
While the database opens up a world that has never been revealed on such a massive scale, the application will not be a “data dump” of the original documents – it will be a careful release of basic corporate information.
See full text in www.icij.org.
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