A Primer on the ‘Panama Papers’ Offshore Revelations
- Panama law firm cache dwarfs trove of U.S. diplomats' cables
- 400 journalists, months of reporting behind data 'torrent'
What We Know So Far From the 'Panama Papers'
The Panama Papers, a huge trove of documents that reveal how a Central American law firm allegedly set up shell companies to help heads of state and international criminals conceal their riches, has already prodded regulators into action, rattled sitting politicians and spurred international calls for banking transparency. Here’s a look at what they are and where the revelations may lead.
The 11.5 million documents -- which take up 2.6 terabytes of space on a hard drive, more than the cache of State Department cables uncovered by WikiLeaks in 2010 -- contain 40 years of records from Mossack Fonseca, a niche law firm that represents wealthy business clients and has 40 offices around the globe, according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which led reporting on the leaked documents.