The Panama Papers scandal is HUGE
The leak of files from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca continues to create upheaval around the world. The documents were leaked to the German daily “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, which shared them with the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the “Guardian”, the BBC and other media organisations.
Both the amount of information and the number of individuals affected in countries around the globe are enormous.
This is the largest leak in history. An incredible 11.5 files are involved. To put this in context, the Wikileaks scandal of 2010 involved 1.7 GB of data; the Panama Papers leak is a whopping 2,600 GB.
In all, the details of 214,000 entities, including companies, trusts and foundations, were leaked and this data covers nearly 40 years, from 1977 through the end of 2015.
Already there are links to 12 current or former heads of state and government in the data, including dictators accused of looting their own countries. More than 60 relatives and associates of heads of state and other politicians are also implicated.
I suspect that eventually there will hardly be a major country in the world where political and business leaders are not caught up in some way in this evolving scandal. For now, for a summary of some of the more prominent individuals in different nations who have been implicated so far, see here.