pandora papers

The Pandora Papers is a leak of almost 12 million documents after a global investigation lead by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in Washington DC.

The leaks primarily reveal hidden wealth, tax theft and money laundering by politicians, businessmen and celebrities around the world.

According to ICIJ, more than 600 journalists from 117 countries went through a huge pile of data obtained by the consortium and found stories relevant to audiences in their respective countries where tax theft, money laundering and other crimes by the rich and the mighty could possibly be exposed.

The Pandora Papers includes millions of documents, images, emails and spreadsheets which resulted in a number of stories for journalists,

so far include ones about the assets of Qatari Royal family (tax evasion accusation), King of Jordan’s spending spree, Azerbaijan family’s hidden involvement in property deals in the UK, Czech Republic PM’s failure to declare an offshore company and Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta’s family’s owning of offshore companies.

All of these do not necessarily mean they are corrupt or criminals, the charges are yet to be proved in a court of law.

ICIJ says the huge tranche of files reveals assets of more than 330 politicians from 90 countries and how they allegedly used offshore firms to hide their wealth in their respective countries.

The Pandora Papers are being termed ‘bigger than Panama Papers’ due to the size of data and the amount of work involved.