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Explainer | The biggest revelations from the Pandora Papers leak

  • Pandora Papers highlight how wealthy use offshore companies
  • Investigation based on unprecedented leak of financial documents

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The documents show former UK prime minister Tony Blair and his wife saved around US$422,000 by using an offshore company to buy an almost US$9 million office in London. File photo: AP
Bloomberg
An unprecedented leak of financial records known as the Pandora Papers has revealed the offshore financial assets of dozens of current and former world leaders and hundreds of politicians from Asia and the Middle East to Latin America.
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The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) obtained 11.9 million confidential documents from 14 separate legal and financial services firms, which the group said offered “a sweeping look at an industry that helps the world’s ultrawealthy, powerful government officials and other elites conceal trillions of dollars from tax authorities, prosecutors and others.”

Moving money through offshore accounts, in mostly low-tax jurisdictions, is legal in most countries, and many of the people named in the data release aren’t accused of criminal wrongdoing. But the journalist group said the 2.94 terabytes of financial and legal data – which makes this leak larger than the 2016 Panama Papers release – shows the “offshore money machine operates in every corner of the planet, including the world’s largest democracies,” and involves some of the world’s most well-known banks and legal firms.

Here are some of the biggest revelations in the release:

Jordanian King Abdullah II delivers a speech at the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, France, on January 15, 2020. Photo: AFP
Jordanian King Abdullah II delivers a speech at the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, France, on January 15, 2020. Photo: AFP
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Jordan king’s real estate empire

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