Panama Papers: Part of secret documents to be released in May
On April 27, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the agency holding millions of leaked documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, also known as the "Panama Papers," announced that it would publish part of the contents of these documents on May 9.
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A sign outside the headquarters of Mossack Fonseca law firm in Panama City on April 4. (Source: AFP/VNA)
According to ICIJ, the documents released this time include information related to more than 200,000 secret trust funds, companies, and foundations in 21 tax havens from Hong Kong (China) to Nevada, USA.
ICIJ said the publication of the "Panama Papers" is the next step in the investigation process of this US-based agency, and said it will continue to publish more documents in the "Panama Papers" in the coming months.
About 11.5 million documents from the law firm Mossack Fonseca were provided by an anonymous source to the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung (South Germany, SZ) about a year ago.
SZ then shared the information with ICIJ and several other news groups such as the BBC and The Guardian to mobilize newspapers to investigate this world's largest-ever dossier, which includes revelations about the assets held in tax havens of 140 senior leaders and celebrities.
ICIJ has published information about thousands of individuals who own offshore accounts for tax evasion purposes, Luxembourg's agreements to help multinational companies avoid taxes and a scheme to help customers of HSBC's Swiss branch evade taxes with a total of up to $119 billion in accounts.
ICIJ, based in Washington and run by Australian journalist Gerard Ryle, brings together more than 190 journalists from more than 65 countries.
ICIJ has investigated cross-border corruption, organized crime and tax evasion, among other cases.
According to the investigation results, the law firm Mossack Fonseca created a "tax haven," thereby helping about 140 politicians, including 12 current or former leaders of countries, along with sports stars, drug lords... to evade taxes.
These documents, also known as the "Panama Papers," record the daily activities of the law firm Mossack Fonseca for 40 years (since 1975).
This is considered the biggest data leak ever and it reveals the identities of many world leaders with huge assets abroad, as well as the secrets of the rich around the world./.
According to vietnamplus.vn
