Panama Papers leak database to go live

Posted: 11:50 AM, May 09, 2016
Updated: 2016-05-09 11:50:27-04
Panama Papers leak database to go live

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — A group of investigative journalists are set to publish the names of thousands of offshore companies based on a massive trove of data on the finances of the rich and powerful that has become known as the Panama Papers.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists is making data on 200,000 entities available on Monday at 2 p.m. ET on its website.


Users can search the data and see the networks involving the offshore companies, including, where available, Mossack Fonseca's internal records of the true owners.

It won't be the full cache of data commonly known as the Panama Papers, since the database will exclude information and documents on bank accounts, phone numbers and emails.

The ICIJ said it was putting the information online "in the public interest" as "a careful release of basic corporate information" as it builds on an earlier database of offshore entities.



The data cache, first leaked to Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily, showed offshore holdings of 12 current and former world leaders. Reports based on the documents quickly led to the resignation of Iceland's Prime Minister David Gunnlaugson after it was revealed he and his wife had set up a company in the British Virgin Islands that had holdings in Iceland's failed banks. British Prime Minister David Cameron, who had campaigned for financial transparency, faced questions about shares he once held in an offshore trust set up by his father. The ICIJ reported that associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin moved some $2 billion through such companies. Putin's spokesman dismissed the report.




The letter comes days before an anti-corruption summit in London, featuring politicians from 40 countries as well as representatives from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Many of the companies that featured in the Panama Papers were incorporated in British Overseas Territories and the British Virgin Islands.