This archive report was first published on 4 October 2021.
Since 2013, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has been at the forefront of exposing the dark secrets of the offshore industry, revealing how the wealthy and powerful use tax havens to launder money and dodge taxes.
April 2013: Offshore Leaks ¶
ICIJ's first major expose, Offshore Leaks, revealed a 'who's who' of people and entities hiding assets in 122,000 companies run from Singapore and the British Virgin Islands. Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev was among those named.
January 2014: China Leaks ¶
Just a year later, ICIJ scored another coup with China Leaks, which showed that China's elite was also parking money in offshore tax havens. Several people close to President Xi Jinping were cited.
2014: LuxLeaks ¶
Later that year, ICIJ revealed secret agreements between Luxembourg and 340 multinational companies, including Amazon, Apple, and IKEA, to avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes. The accords were reached when Jean-Claude Juncker, the then president of the European Commission, was prime minister of Luxembourg.
February 2015: SwissLeaks ¶
ICIJ's next major expose, SwissLeaks, uncovered a scheme that allegedly helped wealthy clients of HSBC's Swiss division to evade taxes on accounts worth billions. Morocco's King Mohammed VI, Jordan's King Abdullah II, and a cousin of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad were among those named.
April 2016: Panama Papers ¶
The leak of 11.5 million documents from Mossack Fonseca in Panama caused political earthquakes across the world, naming stars, billionaires, and banks involved in tax evasion and money laundering. Iceland's prime minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson resigned, and the fall-out also claimed Pakistan's prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
November 2017: Paradise Papers ¶
Another huge leak in November 2017 exposed the offshore interests of 120 politicians around the world, including the Queen of England. It also revealed the financial links between US President Donald Trump's commerce secretary Wilbur L. Ross and Russian President Vladimir Putin's son-in-law. Apple, Nike, and Uber were accused of avoiding taxes through 'imaginative bookkeeping'.
2019: Mauritius Leaks ¶
Based on a 2019 leak of 200,000 files, reporters claimed to expose a 'sophisticated system that diverts tax revenue from poor nations back to the coffers of Western corporations and African oligarchs' through the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius.
2020: Luanda Leaks ¶
The business empire of 'Africa's wealthiest woman', Isabel dos Santos, daughter of former Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, was largely dismantled after a 2020 ICIJ investigation into the shady origins of her fortune. Angola claimed more than a billion dollars of state assets were plundered from the poverty-stricken but oil-rich nation.
2021: Pandora Papers ¶
With governments across the world needing trillions in tax revenue to bankroll pandemic spending, the ICIJ leak of 11.9 million documents revealed how more than a dozen heads of state and government had used offshore tax havens to hide assets.
