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Panama Papers leaked online

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Riddhi Sharma
New Update
Panama Papers

It has been a while, that the Panama Papers have been doing the round in our social media and news networks. What widened the scope and enormity of the entire debate is this database going online. Yes, there has been a huge leak of confidential documents that has gone on to reveal how the rich and powerful hide their wealth under tax havens.

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The documents became accessible from 18:00 GMT at ICIJ. Relating to more than 300,000 offshore accounts the database was posted online by a source simply known as "John Doe".

The leaked papers belonged to Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca. However, the company denies any wrongdoing.

Already under scrutiny, the documents uncovered the hidden assets of hundreds of politicians, officials, current and former national leaders, celebrities and sports stars. To give you a fair number of these unfair dealings, the list includes more than 200,000 shell companies, foundations and trusts set up in more than 20 tax havens around the world.

The big names included in this scam are UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia, Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine and Mauricio Macri of Argentina, along with Argentinian football star Lionel Messi, Hong Kong film legend Jackie Chan and Spanish movie director Pedro Almodovar.

Apparently, last week a "cease and desist " order was issued to prevent the database being made public but the organisation that has the documents, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), went ahead.

So, now what we have is a searchable database of tax evaders. "The leaked data covers nearly 40 years, from 1977 through the end of 2015," it said. In terms of Indian names the new data from Panama Papers reveals 2,000 Indian links.