Pandora Papers: Exposing Elites

By: Stefanie Danya

October 10, 2021

 

The Pandora Papers is a leak of over 11 million files, containing information and evidence about the offshore data of some of the world’s wealthiest people. An offshore bank account is an account that is outside of a depositor’s own country. Usually, offshore assets and accounts are not illegal, hiding assets and evading taxes are. Some of these offshore accounts were used for malicious actions, from tax evasion to even money laundering in some instances. These files contain documents, images, emails, spreadsheets and others, adding up to 2.9 TB (Terabytes) worth of data that was collected over a course of several years and released around September of 2021. The papers were put together by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) who are currently working on its largest global investigation with several media outlets. 

 

What has been unveiled? Simply put, hundreds of powerful, wealthy people were exposed to have secret offshore accounts to conceal their riches. More than 330 politicians from 90 countries, 35 past and present national leaders, and more. People like Jackie Chan, Elton John, and Shakira were mentioned in these papers. Even the Qatari ruling family were revealed to spend heaps of money on property in London while avoiding £18.5 million of tax.