The Panama Papers: A Quick Summary

The Panama Papers is the biggest leak of documents, ever. That's right, it beats Edward Snowden's scandalous NSA leak. With 2.6 terabytes worth of data compiled of 11.6 million confidential documents. But what is this leak and why should it matter?

The leaked documents came from Mossack Fonseca, which is a Panama-based law firm, hence, the Panama Papers. According to the firms website it says it offers, "research, advice and services for the following jurisdictions: Belize, The Netherlands, Costa Rica, United Kingdom, Malta, Hong Kong, Cyprus, British Virgin Islands, Bahamas, Panama, British Anguilla, Seychelles, Samoa, Nevada, and Wyoming (USA)." But some of these jurisdictions serve as tax havens and that’s where it gets juicy.

The documents were leaked to a German newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung,

about a year ago and they worked with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) to research the documents.

These documents exposed leaders of countries, billionaires, drug lords, and terrorist organizations who used the Panama tax haven to store millions and billions of dollars. It’s not illegal to store money in tax havens, but what is illegal is not claiming the money as your asset for taxation (it may also raise suspicion of the amount of money).

The Prime Minister of Iceland already stepped down after protests for his resignation when his name was included in the Panama Papers. World leaders and famous people include (just to name a few):

- President of Russia, Vladimir Putin (who denies the allegations and called it a plot by the U.S.)

- President of Argentina, Mauricio Macri

- Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif

- King of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Saud

- President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko

- President of the United Arab Emirates, Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan

- Soccer player for F.C. Barcelona, Lionel Messi (who’s facing tax evasion charges in Spain)

- Soccer player for Leicester City, Leonardo Ulloa

There have been 200 people with U.S. addresses revealed, but not any familiar names. Whether those addresses belong to U.S. citizens is unknown.