Panama Papers Unmask International Corruption

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Zoey Joyce, Multimedia Editor

The Panama Papers leak is one of the biggest data leaks in the history of the modern world. It unveiled many celebrities, politicians and corporate leaders who were circumventing their respective country’s taxes. One such person linked to these file leaks was Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, prime minister of Iceland. When the papers revealed that the prime minister had offshore accounts housing large sums that were avoiding Icelandic taxes. The prime minister of England, David Cameron, was also linked to the Panama Papers for having also been revealed to have an offshore account to circumvent British taxes.

The leaked papers cover nearly 215,000 companies and 14,153 clients of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. Mossback Fonseca is just one of many companies involved in offshore tax havens. Mossack Fonseca has been accused in the past of setting up companies to act on its behalf in illegal and unethical dealings as revealed by court documents in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The Panama Papers only are accusations at this point in time. They display the fact that CEOs, Politicians and celebrities have offshore accounts and how much are in those accounts. A majority has been shrouded in secrecy and when certain individuals were confronted there were defensive remarks. The whole data leak has caused the public to look differently at the world leaders around them.