By Jamie Parker | News Editor
Not a lot of people have been paying attention to it lately, but there is something huge happening in the world right now. It is called the Panama Papers and it is the biggest leak of confidential documents in history. The leak is full of 11.5 million documents from the Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca founded by Jürgen Mossack. To put that into perspective, 1 Terabyte is equal to 1000 gigabytes of data and the WikiLeaks scandal in 2010 was 1.7 GB of data, and the Panama Papers leak is 2.6 TB. The files include evidence of the firm helping the world’s biggest villains cover up their dirty deeds.
So how did this happen? Well about a year ago, an anonymous source contacted a German news outlet – Süddeutsche Zeitung – saying that they had encrypted documents from Mossack Fronseca’s system. The source teamed up with Süddeutsche Zeitung and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists to decipher the documents and expose what was really happening in the shadows. Together, they have brought to light what the super-rich and famous were up to in the shadows.
Mossack Fonseca is known to sell off-shore “shell companies,” which are basically used to cover up the shady deals that business owners want to keep behind closed doors. Now while this process may seem like it should illegal, it is not. Unfortunately, people use these off-shore shell companies all the time to hide their money. But that is not even the scandalous part. What people are really focusing on is who was found in these documents. The list includes, politicians, FIFA officials, fraudsters and drug smugglers, to celebrities and professional athletes. There are even ties to Vladimir Putin, and the North Korean government. While many of the documents are still being sifted through, the Panama Papers have already caused some serious consequences for those involved. For instance, the Prime Minister of Iceland has recently stepped aside due to his involvement. Also, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is being questioned because of his father’s involvement.
So while the story of the Panama Papers may not be on the front page for most news outlets in the United States, it is just as important. The future is unknown when it comes to this, and soon enough we could find out that some of the most prominent people in our society today, have been involved in some pretty incriminating activites.
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