Print      
Files offer a look at hidden accounts
Media focus on the rich, powerful
By Frank Jordans
Associated Press

BERLIN — A coalition of media outlets on Sunday published what it said was an extensive investigation into the offshore financial dealings of the rich and famous, based on a trove of documents provided by an anonymous source.

The nonprofit International Consortium of Investigative Journalism said the cache of 11.5 million records details the offshore holdings of a dozen current and former world leaders, businessmen, criminals, celebrities, and sports stars.

The Associated Press wasn’t immediately able to verify allegations in articles published by the more than 100 news organizations around the world involved in the investigation. But the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung said it was confident the material was genuine.

The Munich daily was offered the data through an encrypted channel by an anonymous source who requested no compensation, said Bastian Obermayer, a reporter for the paper.

Provided were internal documents from a Panama law firm, Mossack Fonseca. The firm has offices around the globe and is among the biggest creators of shell companies, the newspaper said. Mossack Fonseca did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The coalition said the leaked files contain information on 214,488 offshore entities connected to people in more than 200 countries and territories. It said it would release the full list next month.

Obermayer said that over several months Sueddeutsche Zeitung received about 2.6 terabytes of data — more than would fit on 600 DVDs. The newspaper said the amount of data it got is several times larger than a previous cache of offshore data published by WikiLeaks in 2013 that exposed the financial dealings of prominent individuals.

‘‘To our knowledge this is the biggest leak that journalists have ever worked on,’’ Obermayer said. The newspaper and its partners verified the data by comparing it to public registers, witness testimony, and court rulings, he told the AP. Among the countries with people named in the files are Iceland, Ukraine, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Russia.

The coalition said the documents include e-mails, spreadsheets, passports, and corporate records detailing how powerful figures used banks, law firms, and shell companies to hide assets. The data span nearly 40 years, from 1977 through the end of 2015. ‘‘It allows a never-before-seen view inside the offshore world — providing a day-to-day, decade-by-decade look at how dark money flows through the global financial system, breeding crime and stripping national treasuries of tax revenues,’’ the group said.

The media group said banks like HSBC, UBS, Credit Suisse, and Deutsche Bank have worked with Mossack Fonseca to create offshore accounts.

The allegations predate “our significant, well-publicized reforms,’’ HSBC said. The other banks did not immediately respond to requests for comment.