What are The Panama Papers?

• The 'Panama Papers' are a set of confidential documents leaked from one of the biggest law firms of Panama - 'Mossack Fonseca'.

• The Panama Papers provide information about thousands of offshore entities, identities of their shareholders and directors. It listed various world leaders, public officials, billionaires, celebrities, sports stars and politicians.

The Panama Papers is the largest financial data leak in history. It covers nearly 40 years, from the late 1970s through the end of 2015.

2.6TBof data from

Mossack Fonsecca’s database

11.5M

documents

exposed

214,488offshore accounts

Revealed across 200+

countries

What is Mossack Fonseca?Mossack Fonseca is a Panamian law firm known for helping clients set up offshore accounts.

Their clients include criminals and members of various Mafia groups, in addition to government officials.

Were Indian individuals allowed to set up offshore entities?Pre-2004: we Indian individuals were not allowed to set up offshore entities.

Liberalised Remittance Scheme: In 2004, Indian individuals were allowed to take $25000 out side the country. It could be for children education, gifts, donation, medical treatment, etc. but still not allowed to set a company abroad.

Later in 2013, RBI passed ODI scheme, Overseas Direct Investment.

Aren’t offshore accounts illegal?No offshore accounts are not illegal.In fact, having an offshore company can be seen as a logical business decision. However, these accounts are often used for tax evasion, money laundering and corruption.

How much money is there in offshore tax havens?Estimated at least $7.6 trillion – Gabriel Zucman, Economics professor at UC Berkeley.

That’s upwards of 8% of the world’s financial wealth, with a growth of 25% over the past 5 years.

Why should we care?These reports show how many of the top 1% have moved around upwards of billions to evade tax or make undocumented deals.

Money that the governments could have used in improving healthcare, education or infrastructure. Some of those using offshore tax havens were also accused of financially backing the Syrian air force.

Who has been exposed so far?11 most notable politicians who have been named:1. Icelandic Prime minister- Sigmundur David

Gunnlaugsson2. The late father of British Prime Minister David

Cameron3. UAE President- Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan4. Russian President- Vladimir Putin5. Saudi Arabian King- Salman bin Abdulaziz6. Former Iraqi Vice and Prime Minister- Ayad

Allawi7. Brother-in-law of Chinese President- Xi JinPing8. Ukrainian President- Petro Poroshenko9. The Spanish Royal Family10.Argentinian President- Mauricio Macri11.Cousins of Syrian President Bashar Assad

The most surprising revelation so far….An offshore trail of $2

Billion through banks and shadow companies leading to Vladimir Putin. ---ICIJ ( The International Consortium of Investing Journalists )

What’s next?

At the moment, only 149 documents out of 11.5 million have been publicly released and more incriminating evidence have yet to surface….

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