Panama Papers. The Story of an International Exposure

"A triumph of journalism"
(Bob Woodward, BBC Radio, April 10, 2016)

The story of the biggest data leak of all times starts late in the evening with an anonymous message: “Hello. This is John Doe. Interested in data?” Bastian Obermayer, investigative journalist for the Süddeutsche Zeitung and his colleague Frederik Obermaier are thrilled. They soon realize that they are dealing with the data of hundreds of thousands of letterbox companies which give an insight into a completely sealed off parallel world in which billions are managed and hidden. These are monies belonging to big corporations, to European prime ministers and international dictators, to sheiks, emirs and kings, to the mafia, smugglers and drug lords, to secret agents, FIFA officials, to aristocrats, celebrities and the very wealthy.

In order to be able to investigate all the cases the two journalists decide to activate an international network of investigative reporters – the ICIJ (International Consortium of Investigative Journalists). For over a year 400 journalists from the most important media outlets in the world – among them the Guardian, the BBC and Le Monde – worked together under strictest secrecy regulations in order to publish the Panama Papers simultaneously in the spring of 2016.

This book is the fascinating story of an international journalistic research which reveals how a small elite that does not feel answerable to anyone hides away huge fortunes.