The Panama Papers: The Hidden Money Network That Keeps Power Out of Sight

In early 2015, a German reporter received a call from a person who used only the name "John". He would not meet, would not speak on an ordinary phone line, and would communicate only through encrypted data. He said he had more material than the newsroom had ever seen. Months later, Bastian Obermayer of Süddeutsche Zeitung received more than 11.5 million files, about 2.6 terabytes, from the servers of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

The files included emails, contracts, invoices, company registrations, passports, and bank material covering almost forty years. They showed how wealthy people, officials, banks, investigated figures, and financial intermediaries used shell companies to hide the real owners of assets. A shell company exists on paper, with an account and a named director, while the person who controls it and receives its benefits stays behind the structure.