However, an unprecedented leak of almost 40 years’ worth of documents has revealed the firm also facilitates massive money laundering, tax avoidance and criminal activity, including drugs and arms dealing

CREDITS

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca is one of the big three global providers of tax haven registry services Much of their work is for clients who have perfectly legal reasons for wanting to set up companies offshore

Mossack Fonseca operates across 21 tax havens

DATA JOURNALIST: EDMUND TADROS INTERACTIVE: LES HEWITT

The Panama Papers

The Panama Papers investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Le Monde and dozens of media outlets around the world exposes how a network of big banks and law firms sell financial secrecy to politicians, fraudsters and drug traffickers as well as billionaires, celebrities, sports stars and more. Based on a trove of more than 11 million secret files, the investigation 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.

ABOUT

companies, trusts and foundations

intermediaries such as lawyers and tax advisors who directed their clients to use Mossack Fonseca’s services

- 2.6 terabytes of information

14,153

from 1977 to December 2015

11.5 million documents

The data includes information about

214,488

UK prime minister David Cameron’s (right) stockbroker father was a Mossack Fonseca client who used the law firm to shield his investment fund from UK taxes

Mossack Fonseca employees worked in late 2014 to remove paper documents from its Nevada branch and delete computer traces of the link between the Nevada and the Panama operations, ahead of a US court order that it turn over information on 123 companies that Argentine prosecutors had linked to a corruption scandal involving an associate of former presidents Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (left)

Associates of Russia’s president Vladimir Putin (right) secretly shuffled as much as $US2 billion through banks and shadow companies

Employees of Mossack Fonseca destroyed and hid documents to mask the law firm’s involvement in Brazil's bribery and money laundering investigation, dubbed “Operation Car Wash”. So far the scandal has led to criminal charges against leading politicians and an investigation of popular former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (right)

British Virgin Islands authorities fined Mossack Fonseca $US37,500 for violating anti-money laundering rules because the firm incorporated a company for the son of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak (left) but failed to identify the connection, even after father and son were charged with corruption

Note: There are legitimate uses for offshore companies, and we do not intend to suggest or imply that any individuals or entities included in the interactive were in violation of the law

Family members of at least eight current or former members of China’s Politburo Standing Committee have offshore companies arranged though Mossack Fonseca, including president Xi Jinping’s (left) brother-in-law

8

Mossack Fonseca clients include…

61 associates of current or former heads of state 128 current and former politicians and public officials 29 Forbes listed billionaires

China Li Xiaolin, daughter of former Chinese premier Li Peng (4) China Jasmine Li, granddaughter of former fourth-ranking official in Chinese Communist Party China France Patrick Henri Devillers, business partner of Gu Kailai, the wife of former high-flying Chinese politician Bo Xilai China Deng Jiagui, brother-in-law of Chinese President Xi Jinping Hong Kong Movie star Jackie Chan (5) Russia Rotenberg brothers - Boris and Arkady Rotenberg, childhood friends of Russian president Vladimir Putin Russia Sergey Roldugin, close personal friend of Russian president Vladimir Putin Syria Hafez and Rami Makhlouf, cousins of Syrian president Bashar Al Assad UK Ian Cameron, father of UK prime minister UK Pamela Sharples, Baroness and lifetime member of UK Parliament (6) UK Michael Anthony Ashcroft, former member of UK House of Lords UK Michael Mates, member of UK parliament Egypt Alaa Mohamed Hosni Mubarak, son of former president of Egypt Hosni Mubarak Malaysia Mohd Nazifuddin Mohd Najib, son of prime minister of Malaysia Najib Razak (7) Saudi Arabia Mohammad Bin Naif Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi crown prince Malta Konrad Mizzi, Malta's minister of energy and health Argentina Soccer player Lionel Messi (8)

Argentina Mauricio Macri, president of Argentina (1) Georgia Bidzina Ivanishvili, former prime minister of Georgia Iceland Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, Anna Sigurlaug Pálsdóttir, Iceland’s prime minister Iraq Ayad H. Allawi, former prime minister of Iraq Jordan Ali Abu-Ragheb, former prime minister of Jordan Qatar Hamad Jassim J.M. Al Thani, former prime minister of Qatar Qatar Sheik Hamad Bin Khalifa Bin Hamad Al Thani, Emir of Qatar Saudi Arabia H.R.H. Prince Salman, King of Saudi Arabia Sudan Ahmad al-Nirghani, former president of Sudan United Arab Emirates Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates and Emir of Abu Dhabi (2) Ukraine Pavlo Lazarenko, former prime minister of Ukraine, convicted of money laundering, fraud and extortion Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, president of Ukraine (3)

2

3

12 current and former heads of state

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4

5

6

7

DATA JOURNALIST: EDMUND TADROS GRAPHIC: LES HEWITT

Document leaks

Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca is one of the big three global providers of tax haven registry services Much of their work is for clients who have perfectly legal reasons for wanting to set up companies offshore However, an unprecedented leak of almost 40 years’ worth of documents has revealed the firm also facilitates massive money laundering, tax avoidance and criminal activity, including drugs and arms dealing

Employees of Mossack Fonseca destroyed and hid documents to mask the law firm’s involvement in Brazil's bribery and money laundering investigation, dubbed “Operation Car Wash”. So far the scandal has led to criminal charges against leading politicians and an investigation of popular former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (right)

Argentina Mauricio Macri, president of Argentina Georgia Bidzina Ivanishvili, former prime minister of Georgia Iceland Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, Anna Sigurlaug Pálsdóttir, Iceland’s prime minister Iraq Ayad H. Allawi, former prime minister of Iraq Jordan Ali Abu-Ragheb, former prime minister of Jordan Qatar Hamad Jassim J.M. Al Thani, former prime minister of Qatar Qatar Sheik Hamad Bin Khalifa Bin Hamad Al Thani, Emir of Qatar Saudi Arabia H.R.H. Prince Salman, King of Saudi Arabia Sudan Ahmad al-Nirghani, former president of Sudan United Arab Emirates Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates and Emir of Abu Dhabi Ukraine Pavlo Lazarenko, former prime minister of Ukraine, convicted of money laundering, fraud and extortion Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, president of Ukraine

China Li Xiaolin, daughter of former Chinese premier Li Peng China Jasmine Li, granddaughter of former fourth-ranking official in Chinese Communist Party China France Patrick Henri Devillers, business partner of Gu Kailai, the wife of former high-flying Chinese politician Bo Xilai China Deng Jiagui, brother-in-law of Chinese President Xi Jinping Hong Kong Movie star Jackie Chan Russia Rotenberg brothers - Boris and Arkady Rotenberg, childhood friends of Russian president Vladimir Putin Russia Sergey Roldugin, close personal friend of Russian president Vladimir Putin Syria Hafez and Rami Makhlouf, cousins of Syrian president Bashar Al Assad UK Ian Cameron, father of UK prime minister UK Pamela Sharples, Baroness and lifetime member of UK Parliament UK Michael Anthony Ashcroft, former member of UK House of Lords UK Michael Mates, member of UK parliament Egypt Alaa Mohamed Hosni Mubarak, son of former president of Egypt Hosni Mubarak Malaysia Mohd Nazifuddin Mohd Najib, son of prime minister of Malaysia Najib Razak Saudi Arabia Mohammad Bin Naif Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi crown prince Malta Konrad Mizzi, Malta's minister of energy and health Argentina Soccer player Lionel Messi

Australian Financial Review Interactive

Interactive graphic by Les Hewitt