Kim Hjelmgaard

USA TODAY

In advance of a new “Panama Papers” release about hidden finances, more than 300 leading economists urged world leaders Monday to abolish global tax havens.

A leak of 11.5 million documents by a Panama law firm specializing in hiding assets in off-shore accounts a month ago prompted controversy around the world when they revealed that political leaders and their relatives or associates used the firm to keep huge sums of wealth out of public view.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that spent a year reviewing the documents, dubbed the Panama Papers, said it would release a searchable database at 2 p.m. ET Monday with information on more than 200,000 offshore entities.

The economists made the call in a letter released by the Britain-based activist group Oxfam. Signatories to the document include Columbia University's Jeff Sachs, best-selling author Thomas Piketty and Nobel Prize-winner Angus Deaton.

“Tax havens do not just happen. The British Virgin Islands did not become a tax and secrecy haven through its own efforts. These havens are the deliberate choice of major governments, especially the United Kingdom and the United States, in partnership with major financial, accounting and legal institutions that move the money," Sachs said.

The letter also came ahead of an anti-corruption summit in London that kicks off Thursday with political representatives from 40 countries as well as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

Panama Papers leaker speaks out for the first time

“The abuses are not only shocking, but staring us directly in the face. We didn’t need the Panama Papers to know that global tax corruption through the havens is rampant, but we can say that this abusive global system needs to be brought to a rapid end. That is what is meant by good governance," Sachs said.

Many of the companies and individuals whose names appeared in the Panama Papers were linked to offshore accounts in places such as the British Virgin Islands. These accounts were set up by a law firm in Panama called Mossack Fonseca.

“Millions of the world’s poorest people will continue to be the biggest victims of tax dodging until governments act together to tackle tax havens, by introducing public registers of who really owns companies and trusts as well as automatic tax information-sharing between countries," Oxfam Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said.