A cache of 11.5 million leaked documents details a shadowy network of banks and law firms that helps many of the world's most powerful people — politicians, criminals, athletes, magnates, celebrities — hide money in offshore accounts, according to an international coalition of media outlets.
Among the dozen current and former world leaders named in the documents were the prime ministers of Iceland and Pakistan, the king of Saudi Arabia, and the children of the president of Azerbaijan, according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism.
The media group published the papers through more than 100 news organizations around the world on Sunday. The data came from a Panama-based law firm, Mossack Fonseca, whose cofounder Ramon Fonseca confirmed the authenticity of the leaked information.
The group said they had tied the movement of $2 billion by associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who countered that he was the victim of a smear campaign. The documents also link shell companies to Xi Jinping, head of China's ruling party, and to the late father of British Prime Minister David Cameron, both self-styled anti-corruption crusaders, the group said.
