One of the world's largest data leak has happened very recently. This leak is being titled the Panama Papers. The Panama Papers are a leak of 11.5 million files from the database of the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca.
Provided by an unnamed source to a German newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung, more than one year ago. They were taken from the files of Mossack Fonseca. A group of global news organizations published articles this week based on leaked confidential documents from a law firm in Panama. They exposed how some of the world’s most powerful people used offshore bank accounts to hide their true wealth or avoid taxes. For now, the documents themselves are not publicly available.
You might ask, "Why would someone want to hide their wealth?", the answer is most likely for tax evasion. Tax evasion is a massive global industry. Of every $100 people put in bank accounts and investments, $8 is socked away in tax havens like Switzerland and Singapore, according to work by a University of California Berkeley economist,
Gabriel Zucman. And while most of this money comes from wealthy countries, offshore accounts seem to be an increasingly popular option among the rich in developing countries. Zucman found that as much as 50 percent of the financial wealth in Russia and the Persian Gulf countries is held in overseas accounts.
A large target of the Panama Papers was the Russian president. The findings showed a
$2 billion trail of secret offshore deals and loans all pointing toward Putin. Though the president’s name does not come up in any of the records, the data reveals a pattern his friends have earned millions from deals that could not have been done without him. The documents suggest Putin’s family has benefited from this money. Cash was also handed over directly to the Putin circle,
this time in the form of very cheap loans, made with no security and with interest rates as low as 1% (The Guardian). It is not very clear whether any loans have been repaid.
The Panama Papers made one thing very clear: Tax havens, meaning countries or independent areas where taxes are levied at a low rate, can be anywhere. Avoiding them is nearly impossible because of this. The Panama Papers effect us indirectly, but the impact is huge. When individuals or companies hide their assets in tax havens through shell companies, the governments that they should pay taxes to lose an important source of income which could be used to improve the lives of citizens.
Provided by an unnamed source to a German newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung, more than one year ago. They were taken from the files of Mossack Fonseca. A group of global news organizations published articles this week based on leaked confidential documents from a law firm in Panama. They exposed how some of the world’s most powerful people used offshore bank accounts to hide their true wealth or avoid taxes. For now, the documents themselves are not publicly available. 
You might ask, "Why would someone want to hide their wealth?", the answer is most likely for tax evasion. Tax evasion is a massive global industry. Of every $100 people put in bank accounts and investments, $8 is socked away in tax havens like Switzerland and Singapore, according to work by a University of California Berkeley economist, Gabriel Zucman. And while most of this money comes from wealthy countries, offshore accounts seem to be an increasingly popular option among the rich in developing countries. Zucman found that as much as 50 percent of the financial wealth in Russia and the Persian Gulf countries is held in overseas accounts. 
A large target of the Panama Papers was the Russian president. The findings showed a $2 billion trail of secret offshore deals and loans all pointing toward Putin. Though the president’s name does not come up in any of the records, the data reveals a pattern his friends have earned millions from deals that could not have been done without him. The documents suggest Putin’s family has benefited from this money. Cash was also handed over directly to the Putin circle, this time in the form of very cheap loans, made with no security and with interest rates as low as 1% (The Guardian). It is not very clear whether any loans have been repaid.
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