The challenges of sifting through an enormous leak of data and coordinating a team of hundreds of journalists required a new level of innovation in building digital systems to aid collaboration and reporting. Public protests emerged in outside Iceland’s Parliament and outside the home of British Prime Minister, David Cameron, who came under pressure to resign after disclosures that he was linked to the offshore world through his late father. Swiss police raided the headquarters of UEFA, the body that oversees soccer in Europe. A top FIFA ethics expert resigned after the media partners revealed his business relationships with individuals indicted in the the world soccer body’s corruption scandal. President Barack Obama called for international tax reform. Iceland’s prime minister stepped down two days after his family’s offshore dealings were revealed, France put Panama back on its tax haven blacklist and U.S. The reporting team also exposed offshore companies tied to the war in Syrian war, the looting of Africa’s resources and a network of people close to Russian President Vladimir Putin that shuffled as $2 billion around the world. The investigation uncovered offshore companies linked to 140 politicians in more than 50 countries – including 12 current or former world leaders. The numbers behind the Panama Papers investigation are massive: 2.6 terabytes of data, 11.5 million files, 214,000 offshore companies, almost 40 years of records, investigated over the course of a year by a team of more than 370 journalists from nearly 80 countries speaking dozens of languages and working across multiple time zones. They reveal how the offshore economy works in detail never seen before, and expose the hidden financial dealings of politicians, criminals, and the rich and powerful. The Panama Papers is a trove of leaked documents from inside one of the globe’s leading marketers of offshore secrecy. It could also be the beginning of the end of secrets.” The aftershocks will continue for months, even years to come. Former South African president Thabo Mbeki called the revelations “a massive blow to financial secrecy.” CNN columnist Frida Ghitis said: “This is an earthquake. High profile figures – including Iceland’s prime minister – have been forced to resign. Governments have launched investigations. Citizens have taken to the streets in protest.
The result: a firestorm of media, political and grassroots reaction around the world. On April 3 the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Süddeutsche Zeitung and more than 100 other media outlets began publishing the largest investigation in journalism history: The Panama Papers. A blockbuster investigation, not only in terms of presentation, but in how the story was reported across newsrooms virtually.
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