In recent years, a series of media exposés — Lux Leaks, Luanda Leaks, most famously, Panama Papers, and others — have provided clues as to the offshore system’s true purpose and operations. These journalistic efforts have spurred a new and promising global debate on taxation, secrecy, and the financial industry’s quiet dominance over public policy.

Now comes The Pandora Papers. The biggest-ever global journalism collaboration of its kind, based upon the biggest leak of its kind, doesn’t just crack the wall. It explodes it, forever.

The Pandora Papers shows how an extra-legal, deliberately hidden financial system quietly grew into a a global behemoth that drains trillions of dollars from public treasuries, worsens wealth disparities and protects those who cheat and steal.

Hopefully, you’ve seen some of our major stories from yesterday, stories that revealed how hundreds of politicians — including 35 current and former world leaders — have been connected to offshore companies in the Pandora Papers.

Below you’ll find the next installments, and we’ll be publishing more, a lot more, in the days, weeks and months to come. As I write this, governments around the world have already vowed to investigate our findings and enforce the law — we will be closely watching and reporting on each move along the way.

Democracy’s greatest, and least-appreciated strength, may be its ability to reform itself. But democracy can’t reform what it can't see.

Now, it can.

With your help, we will continue to shed light on global injustice, inequality, crime, and corruption. We’ll reveal wrongdoing to give the world a chance to make it right. But we can't do it without your support, especially now.
 

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Thanks for following our work. And thanks for your ongoing support,

Gerard Ryle
ICIJ's Director

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The U.S. government has long condemned prominent offshore financial centers, where liberal rules and guarantees of discretion have drawn oligarchs, business tycoons and politicians.

But a burgeoning American trust industry is increasingly sheltering the assets of international millionaires and billionaires by promising levels of protection and secrecy that rival or surpass those offered in overseas tax havens. That shield, which is near-absolute, has insulated the industry from meaningful oversight and allowed it to forge new footholds in U.S. states.

Explore the latest stories in our groundbreaking Pandora Papers investigation:

• Read: How America’s biggest law firm drives global wealth into tax havens
• Read: Promise of eternal secrecy entices wealthy foreigners to abandon long-established tax havens in favor of U.S. trusts
• Breaking news: Governments vow investigations within hours of Pandora Papers revelations
• In case you missed it: A 3-minute video summary of the investigation

We'll have more stories coming out through the week, so stay tuned for more!

Hamish Boland-Rudder
ICIJ’s Online Editor