This is a documentary feature film about the biggest global corruption scandal in history. An anonymous caller gets hold of Bastian Obermayer an investigative journalist, of Süddeutsche Zeitung (German for South German Newspaper) which is published in Munich in early 2015. The caller called himself or herself as a pseudonym, John Doe and he or she sent a message to Bastian.
"Hello. This is John Doe. Interested in data?"
That is how the transfer started of about 11.5 million documents from the records of Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. It seems that John Doe wanted to release information before and had tried other outlets. These attempts had been "killed" either because the information was too much or the newspapers were concerned about blowback in the form of physical harm, threats, or legal action. These documents and emails show that there was a deliberate attempt by certain parties to conceal their wealth. This was done by using offshore accounts, fake directors, company transactions, etc
Then the ICIJ collected all that data and analyzed it building databases and linking information between the documents. Hence there is a web site - Offshore leaks database that enables journalist and interested parties to have access to this information. After some time, people started to get suspicious and they began to threaten the journalist because they began asking questions to verify the data. The journalist were understandably concerned about their safety and had to beef up their security and they were aware that they had to be more careful. Some of them were threatened and a few were killed.
One of the people to be outed was the Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur DavÃð Gunnlaugsson, unfortunately, he had to walk out of a live interview when asked. More than 10,000 people in a country of 330,000 did a protest outside Iceland’s parliament in Reykjavik. He resigned soon afterwards. David Cameron UK's Prime Minister father was linked to it and the Prime Minister had shares in it. It might have contributed to his decision to resign immediately after Brexit. Then there were Trump's hotels which were linked to Russian oligarchs and the Russian Mob money laundry. The Brazilian government was deep-rooted in it and the left wing socialist government was deeply rooted in corruption. It did affect those working closely with global banks including HSBC, UBS and Credit Suisse and law firms in the Netherlands, Mexico, the United States and Switzerland.
Police raided Mossack Fonseca’s offices in El Salvador, Peru and Panama City. By the end of 2016, governments and companies in 79 countries had opened 150 inquiries, audits or investigations into the law firm, its intermediaries or clients.
Pakistanis protested in the streets when it was revealed that children of then-prime minister had set up shell companies to hide money in London real estate market. The prime minister subsequently resigned in July 2017 after Pakistan’s supreme court disqualified him from office.
It was alleged that Mossack Fonseca companies had been used to make and receive bribes across South America in connection with the Lava Jato or “car wash” scandal. This caused people to lose faith in the left wing socialist policies of The Worker Party and now they voted for a right wing party Social Liberal Party as a result.
The fallout had been widespread affecting going worldwide but some countries were affected than others.
The fallout had been widespread affecting going worldwide but some countries were affected than others.
Till today the identity of John Doe remains a secret.
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