The Paradise Papers exposed secret offshore finances in 2017.
German journalists Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer obtained 13.4 million documents from the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
They shared these files with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
Like the 2016 Panama Papers, these documents revealed how wealthy people and companies move money through offshore accounts to reduce taxes and maintain secrecy.
The law firm Appleby leaked 6.8 million documents detailing offshore financial activities.
Two other companies—Estera and Asiaciti Trust—provided additional files showing how wealthy clients moved money through tax havens.
Government business registries in 19 countries also exposed records of offshore companies.
Together, these 13.4 million documents revealed how corporations and individuals used complex legal structures to manage their wealth across borders.
The 13.4 million documents revealed the offshore banking records of 120,000 clients.
Queen Elizabeth II had invested £10 million of her private estate in funds based in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross maintained stakes in Navigator Holdings, a shipping company connected to Russian President Vladimir Putin's inner circle.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos failed to disclose his directorship of two offshore companies in Barbados.
Law firm Appleby, which managed these offshore accounts from its headquarters in Bermuda, executed these transactions through shell companies and complex financial structures.
The documents showed how Apple shifted $252 billion to the Channel Island of Jersey to pay a corporate tax rate of 0.005%.
Tech giant Nike used a Dutch subsidiary to route billions through Bermuda, cutting its global tax rate to 13.2% between 2006-2017.
The arrangements typically worked like this: A wealthy individual would create a shell company in a zero-tax jurisdiction like the British Virgin Islands.
This company would then open bank accounts in Switzerland or Singapore to hold investments.
A web of trusts in places like Guernsey would obscure who actually controlled the money.
Law firms like Appleby charged $2,000-25,000 to set up each entity in this chain.
While legal, these strategies kept an estimated $32 trillion out of public treasuries globally.
In 2017, 380 reporters gathered at the ICIJ's Washington DC office to sift through 13.4 million documents exposing offshore tax havens.
The team included journalists from Le Monde in Paris, The Guardian in London, and The New York Times in Manhattan.
They worked in shifts, scanning leaked records from the offshore law firm Appleby, cross-referencing shell company registrations, and mapping connections between wealthy clients and their hidden assets.
The journalists used secure chat rooms and encrypted file sharing to piece together stories spanning 67 countries.
When a reporter in Mumbai discovered links to local business leaders, they could instantly share findings with colleagues in Berlin or Buenos Aires who had uncovered connected accounts.
This hub-and-spoke system let the team track money flowing through multiple jurisdictions.
The 2017 Paradise Papers exposed the strategies used for exploiting the gaps in tax codes.
Companies created shell corporations in zero-tax jurisdictions, then moved money through complex but legal pathways.
A corporation might route intellectual property payments through multiple countries, each transfer staying within the letter of local laws while gradually eroding the tax base.
Current laws failed to address this system.
The Paradise Papers revealed Russian state banks invested $1 billion in Facebook and Twitter through an offshore company called DST Global.
Putin's son-in-law, Kirill Shamalov, used a shell company in Bermuda to acquire a $380 million stake in Russia's largest petrochemical company.
The documents showed Gazprom, Russia's state energy giant, channeled funds through offshore accounts in Malta to purchase ships through intermediary companies.
These transactions moved Russian state money through a network of shell companies in the Caribbean and Channel Islands, masking both ownership and tax obligations.
The leaked files documented how lawyers at Appleby, an offshore law firm, flagged suspicious money flows but continued to process Russian transactions through their offices in the Isle of Man and British Virgin Islands.
The papers exposed how Russia's political elite merged state resources with private wealth.
After the Paradise Papers leaked in 2017, tax investigators in France, Germany, and Italy searched bank offices and wealthy individuals' homes.
The European Parliament created a dedicated team of 65 officials to examine 13.4 million documents detailing offshore accounts.
Britain's tax authority, HMRC, launched reviews of 66 specific companies and individuals named in the papers.
Investigators scrutinized bank transfers to tax havens, shell company ownership records, and email exchanges.
In April 2016, period to the Paradise Papers leak—journalists published 11.5 million documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.
It exposed how politicians, business leaders, and celebrities moved billions of dollars through secret offshore accounts.