The Pandora Papers (2021)

Background

The Pandora Papers are 11.9 million leaked documents encompassing 2.9 terabytes of data that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism(ICIJ) published beginning on 3 October 2021, resulting in a larger leak by the ICIJ than the Panama Papers in 2016

The Pandora Papers contain records of 14 law firms, wealth management advisors and corporate formation agencies that serve as offshore service providers. According to the ICIJ, these offshore service providers help wealthy individuals in nations like the US, Russia, the U.K. and the UAE set up low profile companies with little to no tax jurisdictions.

Connections and Disclosures

The leaked documents have implicated 35 current and former world leaders, alongside 400 public officials from nearly 100 countries and several billionaires, religious leaders, drug lords and fugitives. Among these includes notable figures like former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Qatari emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the prime minister and ruler of the United Arab Emirates Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Gabonese president Ali Bongo Ondimba, Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati, Ecuadorian president Guillermo Lasso and the King of Jordan King Abdullah II.

According to the ICIJ, a notable purchase of a $22 million chateau in the French Riviera purchased through offshore companies by the Czech Republic’s populist prime minister, Andrej Babis a billionaire who has railed against the corruption of economic and political elites. Furthermore, three beachfront mansions in Malibu purchased through three offshore companies for $68 million by the King of Jordan Abdullah II in the years after Jordanians filled the streets during Arab Spring to protest joblessness and corruption.

Effects of the leak

Days after the leak, the controversy of the Pandora Papers resulted in Czech citizens voting Andrej Babis out of office. Babis's party finished second in a national plebiscite, narrowly losing the election and putting Babis out of office. One media poll suggested 8% of his party’s supporters switched their votes as a result of the Pandora Papers disclosures.

U.S. lawmakers have also pushed for legislation known as the Enablers act that would force trust companies, lawyers, art dealers and others seeking to transfer and move money and assets into the American financial system to be investigated, with the bill's advocates citing the Pandora Papers as a significant reason.