The massive leak of offshore-wealth secrets: 4 takeaways

A journalism nonprofit is slipped a huge cache of documents detailing the tax-avoiding schemes of the super-rich, and the group is naming names

Behind this idyllic scene on the British Virgin Isle of Virgin Gorda, is a trove of offshore money.
(Image credit: Neil Rabinowitz/CORBIS)

Sometimes a news story is almost too complicated to wrap your head around; other times it's just too big. Late Wednesday, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists unveiled a massive trove of data and analysis on how the world's super-rich hide their wealth through secret companies and trusts located in the British Virgin Islands and other offshore tax havens. They name names, and put those names to numbers.

But here are some other numbers that explain the challenge of tackling the massive leak of confidential financial data: Somebody gave the consortium a flash drive with about 260 gigabytes of data — 160 times larger than the 2010 WikiLeaks diplomatic cable dump. The drive included 2.5 million files containing 30 years' worth of records of 120,000 offshore companies and trusts and their connection to individuals and firms in more than 170 countries and territories. It took 86 journalists from 46 countries and 38 media partners to sift through the records and try to make sense of what the ICIJ calls "the biggest stockpile of inside information about the offshore system ever obtained by a media organization."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.