Over 13 million files, many of them containing confidential and
sensitive client information, were leaked from offshore legal
service providers and corporate registries in 19 jurisdictions
including the Caribbean, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. More
than half of the documents came from law firm Appleby. As a
result, sometimes complex financial structures used by well-known
figures and companies, including the Queen (through the Duchy of
Lancaster), Lewis Hamilton, Arsenal and Everton football clubs and
Apple and Nike, were exposed to scrutiny and widespread
comment.
The files were obtained by German newspaper Süddeutsche
Zeitung and reported by the International Network of Investigative
Journalists (ICIJ). The ICIJ is represented in the UK by the
Guardian and BBC's Panorama, which recently ran this as
a
two-part story/exposé. Süddeutsche Zeitung was also
the publication initially contacted by an anonymous source with
encrypted internal documents from the
