Panama Papers cut a swath through countries and industries

World leaders including Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping have been implicated in the scandal following the leak of 11m documents from secretive Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca. Reports suggests that 72 current and former heads of state have offshore connections, which could relate to tax dodges or illicit activity. Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is under particular pressure to answer questions regarding his significant wealth following the leaks; Pakistan is already vulnerable on a number of levels including the balance and sharing of power, hence there are fears that this scandal could inflame the situation. The documents also name banks such as Nordea Bank, Societe Generale and UBS and FIFA's ethics committee comes under scrutiny, with links shown between Uruguayan lawyer and committee member, Juan Pedro Damiani, and former senior FIFA vice-president, the recently accused Eugenio Figueredo. Furthermore, Anglo-Australian mining firm BHP Billiton was highlighted in reports relating to the Panama Papers due to concerns that two of its BVI-registered company's were authorised to received significant amounts of money and it has links to at least 19 other companies registered on the islands. 

At least eight top Chinese officials are linked to offshore deals through associates, an investigation into 11 million leaked documents from one of the world’s largest offshore law firms shows. They include the brother-in-law of Chinese president Xi Jinping, whose offshore firms went dormant before Xi came into power, and the granddaughter of a former top leader who bought an offshore company for just $1.

Family members of at least eight current or former members of Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee, the country’s supreme governing body, hold offshore companies arranged through Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) reported.

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The China investigation is part of a leak called “the Panama Papers,” which reveal the hidden financial dealings of over 100 politicians and public officials around the world. Current or former heads of state in the leak include prime ministers of Iceland and Pakistan, the president of Ukraine, and the king of Saudi Arabia. A suspected $2 billion money laundering ring has links to Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, the Guardian reported as part of the leak.

Hundreds of journalists from 78 countries spent a year analyzing and verifying nearly 40 years of records, and published the first installment of their investigation on April 3. The records were given by an anonymous source to German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, and were shared by ICIJ.

It is not illegal to own an offshore company, but these entities are often used for illegal activities, including money laundering and tax evasion.

So far ICIJ has revealed four names of Chinese officials. They include president Xi Jinping, former premier Li Peng, the former fourth-ranking Politburo Standing Committee member Jia Qinglin, who have links to offshore companies through their relatives. The fourth, imprisoned former Chongqing city Party chief Bo Xilai, is involved via a business partner of his wife.

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Xi initiated a sweeping anti-graft campaign since he took control in November 2012. The corruption crackdown has covered each province of the nation, with high-ranking officials being targeted including former president’s top aide Ling Jihua, and ex-security czar Zhou Yongkang. By going after Zhou, Xi broke an unwritten rule that a former member of the Politburo Standing Committee should not be investigated.

That obviously hasn’t stopped the country’s most powerful from moving money off shore though secretive companies. A 2014 ICIJ investigation also revealed that relatives of current or former Chinese leaders were using offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands. Those include Deng Jiagui, Li Xiaolin, and relatives of late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, former president Hu Jintao, and former premier Wen Jiabao.

