The Panama Papers, as they come to be known as, are a group of leaked documents from the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca. The leaked documents which include 11.5 million files, over 2.6 terabytes of data, expose the illegal actions of some of the world’s elites. The anonymous leaker who works for the firm explained his motivations saying “I decided toexpose Mossack Fonseca because I thought its founders, employees and clientsshould have to answer for their roles in these crimes, only some of which havecome to light thus far. It will take years, possibly decades, for the fullextent of the firm’s sordid acts to become known.”

The leaker does not work for a government agency of any kind but instead took inspiration from the NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden, who revealed back in 2013 that the United States and the United Kingdom illegally spy on their own citizens. The leaker described in his manifesto that whereasbefore revolutions in the form of military might was needed to subjugatepeople, in the modern world “curtailing information access is just aseffective.” He says the only defense people have against the new form ofsubjugation is “Fast internet connections that transcend national boundaries.”

The first major victim of the Panama Papers leak was the Prime Minister of Iceland, Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson. It was revealed that the Prime Minister did not declare an interest in the company when entering parliament,successfully hiding the money in order to avoid paying taxes for it. After the leak the people of Iceland protested in front of the Parliament building. Prime Minister Gunnlaugsson then petitioned the President to dissolve parliament and call for an early election a move that the chairmen of his party said was not “the rational thing to do.” He eventually stepped down as his impeachment was inevitable.

Another name that came up in the leaked documents is one of Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, closest friends. It was revealed that there is a network of secret offshore deals and loans worth two billion dollars that leads to President Putin. Though his name never comes up in the documents it is clear that the data reveals a pattern of his friends dealings that could not have been done without his patronage. These patterns show that Putin’s family benefits from this money but is under his friends name.

Other influencial people named in the documents include the family of Xi Jinping, The President of China, who has now restricted access to information about the Panama papers on the Chinese internet. In the Middle East the Kings of Morocco and Saudi Arabia, Mohammed VI and Salman respectively, go on trips on luxury yachts. The families of Hosni Mubarak, the former president of Egypt and of Muammar Qaddafi, former Libyan Leader and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad all appear to have secret offshore companies.

However, it is also important to know that not all names that come up on the Panama Papers are guilty of a crime. For example, names of celebrities have come up like Jackie Chan and Simon Cowell. What the Panama Papers reveal is a series of illegal actions that are seemingly common place by the elites around the world. Not even a quarter of the Panama Papers have been looked at thus far yet several Presidents, Prime Ministers and even Kings have been shown illegally avoiding taxes, laundering money and creating shell corporations. Only one of these leaders has been forced to step down from their positions and it is highly unlikely that any of them will be charged of any crime.