The secret wealth and dealings of world leaders, politicians and billionaires has been exposed in one of the biggest leaks of financial documents, dubbed the Pandora Papers, reports BBC.
Some 35 current and former leaders and more than 300 public officials are featured in the files from offshore companies. They reveal the King of Jordan secretly amassed £70m of UK and US property. They also show how ex-UK PM Tony Blair and his wife saved £312,000 in stamp duty when they bought a London office.
The leak also links Russian President Vladimir Putin to secret assets in Monaco and shows how the Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis – who faces an election later this week - failed to declare an offshore investment company used to purchase two villas for £12m in the south of France. The examination of the files is the largest organised by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), with more than 650 reporters taking part.
Panama feared the publication of the papers as it could again taint its reputation, which was seriously damaged by the "Panama Papers" scandal in 2016. "The damage could be insurmountable," the Panamanian government had said in the letter, sent through a law firm to the government.
The 2016 investigation, too, had revealed the concealment of properties, companies, assets, profits and tax evasion by heads of state and government, political leaders and personalities from finance, sports and the arts.
Since then, Panama has carried out various legal reforms to strengthen banking controls and penalize tax evasion with jail time. The Panama of 2016 "is nothing like the Panama of today," the government said in its letter.