Around 35 of the world's current and former leaders, over 300 officials, and 130 Forbes billionaires, not to mention celebrities, drug dealers, and royal family members, had their secrets exposed by one of the biggest leaks in history and the biggest ever global investigation.

The work, dubbed the Pandora Papers, was the result of the collaborative effort between more than 600 journalists from around the world, and it came from data obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and its collaboration with more than 140 media organizations.

The data the ICIJ obtained is a staggering 2.94 terabytes of evidence against the global elite, exposing their hidden wealth, tax evasion, and financial crimes, including money laundering. The 2.94-terabyte data was distributed between documents, images, emails, spreadsheets, and more.

The investigation of the Pandora Papers took over a year of structuring, researching, and analyzing. The 12 million records - the basis of the investigation - were obtained through a leak of confidential records of some 14 offshore service providers. The providers give professional services to wealthy individuals and corporations seeking the incorporation of shell companies, trusts, and foundations so that the elite could dodge taxes or obtain otherwise impossible tax-cuts.

Said entities would cloak the individuals behind the shell corporations and mask their identity from the public and regulators, even helping them obtain bank accounts in countries with light financial regulation.

The investigation's scope included over 200 countries and territories, and some of the leaders whom the leak exposed were King Abdullah II of Jordan, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Presidents of Ukraine, Kenya, and Ecuador, and the Czech PM. These political figures have been exposed for offshore dealings.

The leaked records saw an unprecedented amount of information leaked regarding "beneficial owners" of entities registered in several 'tax havens,' such as the British Virgin Islands, Seychelles, Belize, and Panama - which had been previously involved in a similar leak, the Panama Papers. The information included in them also exposed shareholders, directors, and officers. The files included dated as far back as the 1970s; however, the majority of those reviewed by the ICIJ were those created between 1996 and 2020.

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The United States was heavily involved in the Pandora Papers, as several states were a go-to for their financial secrecy. The majority of the trusts were in South Dakota (81), Florida (37), Delaware (35), and Texas (24). 

The ICIJ estimates that money hidden offshore could range between $5.6 trillion to $32 trillion. The IMF reported that tax havens and offshore funds cost governments up to $600 billion each year. 

King Abdullah II's Other Kingdom

The Pandora Papers revealed that an English accountant worked with lawyers in the British Virgin Islands to help King Abdullah II, the king of Jordan, purchase over $106 million worth of property, amounting to 14 luxury homes in the United States and the United Kingdom. The advisers also helped him set up some 36 shell companies between 1995 and 2017.

One of the properties the king owns is in California, and he purchased it through a company in the British Virgin Islands. The monarch paid extra to have another Swiss wealth managers-owned BVI company act as the 'nominee' director for the company he bought the property through.

Nominee directors are individuals or companies paid to act as the front of whoever is behind the company. In this case, application forms for nominee directors were sent to clients by Alcogal, King Abdullah's law firm. The applications said the use of nominee directors helps "preserve privacy by avoiding the identity of the ultimate principle... being publicly accessible."

UK attorneys for the king said, under Jordanian law, he is not required to pay taxes, citing 'security' and 'privacy' reasons behind his ownership of property through offshore companies. Additionally, the attorneys said King Abdullah II "has never misused public funds." However, the reason behind such ownership could be due to the economic state of Jordan and its status as one of the poorest West Asian countries, giving the monarch a reason for wanting to avoid flaunting his wealth, experts suggest.

Neighbors and Partners in Crime

Although loopholes in the law do not criminalize the usage of tax havens, it is still deemed unethical by many.

We see that others who have committed this act were in Lebanon, one of Jordan's neighbors. Lebanon has been facing several crises, and like Jordan, it is one of the poorest West Asian countries - several prominent political and financial figures in it have been under the microscope for their wealth.

The Pandora Papers show that some of the figures who have been under the microscope are indeed involved in offshore havens. The figures include Prime Minister Najib Mikati, a multi-billionaire from Tripoli, the poorest city on the coast of the Mediterranean, Hassan Diab, his predecessor, and Riad Salameh, the governor of Lebanon's central bank (BDL), who is under investigation for money laundering and owning offshore assets in several countries.