By Jesús Escudero and Delphine Reuter
Nine years later, the groundbreaking Panama Papers investigation continues to inspire governments around the world to chase badly needed revenue lost offshore to tax evasion schemes.
In recent years, governments have recouped hundreds of millions of dollars more in back taxes and penalties, records show, as a result of the cross-border journalism collaboration led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, along with 100 media partners from five continents, published in April 2016.
The Panama Papers, a trove of more than 11.5 million confidential documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, were obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with ICIJ in a landmark project that put tax evasion on the global public agenda. The confidential files exposed an international web of offshore shell companies created for wealthy clients, including star athletes, top business executives and, most consequentially, heads of state.
The official investigations have yielded a variety of outcomes. Last year, Panama’s courts acquitted 28 people, including Mossack Fonseca co-founder Jürgen Mossack, of money laundering over their alleged role in setting up shell companies used in scandals in Brazil and Germany.
ICIJ’s current tally based on information received from various governments — which included updated amounts and, in some cases, lower amounts as authorities corrected their own figures — stands at $1.3 billion. This recovery figure almost certainly understates the investigation’s true financial impact, as many governments declined to share recent information with ICIJ and its media partners. In some cases, tax authorities disclosed only how many taxpayer audits had been conducted and the money audited, but the governments have not been able to track how much money was actually recouped and whether any payments were for back taxes or fines.
A Flourish chartResponding to public information requests filed by the Indian Express, Indian authorities disclosed they had collected more than $17.4 million in tax revenue after examining more than $1.6 billion in previously undisclosed assets in connection with the Panama Papers. Further, Indian tax authorities said they filed 46 criminal prosecution complaints and had conducted searches, seizures and surveys as part of 84 Panama Papers-related cases.
Other countries said they had made additional collections since 2021 when ICIJ published a previous tally of taxes recouped as a result of information published in the Panama Papers. In Sweden, the money recovered exceeded $237 million by mid-2024 — up from just $19.3 million a few years prior. New Zealand had recouped just $410,400 in 2021 and now claims more than $8 million.
Belgium saw the amount it recouped more than double in the last four years from $18.5 million to nearly $42.2 million, while the Netherlands posted an increase of $16.4 million to about $30.6 million. France had added more than $66 million to its total by the end of 2022, which then sat at over $208 million, and Spain has recouped $175.3 million overall.
In some countries, authorities stopped updating such figures or declined to provide them to ICIJ or its media partners. U.S. authorities never shared information.
Lack of money identification
While several countries set up task forces or commissions in the wake of the Panama Papers, tallying the money recouped can be difficult. Countries’ internal reporting systems don’t always identify specific journalistic investigations as the source for the settlements or fines.
Israel’s Internal Revenue Service reported that “dozens of tax assessments were issued in amounts between hundred thousand and millions of NIS [Israeli shekels] per assessment,” but those cases “were not ‘painted’” to specific investigations, a spokesperson told Shomrim.
In Finland, authorities told ICIJ media partner Yle that a “few million euros” were recovered following ICIJ’s investigations but didn’t provide specific amounts. Last August, Finland’s Nordea Bank agreed to pay $35 million to New York State authorities as part of a money laundering case partly built on Panama Papers findings, according to the New York State Department of Financial Services. Panama Papers reporting revealed the bank had helped hundreds of customers create offshore companies in tax havens.
