The 11.5 million-file cache
Archive
Emails, contracts and registries from Mossack Fonseca, about 2.6 TB, are the primary store. ICIJ did not dump every raw message onto the open web.
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
Notoriety90
Mystery28
Scale92
Evidence85
Legal impact78
Culture82
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Last reviewed Sources & creditsMedia creditsMethodology
Quick answers
What are the Panama Papers?
A 2016 journalistic publication of 11.5 million files from the Panamanian firm Mossack Fonseca, coordinated by ICIJ and more than a hundred outlets after Süddeutsche Zeitung received the cache from a source called John Doe. Stories began on 3 April 2016.
Was every name in the files a criminal?
No. Many offshore companies are legal. The leak showed who used Mossack Fonseca's services. Some later faced tax or corruption cases; many did not. Appearance in the files is not, by itself, a conviction.
Who is John Doe?
The still-anonymous source who delivered the files to Süddeutsche Zeitung. A later manifesto argued that inequality justified the leak. ICIJ has not publicly identified the person. Mystery in this atlas is about that identity, not about whether the files existed.
Which leaders fell?
Iceland's Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson resigned in April 2016. Pakistan's Nawaz Sharif was disqualified by the Supreme Court in 2017 in a case that grew from the leak. Other countries saw ministers questioned or audits opened without a uniform result.
What happened to Mossack Fonseca?
The firm announced it would shut down in 2018 after the reputational and legal shock. Founders denied criminality. Closure of a firm is not the same as a single global judgment against every client.
Did the leak change the law?
It sped beneficial-ownership and tax-transparency projects already underway at the EU and OECD. National statutes vary. LegalImpact in this atlas is high because registers and inquiries moved, not because one treaty was named 'Panama'.
The cache is the exhibit. Journalism authenticated stories against it; courts then used or ignored those leads.
What remains thin is a single global tally of illegal dollars — the files are not one fraud ledger.
Exhibits
ICIJ Offshore Leaks database
Document
A structured public search of companies, officers and intermediaries. It is a research tool, not a guilty list.
John Doe manifesto
Statement
The source's later text states a political motive. It does not identify the person and is not a court finding.
Iceland and Pakistan public files
Court
A resignation after televised confrontation and a 2017 Supreme Court disqualification are the hardest political-legal exhibits.
National tax-audit results
Ledger
Some countries published extra tax collected after the leak. Figures vary by year and agency and should be dated, not globalised into one number.
2017 Pulitzer citation
Press
The prize records the English-language canonisation of the project. It is cultural evidence, not a verdict on clients.
How strong is the record?
That the files are real95
Partner newsrooms and later official inquiries treated the cache as authentic.
Source identity15
John Doe remains unnamed in public.
Uniform criminality of names30
Appearance in the files is not a conviction. Many structures were legal.
Political aftershock80
Resignations, a disqualification and a wave of audits are documented.
Evidence is a mountain of corporate paper and a valley of uneven courts.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.