The investigative journalists behind the Panama Papers leak will release the names of more than 200,000 offshore entities on Monday, in an information release that is expected to name names in the controversial offshore tax haven scandal.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a U.S.-based non-profit involved in the investigation, says the new release will not be another massive data dump but rather a curated selection of “basic corporate information” released in the public interest.
The 200,000 names will be released at 2 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday in a searchable online database. The information is expected to raise more questions surrounding the rich and powerful players involved.
It’s unclear whether any Canadians will be named in the leak, but two Canadian media partners involved in the investigation have said they will also release the database.
A staggering cache of 11.5 million records has already been released in the Panama Papers project, which identified links between global leaders and offshore companies. The leak named a number of high-profile figures, including the then-prime minister of Iceland, who resigned amid outcry in his country.
In Canada, the Canadian Revenue Agency has asked the Royal Bank of Canada to hand over more than four decades worth of client records connected with Mossack Fonseca, the law firm at the centre of the scandal.
Legal records from Mossack Fonseca were first leaked to the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung and have been analyzed by news agencies around the world.
