![]() ![]() The intra- and inter-relationships between these top actors are described, and their connectivity structure is characterized. The network is represented in the scale of countries and geographical regions, allowing researchers to discover the structure of the worldwide offshoring connections for the top countries in terms of occurrences in the ICIJ database. The network is built based on the relations that appear in the ICIJ Offshoring and Panama Papers database ( Offshore Leaks Database, 2018) and allows for the detection of association patterns between actors. Taking into account the actual necessity to illustrate the behavior of worldwide offshoring activities, the present research aims to analyze a network of connections between countries and regions involved in this practice. The Panama Papers showed how wealth can be hidden and taxes evaded through tax havens ( Ait Bihi Ouali, 2020), however, there is a lack of transparency regarding the offshore network, which leads to the need to study its structure and behavior. Corporations are identified as the main tax haven users ( O'Donovan et al., 2019), but wealthy individuals also evades taxes through the creation of a shell company ( Joaristi et al., 2018). This is reinforced by the fact that 10% of world GDP is retained in tax havens, for example, countries such as the United States, have estimated annual loss of tax collection of about $30–40 billion, due to offshore activities ( Gould and Rablen, 2020). Tax regulatory entities and authorities worldwide have focused their attention on implementing schemes to recover tax on offshore investments ( Gould and Rablen, 2020). The initial purpose of tax havens was to provide low tax provisions to attract investments ( Dharmapala and Hines, 2009b Bucovetsky, 2014), but the increase of offshoring activities has become more visible, and thus, not all tax havens are perceived to be safe ( Dharmapala and Hines, 2009b), with an existing tendency to use tax havens for criminal purposes. Behind this fraudulent scandal, illegal operations of money laundering, tax evasions and fraud have been detected. Approximately 360,000 businesses and individuals are involved in this filtration, covering approximately 200 countries, which are connected to offshore structures. These papers provide information on the financial details of individuals and public officials, exposing the use of offshore business for possible illicit activities. Main photo: Panama Papers by Erik Cleves Kristensen (Flickr – CC BY 2.The Panama Papers refer to a recent leak of 11.5 million of documents, uncovered by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), of confidential financial and legal documents from the Panamanian law firm “Mosack Fonseca” which offered corporate services and became one of the largest entities to provide offshore financial services worldwide ( Joaristi et al., 2019). This is the reality of modern journalism: an increasing dependence on donor funding and public support for public interest journalism. It was an enormous task which no single media organisation could have handled alone, and it was paid for largely by philanthropic and charitable foundations, including Adessium Foundation, Open Society Foundations, the Sigrid Rausing Trust, the Fritt Ord Foundation, the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, the Ford Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts and Waterloo Foundation. They co-ordinated the analysis and distillation of the material with its large network of international partners, including Le Monde, the Guardian and the BBC and leading news outlets on five continents. The records were obtained from an anonymous source by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung which shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICFJ) in the United States. Investigative journalists worked together to analyse secret documents from 11.5 million files held by the global offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca. ![]() The papers revealed corruption, secrecy and double-dealing in public life and exposed how political leaders and corporate bosses from across the world were involved in secret offshore business deals – some of them financing war and terrorism. This was one of the biggest acts of journalism in recent history involving more than 370 journalists from 80 countries and covering 100 leading news media organisations. One of the most stunning examples of why the world needs quality and fact-based journalism was the leak and publication of the Panama Papers in April. It has not been all bad news for ethical journalism in 2016. ![]()
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