The five most important charts from the 'Panama Papers' leaks

Heads of state, politicians and celebrities are among those named in leaked files exposing ownership of offshore accounts EPA

The Panama Papers is being described as the “biggest leak in history”, larger than the US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks in 2010 and the secret intelligence documents revealed by Edward Snowden in 2013. 

Over 11 million of confidential documents have been leaked from Mossack Fonseca, a law firm based in Panama showing how the company helped its clients launder money and evade tax.

Mossack Fonseca has denied any wrongdoing and said it had “operated beyond reproach in our home country and in other jurisdictions where we have operations”.

But the documents reveal links to 72 current or former heads of state and accuse some of them of having vested interests in their own banks and looting their own countries. 

The Panama Papers were obtained by an anonymous source who contacted the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which worked with other papers and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalist (ICIJ( to go through the data.

Here are the five most important charts from the Panama Papers leak: 

 

The leak exposed the banks requesting the most offshore companies for clients with Experta Corporate & Trust Services leading the list for the number of requests. HSBC and Credit Suisse have denied suggestions they were actively using offshore structures to help clients cheat on their taxes on Tuesday.

The British Virgins Islands topped the list of the most popular tax havens, followed by Panama and the Bahamas.
 

Hong Kong topped the list of countries where intermediaries—banks, law firms, accountants, and related firms—operate with over 2,200 listed.
 

The most active clients by number of offshore company incorporations were from Hong Kong, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
 

 

Beyond the data's revelations, the analysis process itself also exposed the shifty modes of operation utilized by offshore companies. 

“This internal database didn’t have a date for the closing of the companies. In the offshore world entities are hardly closed: they’re either inactivated or they stop paying fees and their status changes to what’s called “struck off” in the offshore lingo.” The ICIJ team explained in the data methodology.