The ICIJ Offshore Database shows relationships and networks among people or companies and offshore entities. Consider this database like a corporate registry where you can check information about a company and the people who played a role in that entity at a certain point in time. Roles include being a director, a shareholder, a beneficial owner, a trustee, among others.
The first installment of the database was releasedon June 14, 2013 as part of ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks investigation.More records were added on January 23, 2014(from ICIJ’s China Leaksinvestigation), on May 9, 2016(from ICIJ’s Panama Papersinvestigation) and on September 21, 2016(from ICIJ’s Bahamas Leaksinvestigation).
Between November, 2017 and February, 2018ICIJ released data from the Paradise Papersinvestigation, including records from the offshore law firm Applebyand seven corporate registries: Aruba, Cook Islands, Bahamas, Barbados, Malta, Nevis and Samoa.
On Dec. 6, 2021, April 11, 2022, and May 3, 2022 ICIJ added data from the Pandora Papers investigation, coming from the offshore service providers Alemán, Cordero, Galindo & Lee (Alcogal), Alpha Consulting, Asiaciti Trust Asia Limited, CILTrust International, Commence Overseas Limited, Fidelity, IlShin, Overseas Management Company Inc, SFM Corporate Services and Trident Trust Company Limited.
The Offshore Leaks database contains information on more than 810,000 offshore entities and covers more than 80 years up to 2020.
The data represents only a fraction of the information gathered as part of the journalistic investigations, as it doesn’t divulge raw documents or personal information en masse.It contains a great deal of information about company owners, proxies and intermediaries in secrecy jurisdictions, but it doesn’t disclose bank accounts, email exchanges and financial transactions contained in the documents. The sources of this database are five massive leaks received by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists:
Pandora Papers (2021)
The Pandora Papers information – more than 11.9 million records – came from 14 offshore service providers that offer services in at least 38 jurisdictions. The 2.94 terabytes of data, leaked to ICIJ and shared with media partners around the world, arrived in various formats: as documents, images, emails, spreadsheets, and more.
The Pandora Papers gathered information on more than 27,000 companies, foundations and trusts and 29,000 so-called ultimate beneficial owners from 11 of the providers. On December 6, 2021, ICIJ added data to the Offshore Leaks database on more than 15,000 offshore entities that got services from two of the providers: Alemán, Cordero, Galindo & Lee (Alcogal) and Fidelity Corporate Services. On April 11, 2022 ICIJ published data on more than 2,000 offshore entities that got services from Alpha Consulting. On May 3, 2022 ICIJ published data on more than 9,000 companies, foundations and trusts from seven offshore service providers: Asiaciti Trust Asia Limited, CILTrust International, Commence Overseas Limited, IlShin, Overseas Management Company Inc, SFM Corporate Services and Trident Trust Company Limited.
Paradise Papers (2017)
The 2017 Paradise Papers investigation was based on a leak of 1.4 terabytes made up of more than 13.4 million files from one offshore law firm, Appleby, as well as Asiaciti Trust, a Singapore-based provider, and government corporate registries in 19 secrecy jurisdictions. The leaks were obtained by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and media partners around the world.
Between November, 2017 and February, 2018, ICIJ added data from the Paradise Papers investigation, including client records from offshore law firm Appleby and seven corporate registries: Aruba, Cook Islands, Bahamas, Barbados, Malta, Nevis and Samoa. ICIJ incorporated data on more than 290,000 entities connected to the Paradise Papers investigation.
Data connected with Saint Kitts and Nevis was also part of the Appleby dataset. However, some of the Appleby records didn’t distinguish between Nevis and Saint Kitts. In the case of the corporate registry, the information is only connected to Nevis. The jurisdiction filter displays “Saint Kitts and Nevis” and the source distinguishes between the Nevis corporate registry and the Paradise Papers Appleby related data.
Bahamas Leaks (2016)
The third source of this database comes from a leak of the corporate registry of the Bahamas obtained by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and media partners. From the 1.3 million files received as part of the Bahamas Leaks investigation, the database was expanded to include the names of directors and some owners of more than 175,000 Bahamian companies, trusts and foundations.
Panama Papers (2016)
The Panama Papers data comes from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, which was one of the world’s top creators of hard-to-trace companies, trusts and foundations, whose inner workings were exposed in the April 2016 Panama Papers investigation. The data was originally obtained from an anonymous source by reporters at the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, who asked ICIJ to organize a global reporting collaboration to analyze the files.
Published in this interactive website are records from Mossack Fonseca’s internal client database, including companies incorporated in tax havens and the people behind them. This is just a fraction of the complete leak, which amounts to 2.6 TB and 11.5 million files.
Offshore Leaks (2013)
You can also explore entities incorporated through Portcullis Trustnet (now Portcullis) and Commonwealth Trust Limited, two offshore service providers exposed as part of ICIJ’s 2013 Offshore Leaks investigation. ICIJ produced the first version of the Offshore Leaks database with Costa Rican newspaper La Nación.
