Shell shocked

The leak of the huge cache of offshore data in the Panama Papers reveals decades-old shell companies — many of which fraudsters have used to launder money and hide crimes. How can fraud examiners use the data? Will the revelations cause governments to overcompensate with overbearing regulations? Or will the exposé ultimately be ignored because unethical systems are so entrenched?

The shelling continues. The Panama Papers have revealed scores of global politicians, business leaders and celebrities as beneficiaries of shell companies — some suspicious, others legitimate. On April 3, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and more than 100 other news organizations released a leaked cache of 11.5 million records from the Mossack Fonseca law firm in Panama. Some 400 journalists secretly collaborated for more than a year to publish or broadcast the story on the same day.