Category: Cross Border

Philippines No. 3 worst case of impunity vs media — CPJ

mcmangahas Leave a comment

TOMORROW, MAY 3, is World Press Freedom Day.

Yet instead of joyful celebration, solemn tribute through action on the cases of journalists who had been killed, and whose killers remain at large, should mark the day, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

The CPJ launched today, May 2, its 2013 Impunity Index (“Getting Away With Murder”), which details the cases of “unpunished violence against the press” as a percentage of each country’s population.

The Impunity Index, published annually, “identifies countries where journalists are murdered regularly and governments fail to solve the crimes.”

The latest index covers murders that occurred from January 1, 2003, through December 31, 2012, and remain unsolved. Only nations with five or more unsolved cases are listed. The Index’s methodology considers cases unsolved “when no convictions have been won.”

Twelve countries that are the deadliest places in the world for journalists made it to the 2013 Impunity Index.

The Philippines landed in third slot after Iraq and Somalia.

Highlights of the CPJ’s 2013 Impunity Index follow:

1. IRAQ: “Iraq has the world’s worst record on impunity. No convictions have been obtained in 93 journalist slayings in the past decade. The vast majority of the victims, 95 percent, were local journalists. They include freelance cameraman Tahrir Kadhim Jawad, who was killed on assignment outside Baghdad in 2010 when a bomb attached to his car exploded. Jawad was a ‘courageous cameraman’ known for getting footage ‘where others had failed,’ Mohammad al-Jamili, Baghdad bureau chief for the U.S. government-funded outlet Al-Hurra, said at the time. Police opened an investigation but made no arrests.”

Impunity Index Rating: 2.818 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants last year: Ranked 1st with a rating of 2.906

2. SOMALIA: “In a country with a long history of media killings, 2012 was the deadliest year on record for the press. Twelve journalists were murdered in reprisal for their work in 2012 despite relative calm in the capital, Mogadishu. Given the ouster of Al-Shabaab insurgents from Mogadishu in 2011, the killings raised concern that reporters were being targeted by a widening field of politically motivated antagonists. Journalists with the aggressive Shabelle Media Network paid a high price: Four were slain in 2012 and three in the preceding years. The 2012 victims included Hassan Osman Abdi, known by the nickname ‘Fantastic,’ the network’s director and the producer of news programs. Nationwide, 23 journalist murders over the past decade have gone unsolved.”

Impunity Index Rating: 2.396 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants last year: Ranked 2nd with a rating of 1.183

3. PHILIPPINES: “Despite President Benigno Aquino III’s vow to reverse impunity in journalist murders, the Philippines ranked third worst worldwide for the fourth consecutive year. Fifty-five journalist murders have gone unsolved in the past decade. The 2011 Ortega murder reflects the politically inspired nature of the large majority of Philippine killings, along with the general breakdown in the rule of law that has allowed the killings to continue. Ortega, a radio talk show host who exposed corruption, was shot in the back of the head while shopping in a Puerto Princesa City clothing store. Police soon made arrests and traced the murder weapon to a provincial governor’s aide. But the case suffered a severe blow in 2013 when an alleged conspirator who had turned state witness was killed in prison.”

Impunity Index Rating: 0.580 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants last year: Ranked 3rd with a rating of 0.589

4. SRI LANKA: “Sri Lanka’s impunity rating was unchanged from 2012. But four years after the end of the nation’s long civil war, President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s administration has shown no interest in pursuing the perpetrators in nine journalist murders over the past decade. All of the victims had reported on politically sensitive issues in ways that were critical of the Rajapaksa government. The cases include the fatal 2009 beating of prominent newspaper editor Lasantha Wickramatunga. ‘If there are really independent investigations, many murders and attacks may be traced back to highest-level government politicians and military officials,’ said Ruki Fernando, a human rights defender with the Law and Society Trust.”

Impunity Index Rating: 0.431 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants last year: Ranked 4th with a rating of 0.431

5. COLOMBIA: “Colombia’s rating showed little change from 2012, but the nation, once one of the world’s deadliest for the press, has made steady progress over time. No journalists have been murdered for their work in Colombia since 2010. Improvements in the overall security climate have generally outpaced judicial gains, said Carlos Cortez, one of the founders of the Colombian press freedom group Foundation for a Free Press. The government provides security directly to journalists under threat. Among the eight unsolved murders over the past decade is the 2003 shooting of Jaime Rengifo Revero, a radio host who had criticized government security efforts in the north. Two former right-wing paramilitary members face charges in the killing.”

Impunity Index Rating: 0.171 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants last year: Ranked 5th with a rating of 0.173

6. AFGHANISTAN: “No journalists have been murdered in Afghanistan since 2008, but authorities have shown no progress in pursuing suspects in the five unsolved cases over the past decade. The most recent victim was Abdul Samad Rohani, Helmand correspondent for the BBC’s Pashto service and a contributor to the Pajhwok Afghan News agency. Rohani, abducted and shot in 2008, had recently reported on drug trafficking and its links to government officials. The planned 2014 withdrawal of NATO troops has raised new concerns about the overall security climate and, with it, the news media’s safety.”

Impunity Index Rating: 0.142 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants last year: Ranked 7th with a rating of 0.145

7. MEXICO: “President Enrique Pena Nieto has inherited a 90 percent impunity rate in journalist murders. Fifteen slayings have gone unsolved over the past decade, with most of the killings attributed to criminals affiliated with the country’s powerful cartels or to corrupt police and government officials. Journalist murders have declined slightly over the past three years, but CPJ research has concluded that the drop is due in part to the self-censorship that has taken hold in virtually every corner of the nation outside the capital. In May 2012, a Nuevo Laredo newspaper officially announced that it would no longer cover anything related to criminal groups. Congress and the states federalized crimes against free expression last year in a series of promising moves designed to move cases out of corrupt local jurisdictions.”

Impunity Index Rating: 0.131 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants last year: Ranked 8th with a rating of 0.132

8. PAKISTAN: “Pakistan’s failure to prosecute a single suspect in the 23 journalist murders over the past decade has pushed it up two spots on the index. A new onslaught of violence came in 2012, with five murders. One of the few cases to progress from investigation to trial was derailed last year when an eyewitness to the 2011 murder of Geo TV reporter Babar was gunned down two days before he was due to testify. Pakistani news media are vibrant and unified in speaking out against impunity; in March, representatives of dozens of outlets and groups began crafting a plan to improve journalist safety as part of the U.N. effort. But any optimism is tempered by a stark reality: CPJ research shows that journalists face an astonishing array of threats, not only from militants and warlords but from military, security, and government officials.:

Impunity Index Rating: 0.130 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants last year: Ranked 10th with a rating of 0.109

9. RUSSIA: “With 14 unsolved murder cases since 2003, Russia is the ninth worst country on the index. Journalists in the North Caucuses have been the most vulnerable in recent years; the most recent victim is Kazbek Gekkiyev, a state television anchor working in the region, who was shot three times in December 2012 on his way home from work. Russia’s historically poor record in prosecuting journalist killers prompted human rights lawyers and the mother of a journalist missing and presumed dead to submit a case to the European Court of Human Rights arguing that Russia fosters a state pattern of impunity in murders of journalists.”

Impunity Index Rating: 0.099 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants last year: Ranked 9th with a rating of 0.113

10. BRAZIL: “With nine unsolved cases, Brazil’s impunity rating has soared in recent years. Despite its expressed commitments to justice, Brazil has recorded no new convictions since 2010. Four journalists were murdered in 2012, the highest annual toll the regional powerhouse has seen in a decade. Three of the four 2012 victims worked for online publications. They included website editor Mario Randolfo Marques Lopes, who had aggressively covered government corruption and police misconduct. Provincial reporters, working out of the national media limelight and in areas where law enforcement is weak or corrupt, have been especially vulnerable in Brazil.”

Impunity Index Rating: 0.046 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants last year: Ranked 11th with a rating of 0.026

11. NIGERIA: “A steady rise in anti-press violence in recent years has pushed Nigeria onto the index for the first time. With five unsolved murders, it has the second worst impunity rating in Africa, behind only Somalia. Those covering the activities of the extremist Muslim group Boko Haram are particularly vulnerable. In 2012, assailants shot and killed Enenche Akogwu of independent Channels TV as he reported on the aftermath of terrorist attacks in the northern city of Kano.”

Impunity Index Rating: 0.031 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants last year: Nigeria was not on the 2012 index

12. INDIA: “Despite its growing international profile, India has lagged in ensuring free expression and the rule of law. No convictions have been won in the cases of six journalists murdered for reporting on local corruption, crime, or politics. Time and again, CPJ research shows, the arrests made after an attack have failed to lead to prosecutions. This is the case for Rajesh Mishra, who died after assailants hit him with iron rods in March 2012. Mishra worked for a Hindi-language weekly and had written about financial irregularities at schools in Rewa. Six suspects were arrested last year but none have been convicted.”

Impunity Index Rating: 0.005 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants last year: Ranked 12th with a rating of 0.005

The release of 2013 index, CPJ said, “comes at a pivotal moment in the global struggle against impunity.” It cited a United Nations plan “to combat deadly anti-press violence gets under way this year, with Pakistan being an early focal point,” as well as “to strengthen journalist safety programs and assist member states in developing ways to prosecute the killers of journalists.”

In the Philippine case, the 2013 CPJ report averred that, “the insecurity of witnesses is a key problem in addressing impunity.”

“Authorities in the Philippines… have yet to make headway in the prosecution of dozens of suspects in a politically motivated massacre in Maguindanao province that claimed the lives of more than 50 people, including 32 journalists and media workers, in 2009,” the report said. “Three witnesses in the Maguindanao case have themselves been murdered, one of them dismembered and mutilated.”

“Each time a witness is killed, it affects the morale of other witnesses by showcasing how inept the government is in ensuring their safety,” says Michaella Ortega whose father, prominent radio host Gerardo Ortega, was shot dead in 2011 in Puerto Princesa, Palawan. A key witness to the murder had been killed in jail.

Among other insights, the CPJ’s 2013 Impunity Index also noted that:

– “Local journalists were the victims in the vast majority of unsolved cases on CPJ’s index. Only 11 of the 265 murder cases on the index involve journalists working outside their own country.”

– “Political reporting was the most dangerous beat. Thirty percent of the victims included on CPJ’s index covered political news. Another 20 percent reported on corruption, the second most dangerous topic.”

– “Government and military officials are considered the leading suspects in 26 percent of murder cases on the index.”

– “Responding to threats could save lives. In nearly half of the cases reviewed for the index, victims received death threats prior to their murders.”

– “In dozens of cases, the killers clearly intended to send an intimidating message to the entire press corps. In 48 percent of cases in the index, the victims were abducted or tortured before being killed.”

CPJ’s Impunity Index is compiled as part of the organization’s Global Campaign Against Impunity, which is supported by the Adessium Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the Open Society Foundations.

Malaysian voters being denied rights to free, fair information

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AS MALAYSIANS go to the polls on Sunday, May 5, the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) has expressed concerned that voters are being denied their rights to fair and credible sources of information.

A network of independent media organizations in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia, SEAPA in an alerts report said that, “for any electoral process to be meaningful in a democracy, citizens must be able to access fair and accurate information, from diverse sources, so that they can make informed choices.”

The PCIJ, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), the Thai Journalists Association (TJA), the Alliance of Independent Journalists of Indonesia (AJI) and the Institute for Studies on the Free Flow of Information in Indonesia (ISAI), and the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) in Malaysia comprise the SEAPA network. Journalists’ associations in Timor-Leste, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Burma are SEAPA partners.

In its report, SEAPA noted that the 13th general elections in Malaysia on Sunday “has been described as a tough election” between the incumbent ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional, which has governed the country for more than 50 years, and the Pakatan Rakyat coalition led by former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim.

SEAPA, through its Executive Director Gayathry Venkiteswaran, cited preliminary results from a media monitoring activity undertaken by the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus and the Centre for Independent Journalism. The study found “mainstream media coverage of the elections campaigns were significantly biased towards the incumbent, Barisan Nasional.”

However, online portals “were found to be more balanced in the number and slant of stories of the contesting parties and candidates.”

“Yet, even with a high internet penetration rate of over 60 percent in the country,” SEAPA said, “there are large segments of society that do not have regular and affordable access to online information.”

The downside is, according to SEAPA, “the broadcast and print media, which have wider reach, are strongly controlled by the government.”

“The state broadcaster, Radio Television Malaysia (RTM), mainly broadcasts campaign information for the incumbent government. Giving in to public pressure, it offered 10 minutes of broadcast time for political parties in the opposing coalition, for the first time, to air their pre-recorded party manifestos,” SEAPA reported.

“Political parties in the Pakatan Rakyat coalition have rejected the offer, saying it made a mockery of fair and adequate media access to all parties contesting in the elections.”

SEAPA also expressed concern about “incidents of intimidation of journalists in the run up to the elections.”

Citing reports from the electoral reform group, Bersih, SEAPA said at least four reports of intimidation or obstruction in the work of the media workers, notably:

* “8 April: A reporter, who made inquiries about vehicles belonging to the Information Department that were reported to have facilitated the launch of Barisan Nasional’s command center in Kuala Lumpur, was threatened by a party official.”

* “22 April: Media personnel covering nominations for the Sibuti parliamentary constituency in the state of Sarawak, were allegedly prevented from entering the nomination centre despite showing their official media passes.”

* “24 April: A reporter with the Chinese daily Nanyang Siang Pau said she was attacked by BN party workers at an operations centre in Kuantan, Pahang. The police had not only refused to take her report, they also told her to delete photographs she took of the attacks.”

* “25 April: A photojournalist from China Press was punched by a man from a group of motorcyclists wearing blue 1Malaysia T-shirts who were disrupting a public talk organised by the Democratic Action Party (DAP) in Bukit Gelugor, Penang.”

SEAPA urged all the media outlets in Malaysia to “apply the highest standards of professionalism and ethics in their coverage of the general elections and the campaign.”

It also called on members of the National Union of Journalists of Malaysia to heed a resolution passed at its Extraordinary Delegates Conference on 3 March 2012, “to subscribe to fair reporting which is also in line with NUJ’s Code of Ethics, and endeavour to ensure that balanced reports are published.”

SEAPA likewise urged the Election Commission, and the political parties, candidates, and their supporters to “respect the rights of the journalists in their duties to report during the elections and refrain from using any means of intimidation, harassment or violence towards media personnel.”

Owning up when outed

Ed Lingao Leave a comment

IT REALLY IS indeed diff’rent strokes for diff’rent folks as Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism Executive Director Malou Mangahas aptly wrote in her April 5 article, “Repentant, reticent, rude,” on how local Philippine officials reacted to a PCIJ report identifying them as owners of offshore bank accounts.

Unlike most of the public officials here who have also been outed for having offshore accounts in the tax havens of the Caribbean Isles, Mongolia’s deputy speaker in parliament simply admitted, showed remorse, and announced he was considering resigning from office.

“I shouldn’t have opened that account,” Bayartsogt Sangajav, deputy speaker of Mongolia’s parliament was quoted in an article by Emily Menkes and Marina Walker Guevara for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

Bayartsogt is one of at least a dozen or so public officials who have been outed by the global investigative reporting project led by the ICIJ based in Washington DC. For the past 15 months, some 86 investigative journalists from 46 countries had been vetting and validating some 260 gigabytes of data which include at least 2.5 million files and more than 2 million electronic communiques.

“I don’t worry about my reputation. I worry about my family. I probably should consider resigning from my position,” Bayartsogt said when ICIJ confronted him about his offshore holdings.

“Bayartsogt, who says his Swiss account at one point contained more than $1 million, became his country’s finance minister in September 2008, a position he held until a cabinet reshuffle in August 2012,” the ICIJ article reads in part.

Bayartsogt had attended “international meetings and served as governor of the Asian Development Bank and the European Bank of Reconstruction, pushing the case for his poor nation to receive foreign development assistance and investment.”

The ICIJ article also reported that the deputy speaker was also “at the forefront of encouraging foreign mining and other companies to move into Mongolia.”

The investigative reporting project looked at 122,000 offshore companies or trusts, about 12,000 intermediaries (agents or “introducers”), and some 130,000 records of the people and agents who run, own, benefit from or hide behind offshore companies. Instead of just uploading the raw documents online, ICIJ decided to partner with journalists and media agencies – including the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism – to check out and verify the data. The project has been touted as the one of the biggest cross-border investigative partnerships in journalism history and one of the biggest financial leaks in history.

Here in the Philippines, pubic officials who have been outed for having offshore companies and trusts in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) include Ilocos governor Maria Imelda “Imee” Marcos-Manotoc, Senator Manny B. Villar, Jr and senatorial wannabee Joseph Victor G. Ejercito. Marcos had ignored the PCIJ’s inquiries, while Villar had acknowledged the account, claiming it was only a shell account with $1 inside. For his part, Ejercito in turn was evasive, and implied that the PCIJ was being used to derail his senatorial bid.

International experts say that for low-income countries such as Mongolia and the Philippines, funds that are hidden in tax havens affect the economic growth of the host countries of the wealthy elite who have opted to invest in offshore account and trusts because the “vital financial resources are stashed abroad rather than used to build up domestic infrastructure and productive capacity.”

The advocacy group, Tax Justice Network, claims that the total amount of funds hidden in tax havens comprise a third of the world’s wealth. Tax Justice Network is a non-government organization and is a staunch advocate against tax havens. James Henry of Tax Justice Network has estimated that the “stock of flight capital out of the Philippines reached $97 billion as of 2010.” This amount is more than the country’s external debt of only $60 billion that year as estimated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

According to former undersecretary of the Department of Finance Milwida Guevara, “the intention is to hide the transactions or hide their income so they made use of tax havens or places where there are no rules on transparency.”

“It’s hypocritical that they are sponsoring legislation that calls for faithful compliance with laws. At the same time, they are themselves trying to get away with it,” Guevara, who is also one of the founders of the Movement for Good Governance, said.

ICIJ: Release of offshore records draws worldwide response

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By Emily Menkes
The Global Muckraker
http://www.icij.org/blog

THE investigative series of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on offshore secrecy – which draws from a cache of 2.5 million secret records – has ignited reactions around the globe.

In the 48 hours since the initial release of stories by the ICIJ and its media partners across the world, public officials have issued statements, governments have launched investigations, and politicians and journalists have been debating the implications of the records and the reporting.

Among the reactions and responses:

- Philippine government officials said they will investigate evidence that Maria Imelda Marcos Manotoc, a provincial governor and daughter of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, was the beneficiary of a secret BVI offshore trust.

- George Mavraganis, the Deputy Finance Minister of Greece announced that the Greek government is moving to address offshore-driven tax dodging. Greek members of parliament asked Mavraganis what he planned to do about the 103 offshore companies that ICIJ found hadn’t been registered with Greece’s tax authorities. George Sourlas from Greece’s Ministry of Justice said the revenue loss caused by offshore was huge. “By the actions of offshore companies in Greece, the revenue loss to the Greek government is in the order of 40 per cent or more of the debt of our country,” Sourlas said. “The offshore companies cast a shadow at this time of great crisis, when some get rich and many get poor.”

- In France, President Francois Hollande denied knowledge of the offshore accounts held by his 2012 campaign manager, Jean-Jacques Augier, asserting that it’s up to the tax administration to monitor Augier’s private activities. Reports about Augier’s offshore dealings by Le Monde, the BBC and other ICIJ partners came in the wake of news about tax fraud charges against Hollande’s ex-budget Minister, Jerome Cahuzac.

- The office of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev asserted there was nothing unusual about the information in the leak – which showed that his two daughters were shareholders of three offshore companies. The statement said the President’s daughters “are grown up and have the right to do business.” A spokesperson for Azersun – a holding company controlled by Hasan Gozal, a corporate mogul who was listed as the director of the daughters’ companies – said the report was biased and based on inaccurate information. “I regret that authority of Press Council doesn’t go beyond Azerbaijan and there is no such institution worldwide to fight racketeer journalists,” the spokesman said.

- Ex-Columbian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez publicly defended his sons’ involvement in offshore business. Uribe stated that his sons Tomás and Jerónimo are entrepreneurs and “have participated in business dealings since they were children” and “they are not tax evaders.”

- In the UK, David Cameron is facing renewed pressure to take action over Britain’s entanglements within the offshore world. Lord Oakeshott, a senior Liberal Democrat said that the secrecy haven of the British Virgin Islands “stains the face of Britain.” Oakeshott and others are questioning whether Cameron will raise the issue in June of at the G8 summit of wealth nations. “How can David Cameron keep a straight face calling for the G8 to make big business pay tax when we let the BVI use British law and British protection to suck in billions in dirty money?” Oakeshott asked.

- German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble stated on public radio that he was “pleased” with the ICIJ reports. He went on to say, “I think that such things as have been made known will increase the pressure internationally, and we will be able to increase the cooperation with those who have been more reticent”, a sentiment reflected in Germany’s previous lobbying to stamp out tax avoidance.

- Canadian Federal Revenue Minister Gail Shea called the released of offshore banking information as “good news” for Canadians and bad news for tax evaders. Ms. Shea urged ICIJ or anyone else with information on tax cheats to come forward.

- Pascal Saint-Amans, director of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, said: “Secrecy is no longer acceptable. We need to get rid of it. If the rules make it possible, then we’ll change the rules.”

Highlights of offshore leaks so far

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By Emily Menkes
The Global Muckraker
http://www.icij.org/blog

THIS week marks the beginning of one of the biggest financial leaks in history.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has just released the first stories from a global collaborative project into the world of offshore money.

The Tax Justice Network, an advocacy group claims that a third of the world’s wealth is tied up in the secret area of offshore.

For the past 15 months, journalists from over 40 countries have worked together to shed light on this issue.

And here’s some of what they found.

- François Hollande’s treasurer during the 2012 presidential campaign, businessman Jean-Jacques Augier, is revealed to have investments in the Cayman Islands.

- Philippine government officials said Friday that they will look into the disclosure that Maria Imelda Marcos Manotoc, the eldest daughter of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos was a beneficiary of a secret offshore trust in the British Virgin Islands. “We are duty bound to investigate and, depending upon informed preliminary findings, decide whether to pursue the matter,” said Andres Bautista, the chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, tasked with recovering the Marcos family’s alleged ill-gotten wealth.

- Germany’s largest financial institution, Deutsche Bank, helped its customers maintain more than 300 secretive offshore companies and trusts through its Singapore branch.

- New light is shed on a half-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme in Venezuela that shuffled investor money among a maze of offshore companies, hedge funds and bank accounts stretching from the Cayman Islands to Switzerland and Panama, smoothing the way by funneling bribes to officials in Venezuela.

- Commonwealth Trust Limited, a BVI-based firm, is revealed to have set up companies involved in the Magnitsky affair, a case that’s strained U.S.-Russian relations and blocked American adoptions of Russian orphans.

- One of Mongolia’s most senior politicians says he is considering resigning from office after being confronted with evidence that he has an offshore company and a secret Swiss bank account.

- A prominent Canadian lawyer, husband to a Liberal senator, moved CA$1.7 million (US$1.1 million) to secretive financial havens while he was locked in battle with the Canada Revenue Agency over his taxes, according to documents in a massive leak of offshore financial data.

- A corporate mogul whose business empire has won building contracts worth billions of dollars amid Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s massive construction spree is tied to the president’s family through secretive offshore companies.

- The prominent Thais listed in secret documents as owners of offshore holdings includes the former wife of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a sitting senator, a former high-ranking defense ministry official, Forbes-listed tycoons, and a former government minister whose assets in the United States are frozen because of her alleged links to Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe.

- Greek citizens who own or direct offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands and other tax havens rarely declare them to Greek tax officials, a review of more than 100 companies shows. Just four out of 107 offshore companies investigated by ICIJ are registered with tax authorities as the law usually requires, particularly when the firms hold assets or conduct business in Greece. Officials apparently have no record of the other 103 firm – or whether the owners declared any assets held by these entities or paid taxes on them.

- A list containing examples of some of the most high-profile names uncovered in this investigation, along with records of their offshore companies. Those named come in the form of politicians, businessmen, army generals, tycoons, relatives of dictators, and are scattered across 29 different countries.

Finally, for those interested in how ICIJ managed to tackle records cache, the data manager of the project, Duncan Campbell, writes an in-depth explanation of how our journalists were able make sense of the 260 gigabytes of information obtained.

Four large databases, half a million text, PDF, spreadsheet, image and web files were dissected to reveal over 130,000 records on the people and agents who run, own, benefit from or hide behind offshore companies.