What are the Pandora Papers and who leaked them?
The IndependentFor free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} The Pandora Papers is one of the largest global financial investigations ever attempted, bringing together more than 600 journalists from 140 media organisations across 117 countries to pour over almost 12m leaked documents from 14 offshore services companies in order to examine the wealth concealment and tax avoidance strategies of some of the world’s richest and most powerful people. Among the biggest names caught up in the Pandora Papers revelations so far are Tony and Cherie Blair, Conservative Party donor Mohamed Amersi, an alleged former lover of Russian president Vladimir Putin, King Abdullah of Jordan, Czech prime minister Andrej Babis, Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta and Azerbaijan’s ruling Aliyev family. The Blairs reportedly saved around £312,000 in tax on the purchase of a London property by acquiring an offshore company named Romanstone International Ltd, which was based in the British Virgin Islands. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday, UK chancellor Rishi Sunak said that Britain’s HMRC will inspect the Pandora Papers but denied that its revelations regarding tax avoidance should be considered “a source of shame” to London, insisting instead: “Actually our track record on this issue is very strong.”