The Panama Papers: Breaking the Story of How the Rich and Powerful Hide Their Money

In early 2015, an anonymous whistleblower provided investigative journalists Bastian Obermayer and Frederik Obermaier with access to 11.5 million documents—the largest data leak in history. These secret records detailed 214,000 offshore companies and revealed how the wealthy hide billions of dollars through complex financial networks. Obermayer and Obermaier led an international team of 400 journalists who worked in secret for a year to investigate the leak. Their reporting uncovered cases involving heads of state, politicians, businessmen, major banks, the mafia, diamond miners, art dealers, and celebrities. The journalists won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for this work. The Panama Papers documents the investigation and how this major story was exposed to the public.