The leak
- Size of the leak: 2.6 TB
- Number of documents: 11.5 million
- Span of the data: 1977 to December 2015
(We’re taking into consideration the incorporation and closing dates of the companies. There are a few incorporation dates before 1977, but they only represent less than 1per cent of the companies in the data, so that’s why we’re discarding them for this global count)
Number of entities
- 214,488 (Please note this number includes companies, trusts and foundations, so it would be more accurate to say “number of entities” than “number of companies”)
Number of clients (intermediaries)
- 14,153 (We’re only considering the clients that we have connected to at least one company. There are a few cases where our several data updates recorded a client change and the client no longer had associated companies. These clients have also been counted.)
Most common file types
- 1) Emails (message);
- 2) HTML;
- 3) PDF;
- 4) TIFF (used for scanned images);
- 5) Word document (.doc or .docx)
Number and names of jurisdictions:
21: British Virgin Islands, Panama, Seychelles, Samoa, Bahamas, British Anguilla, Nevada, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Belize, Costa Rica, Wyoming, Malta, New Zealand, Cyprus, Niue, Uruguay, Ras Al Khaimah, Singapore, Isle of Man, Jersey. (We're not including FOREIGN as research shows it is an internal code by MF; not including Florida as it has only one company and it's unclear whether MF is the registered agent yet and note that Cyprus has two codes to refer to it)
Breakdown of number of companies by jurisdiction: (see embedded map).
In the data
- Number of (current or former) country leaders: 12. (This figure includes heads of state and government)
- Number of relatives and associates of country leaders: 61. (We are only counting relatives and associates of country leaders, we didn’t include in this count relatives and associates of other politicians)
- Number of other (current or former) politicians and public officials: 128 . (This is a conservative figure as we are only counting cases in which we confirmed the identity of the person and the incorporation of an offshore company. This figure does not include the politicians who are country leaders)
- Number of Forbes-listed billionaires: 29
- Number of countries and territories connected to the data: 204
Banks in the data
- Number of banks, subsidiaries and branches: 511
- Number of companies created by banks: 15,579
About the investigation
- Number of journalists: 378
- Number of media organisations: 107
- Countries: 77
- Length of the investigation: 1 year
