The Pandora Papers is an investigation based on more than 11.9 million documents revealing the flows of money, property and other assets concealed in the offshore financial system.
The Washington Post and other news organizations exposed the involvement of political leaders, examined the growth of the industry within the United States and demonstrated how secrecy shields assets from governments, creditors and those abused or exploited by the wealthy and powerful. The trove of confidential information, the largest of its kind, was obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which organized the investigation.
Here are some key questions and answers:
What is the offshore system?
The offshore financial system offers privacy, which can provide an opportunity to hide assets from authorities, creditors and other claimants, as well as from public scrutiny.
While most people are bound by the laws where they live, the offshore system allows wealthy people to follow another country's financial regulations even if they don't live there. They can shelter their wealth -- yachts, airplanes, artwork, mansions, cash and even company shares -- by paying financial services providers to set up companies and other offshore arrangements to hold those items.
These entities take a variety of forms, including trusts, holding companies and shell companies, but most operate in the same general manner. They're often set up in a way that obscures who benefits from the wealth, where it came from and, sometimes, the fact that it even exists.
Why is it called offshore finance?
This system is known as offshore finance because the countries that popularized this method of sheltering wealth were often in island or coastal locations, but today "offshore" signifies anywhere that is not a customer's country of residence. The 14 financial services providers in the Pandora Papers operate in countries such as Belize, the British Virgin Islands, Singapore, Cyprus and Switzerland as well as South Dakota, Delaware and other American states.
Why do people hold their money and other assets offshore?
Offshore companies provide a way for wealthy people to hold their money with greater privacy than might be afforded by financial institutions in their home countries. This discretion can offer those who want to hide their assets a way to shield their holdings from taxes, civil lawsuits, creditors and investigators.
Why a person has set up a company or account in an offshore tax or secrecy haven is rarely stated explicitly in the Pandora Papers files. Even in internal documents, some offshore entities do not fully identify the asset holders, instead using initials or "beneficial owner" -- the person who receives the wealth.
Is it legal to use the offshore system?
Offshore providers are typically established according to the laws of the country where they are located, but some clients have used offshore services in ways that are not legal.
Offshore jurisdictions write laws that offer benefits including secrecy and low or no taxes. While the person who benefits from an offshore account may be required to pay taxes in a home country, it is often difficult for authorities there to discover that an account exists or to know whether there is illegal activity because of a lack of cooperation from the offshore government.
The Pandora Papers contain numerous references to "suspicious activity reports" and requests for information about offshore accounts by investigative agencies around the world, some of which went unanswered for years. Experts say more oversight of the industry is needed.
Why does it matter if people "offshore" their assets?
The offshore financial system can siphon money from government treasuries, worsen wealth disparities and protect those accused of wrongdoing while depriving their victims of potential recourse.
Studies have estimated that the world's ultra-wealthy own the bulk of the trillion-dollar-plus realm of offshore companies. More than 130 people on the Forbes magazine list of billionaires turn up in the Pandora Papers.
Some of those billionaires have faced questions regarding the sources of their wealth. Several have been charged with thefts of money or natural resources, while others have faced international sanctions for their ties to autocrats and political corruption.
How is the Pandora Papers probe different from the Panama Papers?
The Panama Papers, a 2016 Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation based on documents from an offshore financial services provider in Panama, exposed the hidden infrastructure of offshore tax havens.
This new investigation, based on a larger trove of information that includes documents from 14 offshore providers, illuminates on a larger scale the scope of this financial system and offers new insights into how it operates. The Pandora Papers expose more than twice as many account holders and political figures as the Panama Papers did.
Who are the big names involved in these documents?
Current national leaders on five continents appear as beneficial owners of offshore entities in the Pandora Papers trove. The list includes Jordan's King Abdullah II, the presidents of four African nations, the Czech Republic's prime minister, the president of Ukraine and the presidents of the Dominican Republic and Ecuador.
Many former leaders and associates of current leaders also turn up in the documents, including a woman who engaged in a secret, years-long relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a Russian media report last year.
Dozens of celebrities and athletes were or are beneficial owners of offshore accounts, according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists's analysis of the records.
Information from this article was contributed by Debbie Cenziper, Greg Miller, Peter Whoriskey and Paul Sonne of The New York Times, and by Will Fitzgibbon, Malia Politzer, Spencer Woodman, Delphine Reuter and Emilia Diaz-Struck from International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.