On Oct. 3, 11.9 million documents were leaked. These documents revealed secret information about hidden wealth, tax evasion, and money laundering from some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people.
The report on the Pandora Papers is a team effort between the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and partners like the Guardian and the Washington Post. The Papers revealed how more than 330 politicians from 90 countries used offshore companies to secretly hide their finances. This is twice as many as was revealed in the 2016 Panama Papers. Some of the stories include the spending of leaders like the King of Jordan and the ruling family of Azerbaijan.
With the multitude of headlines, it is difficult to make heads or tails of the Pandora Papers. Wealthy people doing illegal things is nothing new. Why are the Pandora Papers so significant?
These documents have been dropped during a time where the conversation about the rich-poor divide is prevalent. U.S. social ideas are being pushed as the pandemic uncovered the disparities between the one percent and the majority of the population. While lower-income people have been dying without medical care, the upper class continues to abuse its wealth and profit from the sick. Wealthy country leaders pursue self gains while they dictate the lives of the less fortunate.
The Pandora Papers shines a blinding light on the privileged elite. It gives an insight to the people of authoritarian countries about their leaders that their political system denies them. It uncovers the dirty scandals of moral compass countries like the UK. The people of the world can now see just how corrupt their politicians are, as well as how privileged the wealthy are.
This information is crucial to social movements. It will not be surprising to see how the Pandora papers impact the political and economic sphere in the near future. Leaders may find more turmoil among their constituents. Anti-trust legislation may begin to grow as people have proof of offshore activities.
More information is being revealed every day as journalists work to decode the data, but only time will tell the impact of the Pandora Papers.
