> While much of the leaked material will remain private, there are compelling reasons for publishing some of the data.
How convenient.
> the papers simply reveal the vast number of people who use offshore to protect their wealth. There is nothing unlawful about doing this. It is not illegal to be a director, shareholder or beneficial owner – the real owner, even though their name may not appear on the shareholder register – of an offshore company.
Then why hide it?
This smells funny. Millions of papers leaked, and Putin is the biggest fish they caught. I don't doubt he's knees-deep in illegal activity, but I just can't see how $2B is in any way comparable with the billions hidden by westerners; after all, it was them who set up and keep protecting tax havens, and they've had 100 years to learn to conceal their activity, compared to just 2 decades for the Russians. I'll remain hopeful, though, for further leaks of some western influential figures.
There are a lot of legitimate reasons to use these kinds of services. Releasing all the data is a huge privacy violation for all the customers who have done nothing wrong. Would you like much of your perfectly legal business and/or personal finance dealings suddenly made public?
Yes. I think all contracts should be public (or, equivalently, that private contracts wouldn't be enforceable). That kind of transparency would help a lot with various issues we have these days (terrorism, inequality, corruption, bribery, white-collar crime, ...).
How convenient.
> the papers simply reveal the vast number of people who use offshore to protect their wealth. There is nothing unlawful about doing this. It is not illegal to be a director, shareholder or beneficial owner – the real owner, even though their name may not appear on the shareholder register – of an offshore company.
Then why hide it?
This smells funny. Millions of papers leaked, and Putin is the biggest fish they caught. I don't doubt he's knees-deep in illegal activity, but I just can't see how $2B is in any way comparable with the billions hidden by westerners; after all, it was them who set up and keep protecting tax havens, and they've had 100 years to learn to conceal their activity, compared to just 2 decades for the Russians. I'll remain hopeful, though, for further leaks of some western influential figures.