QUENTIN HUGON / THE WORLD
For six years he was silent. But today, the man behind the revelations of the 2016 Panama Papers, one of the biggest financial scandals in history, decided to speak out. Without leaving anonymity for reasons of personal security, the man who calls himself “John Doe” (the English equivalent of “Mister X”) and poses as a whistleblower granted an exclusive interview to the two German journalists, Bastian Obermayer and Frederik Obermaier , who were working at the Süddeutsche Zeitung at the time the research was published and are now in charge of the research medium Paper Trail Media, which is closely related to Der Spiegel.
Also read “Panama Papers”: Five years later, billions in revenue and several convictions
It was to them that John Doe had passed the confidential data that served as the basis for the “Panama Papers,” a massive leak of information from a Panama law firm specializing in the formation of offshore corporations for wealthy people, corrupt politicians, tax evaders and criminals networks.
This data was then shared with 107 media outlets around the world – including Le Monde – coordinated by an investigative journalism consortium, the ICIJ, and led to a global collaborative journalistic inquiry into the extent of capital concealment in tax havens and the loss of revenue for states.
The Panama Papers had triggered a global shockwave, between monster demonstrations in the streets of London and Reykjavik, the resignation of high-ranking politicians (including former Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson), the opening of court and tax investigations around the world… More than 1, $3 billion (€1.15 billion) in tax revenue has so far been reclaimed from countries around the world, including €126 million in France. The counter is still ticking.
So far, the mysterious John Doe has only spoken out once publicly, in a manifesto published a month after the Panama Papers, calling for the fight against inequality in the world. But in the interview he gave our German colleagues a few weeks ago with an internet connection and encryption software, the source of the “Panama Papers” lifted the veil of his deep motives. In a world plagued by “instability,” he warns against the proliferation of front companies and their use by authoritarian regimes: they are the ones “financing the Russian army and killing innocent civilians in Ukraine,” he said. Concerned about the risks he is taking for exposing the secrets of “international criminal organizations, some of which are linked to governments,” John Doe pledges that he will wait “until he is on his deathbed [se] reveal”.
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