The Panama Papers scandal

The leak of millions of documents from a Panama law firm has propelled the world of offshore investments into the headlines. What’s the fuss about? Simon Wilson reports.

At first glance, the Paradise Papers story looks like it will be a much smaller scandal than the Panama Papers two years ago. Back then, the huge leak of documents from offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca uncovered many shell companies that were being used for tax evasion, getting around sanctions and other outright illegal activities. The leak from offshore law firm Appleby has at the time we go to press mostly just revealed some awkward but legal details about the financial affairs of everybody from the Queen to Bono.

Yes, a few public figures could soon be having an uncomfortable conversation with the taxman about whether their arrangements are legitimate tax avoidance or something that pushes the limits of the law a bit too far to be tolerated. But the main lesson might seem to be that if you are an offshore law firm that has not yet reviewed its cybersecurity systems, it would be wise to do so very quickly.

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Simon Wilson’s first career was in book publishing, as an economics editor at Routledge, and as a publisher of non-fiction at Random House, specialising in popular business and management books. While there, he published Customers.com, a bestselling classic of the early days of e-commerce, and The Money or Your Life: Reuniting Work and Joy, an inspirational book that helped inspire its publisher towards a post-corporate, portfolio life.   

Since 2001, he has been a writer for MoneyWeek, a financial copywriter, and a long-time contributing editor at The Week. Simon also works as an actor and corporate trainer; current and past clients include investment banks, the Bank of England, the UK government, several Magic Circle law firms and all of the Big Four accountancy firms. He has a degree in languages (German and Spanish) and social and political sciences from the University of Cambridge.