The Paradise Papers investigation, based on a leak of 6.8 million documents from the offshore law firm Appleby, is the largest of recent revelations of the hidden world of financial manipulation used by both multinational corporations and rich (high net worth) individuals from around the world. Like the Panama Papers investigation that won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize, it is based both on "big data" analysis and on collaborative investigative reporting by teams of hundreds of journalists. But it is based on the records of only one offshore law firm, albeit one of the most prominent. Despite the size of the leak, it still reveals only the tip of the iceberg.
Such massive data leaks, plus dozens of other more focused investigations, show that the system of hidden wealth is not at all an aberration but rather an essential feature of today's globalized capitalism. In the United States as well as in South Africa, to take only two of the most prominent examples, untangling such financial webs is central to the future of national leaders and the shape of the political system. And its ramifications are evident in the real estate markets of cities such as London, New York, Miami, and Cape Town.
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