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Six years after the Panama Papers first rocked the world, ICIJ’s landmark investigation is still making waves. From political scandals to legal prosecutions to tax probes, books, movies, and more, the fallout continues to surprise us with its far-reaching impact.
This spring, the investigative findings gained new relevance when Russia invaded Ukraine. The Panama Papers unveiled the moneyed secret financial network behind President Vladimir Putin, and many of the top players that ICIJ first exposed became the targets of unprecedented international sanctions.
Perhaps no one’s more surprised by it all than the person behind the leak: an anonymous source who calls himself John Doe.
“I am astounded with the outcome of the Panama Papers. What ICIJ accomplished was unprecedented,” Doe told German news outlet DER SPIEGEL in his first ever media interview.
Doe spoke candidly with ICIJ’s German reporting partners about the grave risks he still lives with as a whistleblower, why he leaked the files, and what he feels still must be done to clamp down on the harms of global financial secrecy — made clearer than ever amid Russia’s military aggression.
“Putin is more of a threat to the United States than Hitler ever was, and shell companies are his best friend,” Doe said. “I never thought that releasing one law firm’s data would solve global corruption full stop, let alone change human nature. Politicians must act.”
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