Context:
- The Paradise Papers are set of 13.4 million documents mainly from Appleby, an offshore law firm with offices in Bermuda and beyond related to offshore investment in some of the world’s most secretive countries.
- It is a global investigation that reveals the offshore activities of some of the world’s most powerful people and companies.
- They reveal tracks of veiled offshore financial activities.
Why in news?
- The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has released ‘The Paradise Papers.
- Among 180 countries represented in the data, India ranks 19th in terms of number of names. In all names of 714 Indians have figured in this largest ever black money data leak.
About International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ):
- The ICIJ is global network of more than 200 investigative journalists in 70 countries who collaborate on in-depth investigative stories.
- It was founded in 1997 by respected American journalist Chuck Lewis.
- It was launched as a project of Centre for Public Integrity, focusing on issues that do not stop at national frontiers: corruption, cross-border crime and accountability of power.
- It is headquartered in Washington DC, US.
- Earlier in 2016, it had released Panama Papers.
- In February 2017, ICIJ was spun off to become a fully independent news organization with the goal of extending global reach and impact even farther.
Source: TH & Wiki