Wikileaks is resting - ICIJ has published a study of the largest data leak on offshore accounts of the powerful



    Fifteen months ago, an anonymous source handed over to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists ( ICIJ ) 2,500,000 files totaling 260 gigabytes containing data on financial transactions of 130,000 organizations and individuals from 170 countries that used offshore zones for tax evasion .

    ICIJ brings together journalists from major global publications investigating the abuse of government and big business. A study of 30 years of the history of offshore transactions, which 86 journalists from 46 countries conducted for more than a year, is the largest consortium project in its history. According to the Tax Justice Network , the powers that be are hiding in the offshore "paradise" of the planet from 21 to 32trillions of dollars.

    Files were transferred to ICIJ on the hard drive. The total amount of information was 160 times the volume of the famous leak of confidential correspondence of politicians published by the Wikileaks website. To analyze the four large databases contained on it, almost two million emails and about five hundred thousand image files, PDF documents, HTML and spreadsheets, we used commercial software for the analysis of unstructured text ( NUIX and dtSearch ) and a self-written Interdata system for data exchange, Designed specifically for this project. In addition, separate tools and scripts were created to solve specific subtasks. All graphic files were previously passed through text recognizers.

    For communication, team members used closed forums - other instruments of secure international communication, such as mail encryption, did not take root, as they were inconvenient to many participants and slowed down communication.

    Offshore is a complex global network of legal entities and individuals, in which it is very difficult to find the real owners of many companies, accounts and luxury property. Offshore companies widely use the services of “zits-chairmen” - for example, more than 21,000 companies were registered in the names of only 28 people, the most active of which managed to be listed as directors of more than 4,000 companies.


    An example of visualizing entity relationships on a NUIX system

    Among the active users of offshore policy areas are large officials, top managers, arms dealers, oligarchs. A separate section of the study is devoted to the political and business elite of the countries of the former USSR .

    It becomes especially sad if you recall that many of these people in public advocate the fight against “money laundering” and “terrorist financing” by restricting freedom of speech on the Internet, forced deanonymization, a ban on the use of cryptography and decentralized electronic currencies, complain about huge losses, which infringe copyright and patents on the economy and even try to “clean up” the entire Internet right away , despite the fact that it was created and works great without their participation.

    PS Meanwhile, in Bank of Cyprusaccidentally destroyed important documents containing information about transactions that led to the collapse of the banking system of Cyprus.


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