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The Panama Papers: The Untold India Story of the Trailblazing Global Offshore Investigation
An anonymous whistle-blower and an astounding 2600 GB of data. A giant leak of 11.5 million financial and legal records. A global collaboration of over 100 news organizations working in twenty-five languages in eighty countries. More than 350 reporters on the trail for nine months in complete secrecy.
The Panama Papers exposed in black and white the crime and corruption of the rich and powerful who stashed away their wealth in tax havens. This is the India story of the mega investigation.
The Panama Papers shook the world, woke up governments and showed what investigative journalism could achieve even in a post-truth world through a path-breaking alliance between an individual whistle-blower and a coalition of global media. The only Indian publication in the global collaboration, the Indian Express played a crucial role. Now, for the first time, award-winning journalists Ritu Sarin, Jay Mazoomdaar and P. Vaidyanathan Iyer tell the backstory of hot leads and cold trails, of open denial and veiled intimidation.
The Panama Papers underlined the loot of public money and the need for tax reforms. In an age of rising inequality, the importance of public funding to fight poverty cannot be overstated. The lack of public confidence in regulatory frameworks or political will also fuels perceptions of illegitimacy of wealth. In India, black money has gained more currency than ever as a political metaphor and future electoral gains may well depend on the perceived success of a war against illegal wealth. Financial corruption though cannot be defeated without transparency in election funding. The Panama Papers reignited a global debate on surmounting these challenges.
About the Authors
Ritu Sarin is executive editor (investigations) at the Indian Express. One of India's most renowned investigative reporters, she has received several awards for her work. A member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) for two decades, Sarin participated in most of ICIJ's global collaborations. She is the author of The Assassination of Indira Gandhi (1990).
Jay Mazoomdaar is an investigative reporter with the Indian Express. His work on environment and development has impacted a number of policy decisions at the highest levels, and has been recognized by several awards. Mazoomdaar is the author of The Age of Endlings (2016). He also writes on offshore finance.
P. Vaidyanathan Iyer is executive editor (national affairs) at the Indian Express. He writes on the political economy and his work has won several awards. An Edward S. Mason Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, Iyer is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. He dotes on his son, Yajas.
The Panama Papers exposed in black and white the crime and corruption of the rich and powerful who stashed away their wealth in tax havens. This is the India story of the mega investigation.
The Panama Papers shook the world, woke up governments and showed what investigative journalism could achieve even in a post-truth world through a path-breaking alliance between an individual whistle-blower and a coalition of global media. The only Indian publication in the global collaboration, the Indian Express played a crucial role. Now, for the first time, award-winning journalists Ritu Sarin, Jay Mazoomdaar and P. Vaidyanathan Iyer tell the backstory of hot leads and cold trails, of open denial and veiled intimidation.
The Panama Papers underlined the loot of public money and the need for tax reforms. In an age of rising inequality, the importance of public funding to fight poverty cannot be overstated. The lack of public confidence in regulatory frameworks or political will also fuels perceptions of illegitimacy of wealth. In India, black money has gained more currency than ever as a political metaphor and future electoral gains may well depend on the perceived success of a war against illegal wealth. Financial corruption though cannot be defeated without transparency in election funding. The Panama Papers reignited a global debate on surmounting these challenges.
About the Authors
Ritu Sarin is executive editor (investigations) at the Indian Express. One of India's most renowned investigative reporters, she has received several awards for her work. A member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) for two decades, Sarin participated in most of ICIJ's global collaborations. She is the author of The Assassination of Indira Gandhi (1990).
Jay Mazoomdaar is an investigative reporter with the Indian Express. His work on environment and development has impacted a number of policy decisions at the highest levels, and has been recognized by several awards. Mazoomdaar is the author of The Age of Endlings (2016). He also writes on offshore finance.
P. Vaidyanathan Iyer is executive editor (national affairs) at the Indian Express. He writes on the political economy and his work has won several awards. An Edward S. Mason Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, Iyer is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. He dotes on his son, Yajas.
248 pages, Hardcover
First published November 18, 2019
14 people are currently reading
82 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 30, 2020
Strictly recommended for journalism enthusiasts only.
April 20, 2020
I picked this book up by chance while doing some emergency book shopping as the world slowly head into lockdown. I enjoyed learning about how the Panama Papers investigation was carried out in India and it's consequences. However, I must say that for a book written by 3 seasoned journalists, it is very poorly edited, making it a tedious, and at times, repetitive read.
September 5, 2021
Disclaimer : This review is from a strictly disinterested person in finance, although I aim to have a business yes, these numbers do bore me, and yes I know I can sound very contradictory towards myself.
I took reading this up basically because okay fine I accept it, I was curious to know how many people were involved/ are involved in swindling/laundering money and whether or not are they strong public figures. With that approach if you want to find the names you'll be bored in the build up because as an occupational hazard of the authors they have went on and on about the same things in different paraphrases maybe a finance person or a tax vocab lover would love the history of how taxes came into existence, and yes I agree a background is necessary for every Layman for establishing relatable content, but I found that a few chapters were just a drag. Also I appreciate that they have tried keeping things apolitical and unbiased at their best, (you know bringing both the powerful parties in the limelight) but they only found evidence on one and that's not the current ruling party IYKWIM, big names like the Bachchans', Aishwarya Rai, Saif Ali Khan were found to be recorded on Mossack Fonseca's files to be running shell companies inorder to save taxes. Yes Chidambaram and Lalit Modi and everyone too were not spared in those. Also when it comes to giving the credit to the ruling party surprisingly they have given it to the Late Arun Jaitley, and yes our current PM. Only to add how the demonitization did little or nothing to curb the black money. If you wonder how big is the amount of money our scammers have laundered well it's 3.5% of the GDP as per the year this book was published. The book deeply dives on how journalists investigate these cases across the entire globe when 2.6 GB, yes you read GB of data was leaked by a whistleblower to show how Mossack Fonseca a law firm was arm twisting their jurisdictions and functioning like a money laundering tool for their clients. Continued in comments.
I took reading this up basically because okay fine I accept it, I was curious to know how many people were involved/ are involved in swindling/laundering money and whether or not are they strong public figures. With that approach if you want to find the names you'll be bored in the build up because as an occupational hazard of the authors they have went on and on about the same things in different paraphrases maybe a finance person or a tax vocab lover would love the history of how taxes came into existence, and yes I agree a background is necessary for every Layman for establishing relatable content, but I found that a few chapters were just a drag. Also I appreciate that they have tried keeping things apolitical and unbiased at their best, (you know bringing both the powerful parties in the limelight) but they only found evidence on one and that's not the current ruling party IYKWIM, big names like the Bachchans', Aishwarya Rai, Saif Ali Khan were found to be recorded on Mossack Fonseca's files to be running shell companies inorder to save taxes. Yes Chidambaram and Lalit Modi and everyone too were not spared in those. Also when it comes to giving the credit to the ruling party surprisingly they have given it to the Late Arun Jaitley, and yes our current PM. Only to add how the demonitization did little or nothing to curb the black money. If you wonder how big is the amount of money our scammers have laundered well it's 3.5% of the GDP as per the year this book was published. The book deeply dives on how journalists investigate these cases across the entire globe when 2.6 GB, yes you read GB of data was leaked by a whistleblower to show how Mossack Fonseca a law firm was arm twisting their jurisdictions and functioning like a money laundering tool for their clients. Continued in comments.
June 13, 2020
For me it was like reading the materials and methods section of a research paper! No juicy stuff.
July 16, 2020
Not good. Could not understand what the author us trying to say through this book. I will not recommend this book
April 5, 2025
The scoop is very interesting but there is a lot of factual information which makes it slightly boring. You can just flip through a lot of pages
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews