Whistleblower says leak of 11.5m Mossack Fonseca files on offshore tax havens has triggered debate but not enough action 
 
 The whistleblower behind the Panama Papers broke their silence on Friday to explain in detail how the injustices of offshore tax havens drove them to the biggest data leak in history. 
 
 The source, whose identity and gender remain a secret, denied being a spy. 
 
 “For the record, I do not work for any government or intelligence agency, directly or as a contractor, and I never have. My viewpoint is entirely my own.” 
 
 The whistleblower said the leak of 11.5m documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca had triggered a “new, encouraging global debate”, thanks to the publication last month of stories by an international consortium of newspapers, including the Guardian. 
 
 “Shell companies are often associated with the crime of tax evasion. But the Panama Papers show beyond a shadow of a doubt that although shell companies are not illegal, by definition they are used to carry out a wide array of serious crimes,” the source wrote. “Income inequality is one of the defining issues of our time.” 
 
 
 
 “The prevailing media narrative thus far has focused on the scandal of what is allowed and legal in this system. What is allowed is indeed scandalous and must be changed.” 
 
 In what amounts to an 1,800-word manifesto days before David Cameron holds a global anti-corruption summit in London, the source singled out the Conservatives, saying they had been “shameless about concealing their own practices involving offshore companies”. 
 
 Cameron was forced to disclose last month he held shares in Blairmore, his father’s offshore investment fund. More than 40 countries are due to attend the summit on Thursday. 
 
 
 
 The source behind the Panama Papers got in touch last year with Bastian Obermayer, an investigative journalist with Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. They used the name John Doe and sent the message: “Interested in secret data?” 
 
 The source gave Süddeutsche Zeitung leaked documents from Mossack Fonseca’s internal database in real time instalments. The papers included details of the beneficial owners of offshore companies, passport copies, and emails. The newspaper shared the material with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in Washington. 
 
 
 
 In one of the biggest collaborations in journalistic history, the ICIJ gave access to the data to 100 media organisations, in 83 countries, which spent a year investigating them. 
 
 The source said they decided to act after understanding the “scale of the injustices” the documents described. Mossack Fonseca denies wrongdoing and says its operations in Panama and elsewhere are “beyond reproach”. 
 
 Since the publication of the papers last month, governments and law enforcement agencies have sought access to the files. The ICIJ had “rightly” declined to help, the source said, but added: “I, however, would be willing to cooperate with law enforcements to the extent that I am able.” 
 
 Intriguingly, the source said they originally offered the documents to “several major media outlets”. Editors reviewed the Panama Papers but in the end “chose not to cover them”, they alleged. It is unclear which media organisations declined the material. 
 
 The anonymous whistleblower also approached WikiLeaks – again without success. “Even WikiLeaks didn’t answer its tip line repeatedly,” the source complained, adding: “The media has failed.” 
 
 The source was excoriating about the legal profession, which helped set up tens of thousands of Mossack Fonseca-run shell companies. More than half the law firm’s offshore corporations were based in the British Virgin Islands, a UK-administered tax haven. 
 
 “Mossack Fonseca did not work in a vacuum. Despite repeated fines and documented regulatory violations, it found allies and clients at major law firms in virtually every nation,” the manifesto claimed. 
 
 The source was also critical of governments, in particular over their harsh treatment of whistleblowers. They appear to have been inspired at least in part by the example of Edward Snowden, who in 2013 revealed how the US and UK routinely monitor the communications of their own citizens. The Obama administration has charged Snowden with espionage and he was “stranded in Moscow”. 
 
 “For his revelations about the NSA, he [Snowden] deserves a hero’s welcome and a substantial prize, not banishment,” the source said. 
 
 Other whistleblowers who have faced punishment for their actions include Antoine Deltour, the source noted. Deltour is on trial for revealing how Luxembourg secretly sanctioned massive, aggressive cross-border tax avoidance by multinational corporations. 
 
 The source supported moves by Cameron to introduce public registers of offshore companies which would show the beneficial owners of companies. Britain is to introduce a public register for UK companies next month. But Downing Street has so far been unable to persuade Britain’s overseas territories to follow suit. They have offered to share information, but only with law enforcement agencies and only on demand. 
 
 Despite some positive steps, the UK government needed to do more, the source said: “The UK still has a vital role to play in ending financial secrecy on various island territories, which are unquestionably the cornerstone of institutional corruption worldwide.” 
 
 The whistleblower was generally underwhelmed by official reaction to the leak. In New Zealand, the prime minister, John Key, had been “curiously quiet” about his country’s role in enabling “financial fraud” in the Cook Islands. In the US, tax evasion could not be fixed, the source argued, while politicians relied on the super-rich for campaign funding. 
 
 The source concluded on an optimistic note. In an age of “inexpensive, limitless digital storage” and internet connections that transcend national boundaries “the next revolution will be digitised”. 
 
 “Or perhaps it has already begun,” the source said. 
 
 Credit: Süddeutsche Zeitung ||||| Image copyright AFP Image caption President Juan Carlos Varela is determined to ensure Panama's reputation is not besmirched by the scandal 
 
 Panama is creating an international panel to help improve transparency in its offshore financial industry. 
 
 The move follows the leak of millions of documents from law firm Mossack Fonseca, showing it helped some clients evade tax and avoid sanctions. 
 
 Several countries are probing possible financial crimes by the rich and powerful in the aftermath of the leak. 
 
 President Juan Carlos Varela said Panama would work with other countries over the revelations. 
 
 "The Panamanian government, via our foreign ministry, will create an independent commission of domestic and international experts," he said in a televised address. 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption The leaks from Mossack Fonseca's offices in Panama have created a worldwide media storm 
 
 The panel, he said, would examine working practices and propose measures that could be shared to strengthen the transparency of the financial and legal systems. 
 
 Correspondents say the president is eager to defend his country against a "media attack" by wealthy countries that he says are unfairly stigmatising him following the leak. 
 
 Are you in Panama? What is your reaction to the Panama Papers scandal? Send us your views and reaction. Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk 
 
 Mossack Fonseca, for its part, says that it has been the victim of a hack. 
 
 Mossack Fonseca partner Ramon Fonseca insisted the leak was not an "inside job" - the company had been hacked by servers based abroad. 
 
 It has now filed a complaint with the Panamanian attorney general's office. 
 
 Mr Fonseca served as a minister in the government of current President Juan Carlos Varela but stepped aside earlier this year after separate allegations linked the firm to the corruption scandal engulfing the Brazilian state oil company Petrobras. 
 
 Mossack Fonseca's Brazilian arm was accused of helping several of those accused in the Petrobras case of opening offshore companies in Panama in order to launder money through property transactions. 
 
 Mr Fonseca said he had stepped aside "to defend my honour and my firm" and denies any wrongdoing on the part of his firm in the Petrobras case. 
 
 Mr Varela has been quoted in Panamanian media as saying that he is still in touch with Mr Fonseca, calling him a "friend". 
 
 "At difficult times friends do not run away, they are there," Mr Varela said. 
 
 Mossack Fonseca has accused media organisations reporting the leak of having "unauthorised access to proprietary documents and information taken from our company" and of presenting this information out of context. 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mossack Fonseca says it has never been charged with any wrong-doing 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mr Fonseca said the "only crime" that had been committed was the hack of his firm's servers 
 
 The revelations have already sparked political reaction in several countries where high-profile figures have been implicated. 
 
 On Tuesday Iceland's Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson stepped down after the documents showed he owned an offshore company with his wife but had not declared it when he entered parliament. 
 
 The ruling coalition has named Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson as the new prime minister, with early elections to be held in the autumn. 
 
 Mr Gunnlaugsson says he sold his shares to his wife and denies any wrongdoing. 
 
 More on the Panama Papers 
 
 Panama Papers - tax havens of the rich and powerful exposed 
 
 Eleven million documents held by the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca have been passed to German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which then shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. BBC Panorama and UK newspaper The Guardian are among 107 media organisations in 76 countries which have been analysing the documents. The BBC does not know the identity of the source 
 
 They show how the company has helped clients launder money, dodge sanctions and evade tax 
 
 Mossack Fonseca says it has operated beyond reproach for 40 years and never been accused or charged with criminal wrongdoing 
 
 Tricks of the trade: How assets are hidden and taxes evaded 
 
 Panama Papers: Full coverage; follow reaction on Twitter using #PanamaPapers; in the BBC News app, follow the tag "Panama Papers" 
 
 Watch Panorama on the BBC iPlayer (UK viewers only) 
 
 Are you in Panama? What is your reaction to the Panama Papers scandal? Send us your views and reaction. Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk. 
 
 Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways: ||||| A man holds a banner which reads,"Panama Leaks, People Racketeer Enough"during a gathering on the Place de la Republique in Paris, France, Wednesday, April 6, 2016. A few hundred protesters have been... (Associated Press) 
 
 A man holds a banner which reads,"Panama Leaks, People Racketeer Enough"during a gathering on the Place de la Republique in Paris, France, Wednesday, April 6, 2016. A few hundred protesters have been camping out, holding night-time demonstrations since last week at a symbolic rallying point on the Place... (Associated Press) 
 
 BERLIN (AP) — The German newspaper that first obtained the so-called Panama Papers, a vast trove of documents on offshore companies, said Thursday that it won't publish all the files, arguing that not all are of public interest. 
 
 Sueddeutsche Zeitung received the documents from an unidentified source more than a year ago and shared at least parts of them with dozens of other media outlets around the world. Since the first reports were published Sunday, prominent politicians, celebrities and businesspeople have had their offshore business dealings dragged into the spotlight, prompting a flurry of public outrage, official investigations and fierce denials from some of those named. 
 
 Sueddeutsche Zeitung said the complete set of 11.5 million documents "won't be made available to the public or to law enforcement agencies. That's because the SZ isn't the extended arm of prosecutors or the tax investigators." 
 
 Authorities have legal powers to obtain such documents from those suspected of wrongdoing, and in many cases there's no public interest in revealing companies' or individuals' offshore business dealings, the Munich-based paper said. 
 
 The documents relate to Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, which helps create shell companies for the world's rich and famous. The firm said it has filed a criminal complaint alleging that the data was stolen in a hacking attack. 
 
 Sueddeutsche Zeitung said it didn't know how the anonymous source obtained the data, but that he or she had expressed "a very strong moral impulse" and wanted to make "these crimes public." 
 
 Panama's government on Wednesday accused wealthy nations of unfairly attacking the Central American country while ignoring their own failings. 
 
 President Juan Carlos Varela said an international committee of experts would be created to recommend ways to boost transparency in the Central American country's offshore financial industry. Experts say that while offshore companies can be used for tax evasion and money laundering, there are also legitimate and legal grounds for creating them. 
 
 German lawmakers said Thursday they plan to hold an urgent debate on the offshore leaks next week. 
 
 "The revelations in the Panama Papers have triggered a broad discussion among politicians and the public about necessary consequences," said Christine Lambrecht, a lawmaker for the Social Democratic Party that is part of Chancellor Angela Merkel's governing coalition. 
 
 Responding to readers' queries about the absence of prominent German or American politicians in the reports, Sueddeutsche Zeitung said such names haven't yet been found in the documents. 
 
 It said the documents include copies of the passports of 200 Americans, and about 3,500 shareholders in offshore companies listed addresses in the United States. 
 
 "One possible reason why comparatively few Americans appear in the documents could be that U.S. citizens have no reason to contact a law firm in Panama," the paper said. "That's because offshore companies can easily be created in U.S. states such as Wyoming, Delaware or Nevada." ||||| Most of the revelations so far have involved wealthy foreigners and political players overseas. The statement came on the same day that the Obama administration, citing the disclosures, announced a series of steps intended to prevent wealthy individuals, including political leaders, from using offshore shell companies to hide assets, embezzle or avoid taxes. 
 
 The proposals would create a centralized federal registry of the actual owners behind any newly established corporation, and would mandate that financial institutions collect and maintain information on these owners as bank accounts are set up. The moves would make it easier to investigate financial fraud. 
 
 “Our financial system should not provide the rich, the powerful and the corrupt with the opportunity to shield their assets and avoid paying their fair share or with the opportunity to hide any illicit activity,” said Wally Adeyemo, the deputy national security adviser for international economics. “Nobody should be able to play by a different set of rules.” 
 
 The statement by the Panama Papers source was released through the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which originally received the once-confidential archive of documents taken from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca. Bastian Obermayer, a reporter for the newspaper who received the original leak with his colleague Frederik Obermaier, wrote in a blog post that he had confirmed via encrypted chat that the statement had come from the same person — of unknown nationality — who provided the secret documents. 
 
 Süddeutsche Zeitung, working with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a Washington-based group comprising more than 100 news media organizations, published articles about the Panama Papers starting last month that have set off political furors and unsettled financial institutions around the world. 
 
 According to the consortium, the documents reveal the hidden assets of 12 current and former world leaders, 128 other politicians and officials, and a range of sports figures and celebrities. The 214,000 shadow companies described in the documents are tied to people in more than 200 countries and territories. The papers include long chains of emails showing how the companies have been used. 
 
 Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. 
 
 News reports based on the documents have linked $2 billion in assets to a childhood friend of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, and disclosed the holdings of the Aliyev family, which has long held power in Azerbaijan. The prime minister of Iceland, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, said he would temporarily step aside after the revelation that he and his wife owned an offshore company. 
 
 Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 In the statement, the source denied being a government official or contractor, now or in the past. The confidential source was also extremely critical of the news media, suggesting that certain unnamed news organizations had declined initial offers to take and report on the documents. 
 
 The measures announced on Thursday by the Obama administration, which in most cases have been in the works for years, would attempt to combat illegal tax shelters with a collection of new tools. 
 
 The centralized federal registry of the actual owners behind any newly established corporation — the most far-reaching of the proposals — could be established only if Congress passes legislation, which is unlikely in this election year. Legislation pending in Congress would require the reporting of similar ownership information when new companies are set up, but the information would be filed at the Treasury Department only if states did not collect it on their own. 
 
 Separately, the administration announced on Thursday that it had completed a rule, after four years of effort, that would require banks and other financial institutions in the United States to collect and keep accurate records on these same “beneficial owners” after they open a new bank account. 
 
 The rule mandates that banks know the identity of anyone who owns at least 25 percent of a legal entity or who “controls” it, information that again could be provided to law enforcement investigators looking into fraud allegations. 
 
 Treasury officials also called on Congress, after several years of delay, to ratify eight separate tax treaties with nations such as Luxembourg and Switzerland. The agreements would increase the amount of information that tax enforcement authorities in the various countries could share as they tried to crack down on illegal efforts to hide money. 
 
 And the Treasury Department proposed a regulation that would allow it to mandate that foreign-owned companies set up in the United States, like companies based here, register with the Internal Revenue Service. That would allow the federal government to determine whether the companies owed any taxes to the United States or whether they might have been set up to illegally shield the owners from having to pay taxes overseas. 
 
 Stefanie Ostfeld, the acting head of the United States branch of a nonprofit group called Global Witness, which has pushed for financial transparency laws, welcomed the moves by the Obama administration but said they were not necessarily sufficient. Many owners would remain hidden, she said, given that under the rules only individuals who own more than 25 percent of a company would have to identify themselves to banks. 
 
 “This is an important step to getting dirty money out of the financial system,” she said. “But there appear to be weaknesses in the regulation that provide would-be money launderers with a blueprint for how to structure companies to avoid detection and continue to have access to American banks.” ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 / Updated By Jon Schuppe 
 
 One of the many remarkable things about the massive leak of documents known as the Panama Papers is what's so far been lacking. 
 
 Americans. 
 
 The documents, related to a Panamanian law firm that specializes in creating shell companies for many of the world's richest people, provide a glimpse into how secret fortunes and ill-gotten gains are moved through a shady financial network, according to The International Consortium of Investigative Journalism, which worked with news organizations around the world to analyze the files. 
 
 The clients and connections included current and former world leaders, famous athletes and billionaires, but also notorious underworld operatives. The ICIJ says people in the United States were involved. But hardly any are among the bold-faced names made public. One exception is Chicago-based financial coach and author Marianna Olszewski — who, according to ICIJ member the BBC, allegedly used the firm, Mossack Fonseca, to hide her name as the owner of a secret offshore account. 
 
 The seeming dearth of Americans in the reports doesn't necessarily mean that U.S. citizens are more upfront, or more law abiding, than their counterparts around the world, experts said. But there are a number of possible reasons why so few have showed up in the coverage. 
 
 First, this was a leak of more than 11 million documents, and it will take some time for the ICIJ to scour them. "So maybe there are revelations about specific Americans and secret funds that we haven’t heard about," said Matt Gardner, executive director of The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a research organization. 
 
 At the same time, it's possible that Americans who do this sort of thing simply worked with law firms other than Mossack Fonseca. 
 
 There are numerous other firms, large and small, American and foreign, that help wealthy clients set up offshore shell corporations — which isn't of itself illegal, as long as the clients aren't trying to hide criminal proceeds or dodge tax collectors, experts said. Mossack Fonseca co-founder Ramon Fonseca has said that his firm broke no laws, and that it wasn't responsible for how the corporations were used. 
 
 "This firm is one of thousands in the world and there are hundreds or thousands just like it in the U.S.," said Ana Owens, a tax and budget advocate at U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), a federation of state-level consumer advocacy organizations. "If a company in the U.S. can do the exact thing for you as this company in Panama, then you might as well do it right here in the U.S. And its perfectly legal, which is the issue." 
 
 She cited a series of stories by the Portland Business Journal last year that revealed federal authorities' failed attempts to catch a California-based "corporation mill" committing fraud, despite evidence of financial crimes by companies related to the firm. 
 
 Related: Watergate to Real Estate: The Tangled Web of the Panama Papers 
 
 In January, the British activist group Global Witness found several New York real estate lawyers who expressed willingness to help an undercover reporter form shell companies to secretly move suspect money from Africa. 
 
 The United States is a tax haven 
 
 Two states, Delaware or Nevada, along with the U.S. Virgin Islands, are known in particular for loose regulations and low taxes, making them attractive for people to hide their activities and assets behind a corporate facade. 
 
 The British-based Tax Justice Network released a "Financial Secrecy Index" of popular tax havens last fall that ranked the United States third, behind Switzerland and Hong Kong, and far higher than Panama, at 13th. 
 
 Related: The Panama Papers: Boon for Tax Regulators, Bad News for Dodgers 
 
 What may keep more super-rich Americans from seeking tax havens is that they have less to lose, said Lee Sheppard, an expert in international finance at the nonprofit research organization Tax Analysts. 
 
 “For Americans, taxes aren’t all that high relative to other developed countries," Sheppard said. 
 
 But that doesn't keep some from trying. 
 
 Larry Langdon, a former IRS commissioner who now practices tax law, said many of America's biggest businesses, including Apple and Google, legally cut their tax burdens by forming companies in countries with even lower rates than the United States' — not only typical havens like islands in the Caribbean, but also job-hungry countries like Ireland. 
 
 The IRS wants to catch Americans who are breaking the law by hiding assets. But that has become difficult as budget cuts have forced the IRS to prioritize large corporations over wealthy individuals, he said. 
 
 Reform advocates say one possible solution lies in a bill pending in Congress called the Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act, which would require states to collect data on the "beneficial ownership" of shell companies. That information could be made available to investigators. 
 
 U.S. PIRG is sending dozens of activists to Washington next week to try to push lawmakers to pass it, Owens said. 
 
 If they get their way, advocates say, Americans would have fewer opportunities to hide assets. 
 
 The dearth of Americans on the Panama Papers doesn't minimize the broader problem, Gardner said. 
 
 "This shouldn’t just be a Panama story," he said. "This should be a wakeup call to us that some incredibly damaging things could be going on behind the scenes of these shell corporations."
– The newspaper that first received the Panama Papers says it isn't going to release all 11.5 million files it received from a whistleblower to the public or to law enforcement—because it "isn't the extended arm of prosecutors or the tax investigators." Sueddeutsche Zeitung has shared files relating to celebrities and politicians, but the German paper doesn't believe there's public interest in exposing all of the individuals and companies involved, the AP reports. The paper says it was contacted by a source at Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca who felt a "very strong moral impulse" to expose the tax evasion and money laundering the firm facilitated with its creation of thousands of offshore shell companies. In other coverage: Panama's President Juan Carlos Varela, apparently unhappy with his country's name appearing in headlines about financial crimes all over the world, has promised to boost transparency and clean up the industry, the BBC reports. He says the country will bring in international experts to recommend changes. The Guardian looks at how the scandal has exposed China's "red nobility"—wealthy families connected to the Communist Party. Prominent figures named in the papers include the brother-in-law of President Xi Jinping. Unsurprisingly, the scandal is not being reported in China, and censors have been trying to scrub every mention of it from social media. The CBC looks at how the wealth revealed in the leak is just a fraction of what an analyst calls "absolutely astonishing, mind-boggling amounts of money" tied up in offshore funds. Estimates run as high as $31 trillion, or 13% of global wealth, much of which is being kept in offshore funds to cheat governments out of tax revenue—or to hide the plunder of national resources. The New York Times looks at the history of the Mossack Fonseca firm and its role in Panama's economy. Co-founder Ramon Fonseca had been trying to expand his role in the country's government, claiming he wanted to improve the nation's human rights record. At the Atlantic, Brooke Harrington examines the legal issues involved and concludes that the real scandal isn't the law-breaking—it's that so much of what Mossack Fonseca did was perfectly legal.