PANDORA PAPERS: Video & Major Stories From Our Partners

A trove of nearly 12 million confidential documents, collectively known as the Pandora Papers, reveals the hidden assets and secret deals of some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people, including 130 billionaires, 35 current and former world leaders and more than 330 politicians and public officials.

The documents — shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists by an anonymous source — include records from 14 financial service providers around the world. The leaked files illustrate the global entanglement of political power and secretive offshore finance, and how U.S. trusts are sheltering millions in controversial assets.

For close to two years, ICIJ has led an investigation into these documents with 150 media organizations, including FRONTLINE. Our resulting documentary with ICIJ, Pandora Papers, premiered Nov. 9, 2021. The full documentary is available to stream above; below are major stories from our media partners, updated as news breaks.

Calling the effort a core national security interest, the administration said it would work with Congress to bring more scrutiny to trust companies, lawyers and other financial gatekeepers, seek to identify owners ‘hiding behind opaque’ corporations and target those involved in real estate transactions used to hide or launder money.

The administration has also promised to ramp up anti-corruption investigations at the Treasury Department and other federal agencies and elevate U.S. efforts to partner with anti-money laundering regimes in other countries. The plan includes a call for greater diplomatic efforts to defend investigative journalists who expose corruption.”Read more

Just days after the Pandora Papers broke in early October, highlighting how U.S. trusts are sheltering millions in controversial assets, a bipartisan group of House members responded with proposed legislation, requiring the U.S. Treasury to expand due diligence rules for financial-services professionals.

There’s a whole … industry set up in the U.S., consisting of trusts, law firms, accounting firms, et cetera, that does not have to do any due diligence when someone shows up with a suitcase full of cash and asks for help in hiding it,’ said U.S. Representative Tom Malinowski D-N.J., who co-sponsored the bill. ‘The ENABLERS Act tries to close that loophole.’

Chile’s President Sebastián Piñera has been impeached by the lower house of congress, setting up a trial in the nation’s senate over allegations he favored the sale of a family property while in office.

The vote to impeach passed with the bare minimum of 78 votes needed in the 155-member chamber of deputies, and followed a marathon 20-hour session. Sixty-seven legislators voted against impeachment, including several members of the opposition. Others abstained or were absent.

Piñera is unlikely to be removed by the 43-member upper house, where the opposition has only 24 of the 29 votes needed to oust a president.Read more