Paradise Papers, Panama Papers - Current Affairs Questions and Answers

ANSWER: Iceland

Explanation:
Numerous politicians, celebs and criminals have been implicated in a 11 million strong cache of leaked files showing how the rich stored their money using offshore assets and illegally saved on tax.

• Iceland’s PM Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson' resigned- he and his wife were implicated in the scam
• Leak has been dubbed Panama Papers by ICIJ or International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a non profit group in the US which originally published them
• Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca has been the creator of some of the world’s biggest shell firms
• 12 current and former world leaders as well as 128 prominent figures are those named in the records

ANSWER: Both b and c

Explanation:
Joseph Stiglitz, Mark Pieth quit Panama Probe citing lack of transparency and accountability.

• Stiglitz and Swiss anti-corruption expert Mark Pieth joined a seven-member commission tasked with probing Panama's notoriously opaque financial system, but they say they found the government unwilling to back an open investigation.
• Both quit the group after they say Panama refused to guarantee the committee's report would be made public.
• The Panama Papers cover a period of almost 40 years, from 1977 until December 2015, and show that some companies set up in tax havens with the help of Mossack Fonseca may have been used for money laundering, arms and drug deals as well as tax evasion.

ANSWER: Panama Papers

Explanation:
The Panama Papers probe, a collaborative work of more than 100 media organisations including The Indian Express, has won the Data Journalism Awards 2016 for Investigation of the Year.

• The award was presented at the Global Editors Network (GEN) summit in Vienna.
• The Panama Papers investigation was based on 2.6 terabyte of data obtained by German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung
• It has been shared through the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
• The Data Journalism Awards is hosted by the Global Editors Network, a cross-platform community of editors-in-chief and media innovators.

ANSWER: May 9

Explanation:
The "Panama Papers" trove of leaked documents revealing the vast extent of global tax evasion will be made available to the public on May 9, the ICIJ confirmed.

• The searchable database will include information about more than 2,00,000 secret companies, trusts and foundations based in 21 tax havens "from Hong Kong to Nevada in the United States," according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
• About 11.5 million leaked documents of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, reveal the large-scale use of offshore entities to conceal assets from tax authorities.

ANSWER: Tax Havens

Explanation:

• ‘Panama papers’ — a set of over 11 million leaked documents that reveal how the rich and the connected around the world used tax havens for salting away their wealth.