Opinion Story

Who – John Doe

What – Leaked the Panama Papers to a German Newspaper

When – Beginning early 2015

Where – Over the Internet

Why – To “make these crimes public”

Beginning in early 2015 an anonymous source by the pseudonym “John Doe” began leaking documents to the German newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung.  These 2.6 terabytes would eventually add up to 11.5 million confidential documents.

John Doe transferred these documents over the Internet for the safety of his identity. He leaked the data to make the crimes public and because he thought Mossack Fonseca acted Unethically.

I believe he chose the right thing because millions were being hidden in offshore tax havens. Although taxes aren’t any fun, many people were exploiting the system.

Many people would see this as an opportunity to exploit the system as well, that wouldn’t help and only make the situation worse. Hiding from taxes would be nice but also immoral and possibly illegal.

Some may think he is doing the wrong thing, illegal sharing private documents. But what is worse is hiding money and corrupting the system. Mossack Fonseca, as believed by John Doe, is a corrupt company.

Most of the world’s top 1% was involved in this situation, which shows how much money we are dealing with. Millions are being saved from taxes while people who have much less money are paying their taxes.

This can be linked to the unfair distribution of wealth in America. The top one percent has 40% of the nations wealth while the bottom 80% of the nation has only 7% of the nations wealth.

To be part of the top 1% in America you need to make at least $428,713.

Some of the people linked to the Panama Papers are Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur Davîo Gunnlaugsson, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, and family members and associates of British Prime Minister David Cameron, Chinese Premier Li Peng and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

  

The IRS has found thousands of Americans attempting to avoid taxes in offshore accounts and have pursued criminal charges. The IRS has warned tax cheaters to stop hiding their money offshore and is cracking down on those who do. 

In an effort to get people to fess up, the agency has created an Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program. The main idea is to get taxpayers to report their previous offshore accounts for reduced penalties and/or no criminal prosecution.

I believe “’John Doe” did the right thing leaking these private documents. It is similar to taking an eye for an eye.