Panama Papers around the world: What we know a year later

A trove of 11.5 million digital records from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca that revealed how many of the world's wealthy used offshore companies to stash assets. The data were leaked to a German newspaper, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), and reports appeared in major media from April 3, 2016. Revelations continue to trickle out.

What was the impact?

In the immediate aftermath, Iceland's prime minister was forced to resign after the leak showed his family sheltered assets offshore.

Other people were exposed to scrutiny, including former British prime minister David Cameron, Argentina's football icon Lionel Messi and President Mauricio Macri, Spanish film director Pedro Almodovar, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's children, and many current and former politicians and associates.

In Pakistan, the Supreme Court took up a case on the revelation that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's children owned offshore companies dealing in millions of dollars in property transactions

At least 150 inquiries or investigations have been launched in 79 countries, with authorities examining many cases for possible tax evasion or money laundering, according to the Center for Public Integrity, a US nonprofit group that until February hosted the now-independent ICIJ.

France put Panama on its blacklist of tax havens. The Central American nation is now scrambling to show the world it has cleaned up its act, notably through the sharing of tax information with other countries, to prevent the European Union and other jurisdictions following suit.

Mossack Fonseca's partners, Juergen Mossack and Ramon Fonseca Mora, were arrested on February 9 on money-laundering charges. They remain in custody pending the outcome of a Panama investigation into their firm's alleged links to a vast Brazilian bribery case known as "Operation Car Wash."

In March, Panamanian prosecutors said they were resuming their Panama Papers probe that had been suspended for two months for legal technical issues.