KATHMANDU, April4: An international coalition of media outlets on Sunday published what it said was an extensive investigation into the offshore financial dealings of the rich and famous, based on a vast trove of documents provided by an anonymous source.
According to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a nonprofit organization based in Washington, as many as 72 world leaders including Vladimir Putin, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan have hidden their assets in the offshore companies.
Bollywood celebrities named in Panama Papers controversy
Similarly, Iceland's Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson, Saudi Arabian king and seven Nepalis are also in the list.
However, the names of the Nepalis have not been disclosed.
The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung on Sunday received encrypted internal documents from Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based company, and shared with the ICIJ.
The leak amounts to approximately 11.5 million documents on 214,000 shell companies spanning a period between the 1970s and 2016.
The documents, which have been dubbed the "Panama Papers," contain mostly emails, PDF files, and photo files belonging to Mossack Fonseca, one of the largest providers of offshore financial services.
Mossack Fonseca operates in tax havens including Switzerland, Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands, and in the British crown dependencies Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man.
Its website boasts of a global network with 600 people working in 42 countries.
