The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has announced that it has published a database that it says will help begin to strip away the secrecy across 10 offshore jurisdictions.

The ICIJ says the Offshore Leaks Database allows users to search through tens of thousands of secret companies, trusts and funds created in offshore locales, and displays graphic visualisations of offshore entities and the networks around them, including, when possible, the company’s true owners.

The database is part of a cache of 2.5m leaked offshore files ICIJ (a project of the Center for Public Integrity) analysed with 112 journalists in 58 countries. The ICIJ said EU Commissioner Algirdas Semeta said the ICIJ’s investigation had transformed tax politics and amplified political will to tackle the problem of tax evasion – and that the need for tax transparency overrides the principle of data privacy.

[LTN 115, 18/6/13]