Secrecy for Sale: Inside the Global Offshore Money Maze

Logo

Secrecy for Sale is a multi-story exploration of data around the global offshore money maze

URL
http://www.icij.org/offshore
Keywords
database, tax havens, offshore leaks, finance, world, ICIJ,
Project Current Phase
Released
Project Start Date
2012
Launch Date
2013
Most Recent Update
2014
Update Frequency
yes
Thematic Focus
Finance
Issue addressed
Tax havens
Geographic Focus
World

Experience

How does a user interact with and navigate the project?

Narrative
yes
Query
yes
Geographic Map
yes
Timelines
Lists
yes
Network Visualisation
Yes
Other Visualisation
Raw Data
yes

Description

Summary of the project and its approach

The database contains ownership information about companies created in 10 offshore jurisdictions including the British Virgin Islands, the Cook Islands and Singapore. It covers nearly 30 years until 2010.

Approach (How?)
ICIJ released the offshore leaks in partnership with more than 20 media all around the world and gathered a myriad of stories, web apps, video reports and analyses stemming from the leaks release. Furthermore, the ICIJ and La Nación teams reverse engineered the offshore leaks data to create a linked, searchable database of off-shore companies, enabling anyone to browse through it and to uncover new stories.
Language
English
Commissioner
International Consortium for Investigative Journalists, Center for Public Integrity
Publisher
ICIJ (US)
Partners
Asahi (Japan), BBC Panorama (UK), CBC (Canada),Commonwealth Magazine (Taiwan), DR (Denmark), El Confidencial (Spain), El País (Spain), Fokus (Sweden), Korean Center for Investigative Journalism (Korea), Kyiv Post (Ukraine),L'espresso (Italy), Le Matin Dimanche and SonntagsZeitung (Switzerland),Le Monde (France), Le Soir(Belgium), Ming Pao (Hong Kong), Norddeutscher Rundfunk(Germany), Novaya Gazeta(Russia), La Nación (Costa Rica), Premium Times(Nigeria), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (Azerbaijan), Sueddeutsche Zeitung (Germany), Ta Nea (Greece),The Global Mail (Australia), The Guardian (UK), The Irish Times (Ireland),The New York Times (USA), The Washington Post (USA), Trouw (Netherlands),YLE (Finland)

Impact

Indicators of reach and impact of the project

Target Audience
Online Audience Reached
International
Twitter
No ( followers)
Publisher's Twitter Followers
41.4K
Online Rank
Google: 6 Alexa: 153,219 OSE Domain Authority Rank: 70/100 Marketing Grader Rank: 34/100 ()
Online Rank (Publisher)
Google: 7 Alexa: 153,219
News Source
Very High
Offline Audience Reached
International
Outcome
‘Offshore Leaks’ Revelations Force Resignation of Top European Banker (source: http://www.icij.org/offshore/offshore-leaks-revelations-force-resignation-top-european-banker) | Tax Authorities Move on Leaked Offshore Documents (source:http://www.icij.org/offshore/tax-authorities-move-leaked-offshore-documents)
Last updated
22/10/2015
Attempts against the project
Legal action /

Technology

What tools and code were used to create the project?

Tech Best Practices:
Code Repository
Tool
Database
Frontend
Backend
Data Format
Data Standard
Technical Documentation URL
Technical Architecture Documentation
Schema Documentation
Design Documentation
API Documentation

Data Sources

Data Sources

Team

Team size and expertise

Team Size
Large
Team Experience
Research
Dedicated
Data Science
Dedicated
Engineering
Dedicated
Design
Dedicated

Project Methodology

What strategies were in place for managing the project?

Project Methodology
Traditional
Open Source
No
Open Data
No
Budget
N/A
Contracting
N/A
Risk Planning
Risky
Sustainability Planning
N/A

Documented Practices

Documentation about project practices

: http://www.icij.org/blog/2013/04/how-we-all-survived-likely-largest-collaboration-journalism-history

Organise / Analyse Data
http://www.icij.org/blog/2013/06/how-we-built-offshore-leaks-database
Organise / Get Started
http://www.icij.org/blog/2014/01/how-we-did-offshore-leaks-china

Practices

How projects handle different aspects of data management

Data Modeling
Relational
Ethical Collection
N/A
Ethical Storage
N/A
Data Collection
Trained Collectors
Data Collection
Data Verification
N/A
Data Cleaning
Expert
Data Analysis
Classification / Tagging / Categories / Linking
Data Description
Detailed
Data Licensing
Public
Ethical Publishing
Anonymization of datasets
Ethical Publishing
Data Publishing Mode
Dump