The Panama Papers

Keeping money offshore isn't illegal in any country that doesn't have capital controls. It's illegal if you are Chinese, for example, past a certain amount, but that is because they try to control their citizens and their property and their economy isn't entirely free.

If the money is offshore because you are trying to hide something illegal -- for example, you are a politician who stole the money or you are a criminal who gathered the money illegally -- this is a big deal. I hope the stories start to focus entirely on those people. So far, a lot of the stories I have read have conflated the offshore accounts in and of themselves with something insidious. They aren't. Most of the people whose names came up in those leaks aren't doing anything illegal. Simply putting funds offshore isn't a bad thing in and of itself. In fact, if I was Russian (and had somehow earned a lot of money legally), I'd keep as much of my money out of the country as possible -- I wouldn't trust it NOT to be stolen from me if I left it in the hands of a Russian financial institution. It doesn't make me a criminal. It makes me someone trying to keep my wealth hidden and safe.

If this focuses on a bunch of dictators and corrupt politicians having used their position to enrich themselves -- and these accounts help to expose their sliminess -- it is great. Those people are sickening. That looked to be the intent of the project.

I have read some head-scratching stories, though, that didn't seem to understand that when you earn money LEGALLY in most countries, you are still free to do whatever you want with it.