How to mine a big leak -
collaboratively
Mar Cabra (@cabralens)Data Journalism Manager
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)
www.icij.org - @ICIJorg
At the end of 2011…
• 260 Gb hard drive
• 4 databases
• 2,5 millon files (emails, PDFs, photos…) – non-structured data!
Methodology
The stories
• More than 100,000 entities• 10 offshore jurisdictions• More than 50 stories in ICIJ’s website• +25,000 mentions in the press worldwide
http://www.icij.org/blog/2013/04/highlights-offshore-leaks-so-far
Key findings Government officials and the mega-rich have
embraced the use of covert companies and bank accounts to own mansions, yachts, art masterpieces and other assets, gaining tax advantages and anonymity not available to average people.
The aggressive role of big banks as enablers (UBS, Credit Agricole, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank…)
Authorities are blind on the issue (Greek authorities only knew about 4 of the 107 entities)
A black hole for fraud (out of 4,000 US names, at least 30 are accused of fraud)
Impact (II)• Hollande asked for “eradication” of tax havens
• Tax agencies from several countries (Israel, Australia, Philippines, South Korea) have started investigations
• Public debate (G20, EU Council, G8)
• Legislative changes (Colombia, OECD, Denmark)
• Resignations (Mongolia, Austria)
http://www.icij.org/blog/2013/04/release-offshore-records-draws-worldwide-response
1 graphic, 6 languages,10 publications
Download
Fuzzy Lookup Add-In for Excel
OFAC list:
http://bit.ly/OFAC_ICIJ
ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database:
http://offshoreleaks.icij.org/about/download
Resources• Getting the most of the Offshore Leaks Data:
http://www.icij.org/blog/2014/03/getting-most-out-offshore-leaks-data
• Investigative Dashboard http://www.investigativedashboard.org/
• Open Corporates http://opencorporates.com/• Offshore Alert http://www.offshorealert.com• ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database
http://offshoreleaks.icij.org/• BVI Financial Services Commission
http://www.bvifsc.vg/en-gb/divisions/registryofcorporateaffairs.aspx
• Hong Kong Company Registry http://www.cr.gov.hk/en/home/