by Meghna Kumar

If you have read the news this past week, you have most likely been inundated with news of the Panama Papers. But what exactly are they?

The Panama Papers consist of 2.6 terabytes of private information regarding finances of many highly-regarded and highly-ranked world leaders. Even the Prime Minister of Iceland was found to be connected to the scandal and recently resigned. In total, over 120 politicians are supposedly connected (CNN).

The released papers also bring to light a web of lies and corruption amongst many of the world’s wealthiest. In order to avoid paying high taxes in their home countries, many wealthy individuals transferred and stored their money in offshore bank accounts in countries such as Panama that do not tax income. The problem here is that the United States government does not want this practice of storing money offshore in order to evade taxes to spread to corporations. As of now, the consequences of the Panama Papers leak is unknown, however the Russian government has made it clear that it will not be taking action.