On the trail of corruption

In a universe of hidden networks operating outside the global financial system, trillions of dollars are transacted in drug trafficking, tax evasion, bribery, and illegal businesses. These networks conceal the identities of individuals who profit from illicit activities, with the complicity of bankers, lawyers, and auditors paid to turn a blind eye to these schemes.
In this book, Jake Bernstein, author of various award-winning journalistic and governmental investigations, including a Pulitzer Prize, exposes this shadowy economy and explains how it evolved, based on a meticulous analysis of millions of confidential documents belonging to Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian law firm, which were the subject of a sensational data leak, becoming known as the Panama Papers.

Bernstein reveals how shell companies operate and how they help billionaires and celebrities evade taxes, and also how they provide cover for the illicit activities of crime lords and corrupt politicians around the world. A serious and disturbing look that raises unavoidable questions about legal institutions we have always trusted.