On June 14, 2013, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) released a web application with ownership information on more than 100,000 entities incorporated in 10 offshore jurisdictions, partially stripping away the secrecy associated to tax havens. The ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database reveals the directors, shareholders and when possible, beneficial owners of secret companies in the British Virgin Islands, Cook Islands and Singapore, among other offshore locales. Three members of the cross-border team that built this application will explain how they brought it to life –starting with a maze of leaked databases with no roadmap and no explanation and turning it into an online database that allows users to explore the offshore networks of tens of thousands of people around the world. They will also explain how to best use this tool and how to combine it with the real treasure trove of the Offshore Leaks investigation: 2.5 million files that already have produced hundreds of stories worldwide.
