In a 1800 word letter to Süddeutsche Zeitung, the anonymous source behind the Panama Papers offered the documents on offshore companies to law enforcement agencies, and called for action to address the important fact that the Panamanian law firm, Mossac Fonseca and its clients did knowingly violate myriad laws worldwide, repeatedly. The so called “John Doe”, who leaked the biggest amount of documents in history also raised attention to the serious income inequality in the world, which, according to him is one of the defining issues of today and is connected to the massive, pervasive corruption well illustrated by the Panama Papers.

The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, the primary media partner of the source has authenticated that the statement titled “The revolution will be digitized” did came from John Doe. “For the record, I do not work for any government or intelligence agency, directly or as a contractor, and I never have”, the source emphasized, and called governments for better whistleblower protection. He cited the famous, recent cases of whistleblowers and activist around the world, whose lives were destroyed after they shed light on obvious wrongdoings.

“I decided to expose Mossack Fonseca because I thought its founders, employees and clients should have to answer for their roles in these crimes, only some of which have come to light thus far. It will take years, possibly decades, for the full extent of the firm’s sordid acts to become known.”, said John Doe about his motivation, and added that he is pleased by the fact that after this major information leak there is finally discussion about the role of the elite in corruption.

The source behind the Panama Papers rejected all allegations concerning that the he leaked the information selectively to certain media outlets. He wrote that despite explicit claims to the contrary, several of the most prominent media outlets did have editors review documents from the Panama Papers, but they chose not to cover them. “The media has failed. Many news networks are cartoonish parodies of their former selves, individual billionaires appear to have taken up newspaper ownership as a hobby, limiting coverage of serious matters concerning the wealthy”, the source claimed.

He also criticized banks, tax authorities and the whole of the legal profession, stating that “legal ethics” became an oxymoron, and that “on average, lawyers have become so deeply corrupt that it is imperative for major changes in the profession to take place”.

The “Panama papers” were obtained by Süddeutsche Zeitung, a German newspaper, and were processed by an unprecedented cooperation of journalists. The efforts of nearly 380 journalists from 76 countries were coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

As a part of the team, Direkt36 also found the offshore companies of Zsolt Horváth, a former MP of Fidesz, the current ruling party in Hungary, and the wife of Laszlo Boldvai, a former MP of the Socialist Party. Direkt36 also linked offshore companies to Hungarian billionaires, like Sándor Csányi, Hungary’s richest man, Zoltán Spéder, another wealthy banker, György Gattyán, an internet entrepreneur, and Gábor Kovács, a former banker and art collector.