IT Person Detained In Switzerland, Suspected Of Leaking Panama Papers

The infamous Panama Papers exposed “Politicians, Criminals and the Rogue Industry That Hides Their Cash” using tax-haven companies. We know the documents were created by Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, but it's not clear who leaked them, as the whistleblower had identified himself or herself as John Doe.

However, a few days ago, a computer technician at the Geneva, Switzerland office of Mossack Fonseca was detained under the suspicion of having stolen large amounts of data from the company – some kind of proxy for a whistleblower. While reasons for the arrest haven't been made completely clear yet, a spokeswoman for the city prosecutor confirmed a procedure had “been opened by the public ministry of Geneva following a complaint made by Mossack Fonseca.”

Even though the identity of the detained person was not revealed, Süddeutsche Zeitung, the first newspaper to receive the leaked documents, believes the person arrested was not the whistleblower. The defendant denied all charges as well, but agreed to cooperate with the investigation.