Some of the fallout in Canada of the leak of the Panama Papers

FILE: Bill Morneau (Photo: Bill Morneau/Facebook)

For the second time in recent years, a massive leak of data about offshore tax havens has sent shockwaves around the world. The Paradise Papers were released on Sunday after reporting by an international collective of investigative journalists. Here’s some facts about the fallout of a previous leak of a similar nature, the Panama Papers:

The Canadian Revenue Agency launched audits into 122 Canadians and opened dozens of criminal investigations for tax evasion following the Panama Papers, the Toronto Star reported earlier this year. Experts say the number of investigations in offshore havens was an increase from previous years thanks to the leaked documents.

———

The Royal Bank of Canada was the only financial institution in the country to be linked to the massive leak. The bank’s CEO vowed to comb through four decades of files to find any proof of wrongdoing. While the institution accepted responsibility for monitoring the global financial industry, they said they’d been “dragged into” the controversy without any allegations of wrongdoing.

———

The Canadian government pumped over $400 million dollars into the Canadian Revenue Agency to hunt down billions of missing tax dollars in the wake of the Panama Papers. A large part of those efforts were to look into offshore tax havens.

———

Bill Morneau, Canada’s current finance minister, said he’d bring up the issue of tax evasion during an international summit and with provincial governments after the leak. The government vowed to fight tax evasion on multiple fronts.

One group estimated overseas tax evasion was costing Canadian governments $8 billion a year.