Appleby Firm Strikes Back At Media

In a terse note on its website , the offshore law firm Appleby, which suffered a massive hack resulting in the public release of the so-called Paradise Papers, said it has taken “legal action in order to ascertain what information has been stolen.” The notice does not specify who was targeted or how, but both BBC News and The Guardian have posted articles reporting they have been sued, and each referring to the other being a target as well. The hack resulted in the release of millions of documents pertaining to the financial affairs of the rich and super-rich. The documents were leaked to a German newspaper, which shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which in turn coordinated an international project that included 96 media organizations, including New York Times, Le Monde, the ABC in Australia and CBC News in Canada. According to the article in The Guardian, Appleby has demanded that both the Guardian and the BBC “disclose any of the 6m Appleby documents that informed their reporting for a project that provoked worldwide anger and debate over the tax dodges used by individuals and multinational companies.” The project “has already provoked a formal inquiry by the Australian tax office, a review by HMRC into VAT schemes on the Isle of Man, and calls from the EU finance commissioner, Pierre Moscovici, for changes in the law to stop ‘vampires’ avoiding paying tax,” according to The Guardian. According to the BBC News article, both The Guardian and the BBC say they will “‘vigorously’ defend the revelations, which were in the ‘highest public interest.'”