Europol: Shadow Money – The International Networks Of Illicit Finance

The Pandora Papers was a leak of nearly 12 million documents that took place in 2021. The documents detailed financial practices employed by criminal actors, financial elites, and other groups to obscure ownership of assets and monies, and to shift illegally-gotten funds into the legitimate economy. Financial and economic crimes are major priorities for Europol as we work to tackle organised crime and the driving factors behind it. 

Following the leak of the documents, Europol undertook its own analysis to understand the significance of the Pandora Papers for our own work and for the wider law enforcement sector. This has been collated into a report that contextualises the Pandora Papers amongst similar major leaks of financial data, and details policy recommendations that arose from our analysis.