In ancient Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman ever to exist, she accidentally released all the evils of humanity into the world when she opened Pandora's BoxA container that held all the evils of the world, like sickness and famine, as well as the one way of enduring them: hope. Today it is also used as a metaphor for an action with severe unintended consequences..

Today, the world is reeling after some rather more modern evils were revealed in the Pandora Papers, a leak of 11.9 million files, amounting to 2.94 Terabytes of data, exposing the shadowy financial dealings of the global super-wealthy.

More than 600 journalists working for 150 outlets in 117 different countries have pored over the files as part of a global investigation into the use of offshore companies to avoid taxes and hide their wealth from public view.

Offshore companies are firms set up in countries and territories where the regulations on founding a business are quite lax, usually meaning that it is easy to set up a company, the details of its ownership can be kept secret, and there is low corporation tax.

These companies can also allow their rich owners and investors to buy assets in their own countries without their ownership of them becoming public, meaning that they can avoid paying taxes on them. For example, the papers seem to show that former British prime minister Tony BlairTony Blair was the leader of the Labour party. He was British prime minister from 1997 to 2007.  used an offshore company to buy a £6.5m house in London, meaning that he did not have to pay £312,000 in property taxes.

Among the other big names in the files are the King of Jordan, Abdullah IIThe king of Jordan since 1999. He is a vital ally of Western powers in the Middle East and remains popular in Jordan for maintaining the country's stability throughout the crises of the last ten years., and some close associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin, although Putin himself is not named in any of the documents.

This is not the first time the financial dealings of the super-wealthy have been exposed. In 2016, 2.6 terabytes of data were leaked in the Panama Papers, which revealed that household names like Emma Watson, Simon Cowell and Jackie Chan had invested in offshore businesses. The father of then-prime minister David CameronOne of the 14 prime ministers to serve during the Queen's reign. was also named in the leak.

Then in 2017, there were the Paradise Papers, some 13.4 million files that included names from the British royal family, well-known politicians like Jacob Rees-MoggA Conservative politician who has been MP for North East Somerset since 2010. He is notorious for his posh, old-fashioned mannerisms., and yet more celebrities and business figures.

Although each of these leaks has sparked popular outrage, very little has been done each time to discourage the use of offshore companies. That is why some fear the release of the Pandora Papers is ultimately pointless. After all, many of those named in the leak are politicians or major donors to political parties. They are unlikely to take action against offshore companies and tax dodges when they benefit from these companies themselves.

But others are more optimistic. One of the people named in the Pandora papers, Czech prime minister Andrej BabisThe Czech prime minister since 2017. He is the Czech Republic's second-richest man. Despite a series of scandals, largely relating to his wealth and income, he remains very popular., is up for re-election this week. Other political figures, like Pakistani prime minister Imran KhanA former international cricketer who became the prime minister of Pakistan in 2018, until April 2022. and Kenyan president Uhuru KenyattaThe president of Kenya since 2013. He is the son of Jomo Kenyatta, the country's first president after independence., are coming under pressure over the papers. Popular outrage could still force them to clamp down on the use of offshore companies and other tax dodges.

Absolutely, say some. Political pressure is mounting. There are already proposals in the UK to introduce a register of offshore companies to help tax their wealth. And just this year, the G7 came up with a deal to make multinational companies pay more tax, including a minimum corporate tax rate.

Never, say some. This is the third big leak of offshore companies' data in just five years, yet nothing ever seems to change. Tax havens benefit from their loose, opaque regulations, and there is nothing that other countries can do to force them to discourage tax avoidance.