ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database

1. Summary

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) publishes a combined database of offshore entities from the Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Pandora Papers, Bahamas Leaks, and Offshore Leaks. ~800,000+ offshore entities with their officers, intermediaries, and addresses.

2. Access Methods

Bulk download (primary): https://offshoreleaks-data.icij.org/offshoreleaks/csv/full-oldb.LATEST.zip (~70 MB ZIP, refreshed periodically)
Search UI (human): https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/
Auth: None
Note: The previous Open Refine reconciliation endpoint at /reconcile now returns 404. ICIJ has removed it. The bulk ZIP is the remaining stable access path. The skill's fetch_icij_offshore.py caches the ZIP locally (default ~/.cache/hermes-osint/icij/, refreshes after 30 days) and searches it offline.

3. Data Schema

Key fields emitted by fetch_icij_offshore.py:

Column	Type	Description
`node_id`	int	ICIJ canonical node ID
`name`	str	Entity / officer / intermediary name
`node_type`	str	entity / officer / intermediary / address
`country_codes`	str	Semicolon-separated ISO codes
`countries`	str	Country names
`jurisdiction`	str	Offshore jurisdiction (BVI, Panama, etc.)
`incorporation_date`	str	YYYY-MM-DD
`inactivation_date`	str	YYYY-MM-DD (if struck)
`source`	str	Panama Papers / Paradise Papers / Pandora Papers / etc.
`entity_url`	str	Link to ICIJ page
`connections`	str	Semicolon-separated node IDs of related entities

4. Coverage

Worldwide offshore entity records
Earliest records: 1970s (Bahamas Leaks). Most data 1990–2018.
NOT updated in real-time — new leaks added when ICIJ publishes them
~810,000 offshore entities + ~750,000 officers + ~150,000 intermediaries

5. Cross-Reference Potential

SEC EDGAR ↔ name (public companies with offshore arms)
USAspending ↔ name (federal contractors with offshore structure)
OFAC SDN ↔ name (sanctioned entities using offshore vehicles)

Join key: normalized entity/officer name. node_id is canonical for cross- referencing within ICIJ. Connections graph traversal is in-script (BFS over connections).

6. Data Quality

Offshore entity names sometimes appear in multiple leaks with slight variations
Officers may be nominees (front persons), not beneficial owners
Some entries have minimal info (just a name + jurisdiction)
The connections graph is incomplete — some relationships are documented in source materials but not in the structured database
Inactive/struck-off entities are still included with inactivation_date

7. Acquisition Script

Path: scripts/fetch_icij_offshore.py

# Search by entity name (case-insensitive substring across the bulk DB)
python3 SKILL_DIR/scripts/fetch_icij_offshore.py --entity "EXAMPLE CORP" \
    --out data/icij.csv

# Search by officer (individual person)
python3 SKILL_DIR/scripts/fetch_icij_offshore.py --officer "SMITH JOHN" \
    --out data/icij.csv

# Search by jurisdiction (filter on cached results)
python3 SKILL_DIR/scripts/fetch_icij_offshore.py --officer "SMITH" \
    --jurisdiction "BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS" --out data/icij_bvi.csv

# Force a fresh download (default refresh window is 30 days)
python3 SKILL_DIR/scripts/fetch_icij_offshore.py --entity "EXAMPLE CORP" \
    --force-refresh --out data/icij.csv

First call downloads the ~70 MB ZIP under ~/.cache/hermes-osint/icij/ (or $HERMES_OSINT_CACHE/icij/). Subsequent calls reuse the cache for 30 days.

8. Legal & Licensing

Public record as published by ICIJ under explicit publication
No copyright on the underlying facts (entity names, jurisdictions)
ICIJ asks for attribution if used in derivative reporting
Ethical note: Presence in this database does NOT imply wrongdoing. Many offshore structures are legal. The database is a research tool, not a list of criminals.

9. References

Database: https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/
About the data: https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/pages/about
Methodology: https://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/
API hints: Open Refine reconciliation endpoint at https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/reconcile

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