You Can Now Search The Panama Papers Database

On Monday, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published a searchable online database of the names of 214,000 offshore entities and the people associated with them — all information from the Panama Papers investigation. The database does not contain the complete contents of the leak, which consist of around 11.5 million files in total. Here's how to search the Panama Papers database.

When you first go to the database, you'll be greeted by a page with terms to which you must agree before conducting your search. The terms emphasize that there are legal uses for offshore companies, and that the ICIJ is not implying that the people or entities named within the database have broken any laws. Once you agree to the terms, you'll be directed to a page with two tabs: "Search by country" and "Search by jurisdiction." You can also click "All countries" or "All jurisdictions" under the search bar.

There are a few different types of searches you can conduct using the database. You can search for the name of a particular person or company with the "Search by country" tab. The ICIJ reported that names in the database may be spelled incorrectly or in several different ways, so you may need to try out a few different spellings to find results.

Once you've found the person or company you're looking for, you click on the name and the site will bring you to a page with information about who is connected to the entity, what jurisdiction it's in, and when it was incorporated. This is displayed as an interactive graphic with nodes for entities, addresses, and people. You click on the node for more details.

You can also search for all names and entities connected to various countries. Enter the country name (or select it from the "All countries" drop-down menu). Once you've got your list, you can browse by entity name, officers, intermediaries, or addresses. (Officers are beneficiaries, owners, or shareholders of entities. Intermediaries are people who set up or are registered agents of entities.) Once you select the name or address you're looking for, you'll get your interactive drop-down menu with nodes to click on.

Finally, you can search by jurisdiction. Click on the "All jurisdictions" drop-down menu, select a jurisdiction, leave the search box blank, then click "Search" to get a list of all entities, people, and addresses associated with the jurisdiction. Click on what you want for your interactive graphic.

For more extensive instructions for searching the Panama Papers database that includes example searches, see the ICIJ's guide.