誰公開了巴拿馬文件 揭祕調查記者團隊

The leak of millions of private financial documents linking scores of the world’s rich and powerful to a secretive Panamanian law firm peddling in shell companies and offshore bank accounts began more than a year ago with a cryptic message to a German newspaper from an anonymous whistle-blower.

把世界上的有錢人和有權人與一家兜售空殼公司和境外銀行賬戶的神祕巴拿馬律師事務聯繫起來的好幾百萬份私人金融文件的泄漏，開始於一年多前德國一家報紙收到的一位匿名舉報者發來的令人困惑的信息。

“Hello, this is John Doe,” the source wrote to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, a Munich-based newspaper that had worked on several investigations into tax evasion and money-laundering scandals. “Interested in data?”

“你好，我是張三，”該消息人士發給《南德意志報》(Süddeutsche Zeitung)的信息寫道。“對數據感興趣嗎？”《南德意志報》的總部在慕尼黑，該報曾對逃稅和洗錢的醜聞做過調查報道。

“We’re very interested,” replied Bastian Obermayer, a veteran of several investigations into financial scandals.

“我們非常感興趣，”調查過幾起金融醜聞的老手巴斯蒂安·奧伯梅爾(Bastian Obermayer)答道。

In the months that followed, the confidential source fed Süddeutsche’s reporters a steady stream of emails, scanned letters, photographs and client data ripped from the servers of Mossack Fonseca, a Panama City law firm that has been dogged for decades by investigations into its suspected connections to money laundering. It was a trove that ultimately added up to 11.5 million individual files equivalent to 2.6 terabytes of data.

在隨後的幾個月裏，該消息人士源源不斷地向《南德意志報》的記者發來了從莫薩克-馮塞卡(Mossack Fonseca)律師事務所的服務器上盜取的電子郵件、信件掃描、照片，以及客戶數據，幾十年來，這家位於巴拿馬城的律所因涉嫌與洗錢有關多次被調查。這個寶庫最終加起來共有1150萬份文件，相當於2.6太字節(terabytes)的數據。

The German reporters worked for more than two months verifying that the documents were genuine and trying to unravel the complex web of secret transactions. “It became an addiction,” Mr. Obermayer’s colleague, Frederik Obermaier, wrote in an emailed response to questions. “We often messaged each other at crazy times, like 2 a.m. or 4 a.m. about the newest findings.”

德國記者花了兩個多月的時間來覈實文件的真實性，並試圖解開其中祕密交易的複雜網絡。“我們都着迷了，”奧伯梅爾的同事弗雷德裏克·奧伯邁爾(Frederik Obermaier)在回答本報提問的電子郵件中寫道。“我們經常在荒唐的時間，比如凌晨2點或4點，把最新的調查發現用短信發給對方。”

But the sheer volume of data contained in the initial batch soon overwhelmed the German newspaper’s five-person investigations team. The paper turned for help to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in Washington, D.C., which has coordinated several previous global projects on financial data leaks.

但是，首批文件中包含的數據量很快就讓這家德國報紙的五人調查小組感到不堪重負。該報向總部設在華盛頓的國際調查記者同盟(International Consortium of Investigative Journalists，簡稱ICIJ)尋求幫助，這個組織此前曾協調過幾個金融數據曝光的全球項目。

Within weeks, the ICIJ had assembled an army of about 400 journalists from more than 100 news organizations in 80 countries, including The Guardian and BBC in Britain, the French daily Le Monde, the Sonntagszeitung in Switzerland, and L’Espresso, an Italian weekly newsmagazine. Many of the same journalists had collaborated with the center before on investigations into tax havens including the “Swiss Leaks” project in 2015 and the “Lux Leaks” series in 2014.

幾周之內，ICIJ就集結了一支約400名記者的隊伍，他們來自80個國家的100多家新聞機構，包括英國的《衛報》(the Guardian)和BBC、法國的《世界報》(Le Monde)、瑞士的《週日報》(Sonntagszeitung)，以及意大利新聞週刊《快訊》(L'Espresso)。他們中有不少人此前與國際調查記者同盟有過合作，參加過避稅天堂的調查，包括2015年的“瑞士解密”(Swiss Leaks)項目、以及2014年的“盧森堡解密”(Lux Leaks)系列。

The ICIJ did not approach to The New York Times to participate. “This is an important subject, which we have written about ourselves, and continue to follow,” said Matt Purdy, a deputy executive editor at The Times. The leaked documents provide even more information, he added, and the work is to be applauded.

ICIJ沒有與《紐約時報》接洽讓之參與。“這是一個重要的題材，我們自行做過這方面的報道，並繼續跟蹤這個題材，”時報副執行主編馬特·珀迪(Matt Purdy)說。他補充說，這次泄露的文件提供了更多的信息，有關工作值得讚揚。

The media partners dissected the mountain of data that the Süddeutsche’s journalists received in several batches, each of which were forwarded to a secure ICIJ server. The project was code-named Prometheus, after the Titan from Greek mythology who stole the secret of fire from the gods.

這些媒體夥伴對《南德意志報》記者分批收到的海量數據進行了分析，每批數據都轉存到ICIJ的一個安全服務器上。該項目代號普羅米修斯，取自希臘神話中從神山偷來火種的提坦。

Luke Harding of The Guardian, a former Moscow correspondent and a veteran of several international collaborations, including WikiLeaks in 2010 and the Edward Snowden leaks in 2013, said the constant stream of new material meant that reporters were regularly relying on each other to help them keep track of new details.

《衛報》的盧克·哈丁(Luke Harding)曾擔任報社駐莫斯科的記者，也是幾次國際合作的老手，參加過包括2010年的“維基解密”(WikiLeaks)和2013年愛德華·斯諾登(Edward Snowden)泄漏的文件的調查報道，哈丁說，源源不斷的新材料意味着記者們經常相互依賴，纔能有助於他們隨時得到新的細節。

Unlike past projects, where the leaked data were provided as a “discreet, one-off leaks” of hundreds or at most thousands of documents, “this was in real time,” said Mr. Harding, whose team focused on transactions involving individuals with ties to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. “We were constantly getting new data.”

與過去的項目不同，以前泄露的數據是幾百份、最多幾千份文件的“小心地一次性泄漏”，哈丁說，而這次“是實時的”，他的小組主要關注與俄羅斯總統弗拉基米爾·V·普京(Vladimir V. Putin)有關係的個人的交易。“我們正在不斷地獲得新數據。”

With such a large number of people trolling through the same database, the partners needed to agree early on with a common strategy for collaboration and for parsing out the research, as well as a joint promise to hold off on publishing until everyone was ready. The partners held a series of secret meetings, some of which involved more than 100 people. The first took place at a rented room of the National Press Club in Washington in June, followed by others in Munich, London and Lillehammer, Norway.

這麼多的人在同一個數據庫中進行搜索，需要這些媒體夥伴們在早期就對合作以及如何分工的共同戰略達成一致，還需要各方承諾，在每家媒體都做好發表的準備之前，推遲消息的發佈。合作各方舉行了一系列的祕密會議，其中有些的參加人數上百。第一次會議是去年6月在華盛頓從美國全國新聞俱樂部租的一個房間裏舉行的，之後的會議分別在慕尼黑、倫敦，以及挪威的利勒哈默爾舉行。

“The danger was always that if something happened in the world and the reporters in that country would get terribly excited and want to publish right away,” Gerard Ryle, the director of ICIJ, said.

“總有一種危險，那就是如果世界上發生了某個事情，事情所在國的記者會非常興奮，他們想馬上發消息，”ICIJ主任傑拉德·賴爾(Gerard Ryle)說。

About a dozen staffers at ICIJ, plus freelancers, devoted themselves entirely to the project, building the tools used by its partners while also preparing a dozen or so of its own stories on the leak. Mr. Ryle and his deputy, Marina Walker Guevara, were in near-constant communication with what had become a sprawling team.

ICIJ的十幾名員工，加上自由職業者，全時投入了這個項目，他們製造了供合作伙伴使用的工具，同時也爲ICIJ自己有關泄露的十幾篇報道作準備。賴爾和他的副手瑪麗娜·沃克·格瓦拉(Marina Walker Guevara)與一個越來越大的團隊保持着幾乎不間斷的溝通。

“This was not a story where the documents were the whole story,” Mr. Ryle said. “You had to work for it, you had to go outside of the documents. You could see a window, but you had go out and look.”

“這不是那種泄露文件本身就構成一個完整故事的故事，”賴爾說。“你需要做更多的工作，需要做文件之外的工作。文件爲你提供了一個窗口，但你必須出去尋找更多的東西。”

The ICIJ made a number of powerful research tools available to the consortium that the group had developed for previous leak investigations. Those included a secure, Facebook-type forum where reporters could post the fruits of their research, as well as database search program called “Blacklight” that allowed the teams to hunt for specific names, countries or sources.

ICIJ有許多功能強大的研究工具，是該機構爲此前的泄密調查所研發。其中包括一個安全的Facebook式論壇，記者們可以在上面發佈自己的研究成果，還有一個名爲“黑光”(Blacklight)的數據庫搜索程序，可以讓這些團隊搜尋有關特定名字、國家或來源的資料。

While the original documents were written in 25 different languages, most of the communication on the forum took place in English, with reporters actively sharing interesting tidbits with the relevant specialized teams. Each news organization took their own precautions, restricting access to the secure computers that were used to connect to the ICIJ’s servers and ensuring that these were not accessible through their newsrooms’ regular networks.

儘管原始文件是用25種語言寫就，論壇上的交流大多還是使用英語，記者們會積極地與相關專業團隊分享有趣的花絮。每個新聞機構都要採取各自的預防措施，限制其他人使用被用來和ICIJ的服務器相連的安全電腦，確保它們不會與新聞編輯室的常規網絡相連而被其他人訪問。

Once specific names were found in the database, reporters dug deeper for any clues that might connect those individuals with a shell company, a bank account, or an ever-widening cast of characters. Working in concert with a team of reporters out of The Guardian’s safe room, Mr. Harding uncovered a web of more than 100 complex international transactions that revolved around an offshore firm linked to a musician named Sergei Roldugin, who is one of Mr. Putin’s closest friends.

一旦在數據庫中發現了特定的名字，記者們就進一步深挖，尋找能將這些個人與空殼公司、銀行賬戶或一個不斷擴大的人際網絡聯繫起來的任何線索。哈丁協同一個記者團隊在《衛報》的安全屋工作，發現了一個圍繞一家離岸公司建立的網絡，涉及超過100項複雜的國際交易，該公司與名爲謝爾蓋·羅爾杜金(Sergei Roldugin)的音樂家有關聯，而後者是普京最親密的朋友之一。

“We knew there was a link to Putin’s buddy,” Mr. Harding said. “We knew money was being sent offshore from Russian state banks and being recycled back into Russia” through the offshore company.

“我們知道這事和普京的朋友有關聯，”哈丁說。“我們知道有資金在從俄羅斯國有銀行流向海外”，然後通過這個離岸公司“又回到俄羅斯”。

Late last year, he said, the teams ultimately managed to establish a connection between that firm and another that owned an upscale ski resort near St. Petersburg that is a favorite of Mr. Putin. Further reporting eventually revealed that the same resort was the venue for the secret 2013 wedding of Mr. Putin’s daughter Yekaterina news of which only surfaced last year.

他表示，去年末這些團隊終於把這家公司和另一家離岸公司關聯起來，後者擁有一座靠近聖彼得堡的高端滑雪度假村，那是普京最喜歡去的地方之一。進一步的調查最終顯示，這個度假村正是普京在2013年爲女兒葉卡捷琳娜(Yekaterina)舉行祕密婚禮的地方，有關婚禮的消息直到去年才浮出水面。

“In the Panama Papers, there was no Swiss bank account” that could provide a clear money trail, Mr. Harding said. “But in Russia, where your daughter gets married says a lot about what places you hold dear.”

“在巴拿馬文件中，沒有哪個瑞士銀行的賬戶”可以提供明確的資金走向，哈丁說。“但在俄羅斯，你女兒結婚的地點很能說明哪些地方是你所看重的。”

Other news organizations used the Mossack Fonseca documents to expose the offshore accounts of political figures in countries like France, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, as well as several international film stars and sports luminaries.

利用從莫薩克-馮塞卡泄露的文件，其他新聞機構曝光了其他一些人物在在離岸銀行設立的賬戶，其中包括法國、巴基斯坦和沙特阿拉伯等國家的政治人物，以及幾位電影和體育明星。

By Tuesday, the disclosures had already claimed their first high-level political victim. Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, the prime minister of Iceland, announced his resignation after revelations that he and his wife were clients of the Panamanian firm.

截止週二，已經出現第一位因這項泄密調查而倒臺的高層政治人物。在被爆出他和妻子是那家巴拿馬律所的客戶以後，冰島總理西格門迪爾·戴維·貢勞格鬆(Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson)宣佈辭職。

“Many rich and powerful people who have accumulated a lot of wealth must be having a spasm of panic about now,” Mr. Harding said. “They are realizing that actually their banking secrets are not safe and email is not a private medium.”

“不少積聚大量財富的權貴人物這時候肯定陷入了恐慌，”哈丁說。“他們正在意識到，自己在離岸銀行的隱祕操作實際上並不安全，郵箱也並不是什麼私密媒介。”

“I think we are entering a new golden age for investigative journalism,” he said.

“我想我們正在進入調查性報道一個新的黃金年代，”他說。