Panic of Panama Papers-style revelations follows Bermuda law firm hack
Cue incredibly wealthy people calling their PRs
A major offshore law firm admitted it had been hacked on Tuesday, prompting fears of a Panama Papers-style exposé into the tax affairs of the super rich.
Bermuda-based Appleby only admitted it had suffered the breach – which actually happened last year – after a group of journos from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), who had seen the leaked information, began asking awkward questions.
In a statement, Appleby denied allegations of any tax evasions or other wrongdoing by itself or its clients while admitting that it was “not infallible”. The law firm went on to state that it had shored up its security since the hack.
The Daily Telegraph reports that the leak involved some of Britain’s wealthiest people, who were said to be consulting lawyers and public relations executives in preparations for possible fallout from the hack.We are committed to protecting our clients’ data and we have reviewed our cyber security and data access arrangements following a data security incident last year which involved some of our data being compromised. These arrangements were reviewed and tested by a leading IT Forensics team and we are confident that our data integrity is secure.
News of the breach of Appleby follows nearly 18 months after the release of the so-called Panama papers, which provoked huge embarrassment (and worse) for wealthy figures in politics and business as well as spawning a debate about the ethics of tax havens....MORE
