Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Alexandra Ragi, and just over a week ago, news of the Paradise Papers broke.

Today I'm talking to a reporter with the ICIJ, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

He worked on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Panama Papers, and that's the team that also won

the Trace Prize for Investigative Journalism. One of the judges described the efforts as one of

the most remarkable collaborations in modern journalism history, saying, these illuminating projects tackled one of the most difficult

topics the media faces, the hidden links and secret wealth of the world's most powerful people,

and produced fascinating tales with worldwide impact. Will Fitzgibbon, thank you for joining me

in the middle of what must be a very chaotic time for you and others at the ICIJ.

It's good to be here.

Why don't you start by just giving a little bit of background on the Paradise Papers for people

still new to the issue?

How long was the team working on the investigation and how did the documents come into

your possession, understanding that you're going to be general on that second part?

The Paradise Papers began much in the same way that the Panama Papers began.

That is a source provided the documents, about 13.5 million documents ultimately to the German

newspaper Sudo-Juzeital.

And that newspaper, realizing that it was far too much information

for one newspaper alone, shared that with ICIJ. And then our mission was to go about assembling a global

coalition of journalists who would spend the next nine months, 12 months, in some cases,

digging through really what was some of the most complex offshore deals and

details that I and many other journalists have ever seen in their life.

Did you use the same team for the Paradise Papers as last time, or were there variations?

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