The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a body based in Washington DC, has published some underwhelming statistics that claim that governments around the world have collected about US$1.2 billion as a result of its exposé that hit the headlines in 2016.

In 2016 the ICIJ published information from a massive data-leak that shone a light on the part that Mossack Fonseca, the fourth largest provider of offshore services in the world which went out of business last year, has played in obscuring the beneficial ownership of wealth on behalf of its customers. The data came from the law firm's files. The roll-call of customers included tax-evaders, drug-dealers, corrupt politicians and Mafiosi. Half of all the companies mentioned in the data were incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.

The consortium has recently proclaimed that "first-time gains in Panama, France, and Iceland have pushed above $1.2 billion the global tally of fines and back-taxes resulting from the Panama Papers investigation’s exposure of the offshore finance industry." It did not say what it thought a "first-time gain" might be.

The consortium avers that hundreds of investigations are taking place in scores of nations. Since June 2018, it claims, the United Kingdom has added US$119 million - a paltry sum in terms of total revenue - "to bring its total" (presumably of taxes recovered because of the Panama Papers) up to more than $252 million. Australia has collected another US$43 million - the ICIJ claims mysteriously claims that this "eclipses $92 million," without explaining why it is thinking about that figure. The Belgian Government has, according to the ICIJ, added an extra US$6.5 million to its coffers "to surpass $18 million," a figure whose provenance and significance the ICIJ does not explain. Its figures, in US dollars, for revenues relating to the Panama Papers are as follows:

• Australia – $92,880,415
• Austria – $2,725,869
• Belgium – $18,749,009
• Colombia – $88,884,000
• Czech Republic – $36,462,741
• Denmark – $47,500,000
• Ecuador – $84,300,000
• France – $135,696,000
• Germany – $183,193,536
• Iceland – $25,525,959
• Lithuania – $358,830
• Luxembourg – $2,393,837
• Malta – $10,706,938
• Mexico – $21,568,200
• Netherlands – $8,283,390
• New Zealand – $410,400
• Panama – $14,132,128
• Slovenia – $1,000,000
• Spain – $164,104,468
• Sweden – $19,295,056
• UK – $252,762,000
• Uruguay – $1,000,000