Germany has stepped up its campaign against organised crime by spending five million euros ($A7.5 million) to buy the so-called Panama Papers, which contain a list of those exploiting secret offshore tax havens.
Berlin officials confirmed that Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) had bought the papers, which were published last year, as part of its bid to track down on possible German-based tax fraudsters.
"These data are being looked into and evaluated with Hesse state's tax authorities to pursue criminal and fiscal offences," the BKA said in a joint statement with Hesse's finance ministry and the public prosecutor's office in Frankfurt.
Some of the approximately 11.5 million documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca were leaked initially to Germany's Suddeutsche Zeitung and then to other news organisations in co-operation with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The documents leaked last year exposed rich and powerful people, who had used tax havens to hide their wealth.
The list of names included politicians, their families and close associates from around the world.
In September 2016, Denmark agreed to pay an anonymous source for information about hundreds of Danish nationals mentioned in the data leak. The Danish opposition parties attacked the decision as "deeply reprehensible".
Share
