Governments worldwide are now investigating reports of international tax avoidance following the leak of more than 11 million files from a Panamanian law firm.
Tens of thousands of rich and powerful people, including hundreds of Australians, have been mentioned in what is seen as an extensive investigation into offshore financial dealings.
Twelve current and former world leaders have had alleged hidden financial dealings exposed in the unprecedented leak of offshore financial records.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has made public more than four decades' worth of documents from the Panama-based Mossack Fonseca law firm.
The leak has sparked international outrage.
Thousands of protesters in Iceland have taken to the streets, calling for Prime Minister Sigmindur Gunnlaugsson to resign.
Documents revealed have led to allegations he and his wife used an offshore firm to hide financial investments.
While there is no evidence Mr Gunnlaugsson or his wife have done anything illegal, protester Einar Bergmundur says the people of Iceland want the prime minister to step down.
"I'm just protesting the corruption of the government. The prime minister has been hiding his money in Tortola and lying about it."
But Mr Gunnlaugsson insists his wife's overseas investments were legal and he has no plans to resign.
"I certainly won't, because what we've seen is the fact that, well, my wife has always paid her taxes. We've also seen that she has avoided any conflict of interest by investing in Icelandic companies at the same time I'm in politics. And, finally, we've seen that I have been willing to put the interests of the people of Iceland first, even when it's at a disadvantage to my own family."
The so-called Panama Papers have led to accusations Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko set up an offshore company during peak fighting between Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists.
Failure to disclose offshore investments is not a criminal offence.
But Radical Party of Ukraine leader Oleh Lyashko says President Poroshenko's alleged financial dealings are not acceptable.
(Translated) "We believe that revealed facts concerning creation of offshore companies, opening of secret accounts, secret companies, at the time when hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers were dying at the front line, in Illovaysk entrapment, amounts to committing a crime by the president of Ukraine."
But Mr Poroshenko has declared his innocence following calls for an investigation into the allegations.
Taking to twitter, Mr Poroshenko says he believes he might be the first top official in Ukraine who treats declaring of assets, paying taxes and conflict of interest issues seriously.
Argentine president Mauricio Macri is also named in the Panama Papers for his role as the director of an offshore company in the Bahamas.
But Mr Macri, too, insists his financial dealings are legal.
(Translated)"I think there is something good in the world we live in, that there is constantly more transparency, right? There is constantly more public awareness of information that was hard to come by before. In the particular case in which I am involved, it is a legal operation done by another person constituting an offshore company to invest in Brazil, an investment that, in the end, never happened and in which I was named the director."
Associates of Russian president Vladimir Putin and British prime minister David Cameron are also mentioned in the reports.
Oxfam Mexico executive director Ricardo Fuentes says world leaders and their associates named in the Panama Papers must be investigated.
(Translated)"It's simply that the law be applied, that there be an investigation and apply the law just like with any other citizen who does not pay taxes or who minimises the taxes they pay. It is very simple. Mexico and Latin America need to strengthen their rule of law so that there is no one above the law, including contractors from the government, including personal friends of whomever
In the United States, White House press secretary Josh Earnest says the US administration is not surprised at the extent of international tax avoidance the leak has uncovered.
"It's not at all a surprise to anybody in the administration -- I don't think it's a surprise to you -- that there are people who are looking for illicit ways to get around US sanctions. And, to the extent that there is any evidence that they are doing that, I think it would only be common sense that we might learn from steps that they have taken to ensure that our sanctions can have the maximum impact."
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