Offshore jurisdictions also tend to be highly secretive and publish little or no information about the companies or trusts incorporated there.
Setting up or benefiting from offshore entities is not itself illegal, and in some cases people may have legitimate reasons, such as security, for doing so.
Where did the Pandora documents come from? But the secrecy offered by tax havens has at times proven attractive to tax evaders, fraudsters and money launderers, some of whom are exposed in the files.
Those who are may stand accused of a wide range of misbehaviour: from the morally questionable through to the potentially criminal.
More than 600 journalists have sifted through the files as part of a massive global investigation.
Usually for reasons of tax, secrecy or regulation.