Snowden Comments on Pandora Papers Saying Offshore Companies Still Compiling Secret Databases

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Former US intelligence officer and whistleblower Edward Snowden who leaked classified information on digital surveillance programs, says offshore companies still compile secret databases, despite leaks such as the Pandora Papers.

"The humorous side of this very serious story is that even after two apocalyptic offshore finance/law firm leaks, those industries are still compiling vast databases of ruin, and still secure them with a Post-It Note marked ‘do not leak,’" Snowden said on Twitter on Saturday. "Hats off to the source!"

Earlier in the day, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published a new leak on the alleged financial secrets of over 35 current and former world leaders, as well as more than 330 politicians and officials from across the globe.

ICIJ said the publication, called Pandora Papers in reference to the 2016 Panama Papers scandal, was based on a leak of 11.9 million files. The ICIJ said more than 600 reporters in 117 countries took part in the investigation that covered every corner of the globe.

Snowden, a former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, leaked hundreds of thousands of classified documents in 2013. In addition to exposing the US domestic surveillance program, Snowden’s documents also illustrated the size and scope of US spying on other nations, including routine eavesdropping on world leaders.

Snowden fled the United States to Hong Kong and then to Russia, where he spent more than a month stranded at a Moscow airport while the United States was trying to have him handed over to face a criminal trial on spying charges.

The whistleblower was ultimately granted asylum in Russia and received a three-year residence permit in the summer of 2014, which was extended and eventually replaced by a permanent one.