Infamous Papers Detailing Law Firm's Offshore Schemes Leaked by 'John Doe'

The alleged papers of Panama's Mossack Fonseca law firm, which have revealed offshore schemes, have been received from the anonymous person who presented himself to German reporters as John Doe, according to media reports.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Sunday, the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung exposed the alleged involvement of a number of former and current world leaders in offshore schemes by publishing materials it claimed came from Mossack Fonseca, a Panama firm that specializes in selling offshore companies.

In 2014, Sueddeutsche Zeitung's reporter Bastian Obermayer received a letter with a proposal to get some information from John Doe and after a positive response he and his colleague Frederik Obermaier received the files, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The newspaper added that Obermayer and Obermaier still had no idea who the source was or why "John Doe" had chosen to contact them.

"I want you to report on the material and to make these crimes public," Obermayer cited his source talking to the media asked to reveal Doe's motivation.

Mossack Fonseca responded by refusing to validate the information contained in the leaks and accused reporters of gaining unauthorized access to its proprietary documents. It warned that using unlawfully-obtained data was a crime that it would not hesitate to punish by legal means.