The Panama Papers is a global investigation into the sprawling, secretive industry of offshore that the world’s rich and powerful use to hide assets and skirt rules by setting up front companies in far-flung jurisdictions.

Based on a trove of more than 11 million leaked files, the investigation exposes a cast of characters who use offshore companies to facilitate bribery, arms deals, tax evasion, financial fraud and drug trafficking.

Behind the email chains, invoices and documents that make up the Panama Papers are often unseen victims of wrongdoing enabled by this shadowy industry. This is their story.

• Executive producer: Hamish Boland-Rudder
• Director/producer/audio editor: Carrie Ching
• Animation artist: Arthur Jones
• Report: Will Fitzgibbon
• Narrator: Eleanor Bell Fox
• Supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting