Bermuda's former finance minister defends the country's tax practices.

The law firm at the heart of this leak, Appleby, is based there.

Bob Richards says it is "not our job to collect your business" and the company has no obligation to the man on the street elsewhere.

Appleby is a Bermuda-based legal services provider at the top end of the offshore industry, helping clients set up in overseas jurisdictions with low or zero tax rates.

Image source, AFP

More on the Paradise Papers' leak concerning President Donald Trump's Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross:

Mr Ross helped stave off bankruptcy for Donald Trump in the 1990s and was rewarded with the commerce post.

The documents reveal Mr Ross has retained an interest in a shipping company which earns millions of dollars a year transporting oil and gas for a Russian energy firm whose shareholders include Vladimir Putin's son-in-law and two men who are subject to US sanctions.

A little bit of background to the Paradise Papers.

The papers are a huge batch of leaked documents mostly from offshore law firm Appleby, along with corporate registries in 19 tax jurisdictions, which reveal the financial dealings of politicians, celebrities, corporate giants and business leaders.

The 13.4 million documents were passed to German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung and then shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). Panorama has led research for the BBC as part of a global investigation involving nearly 100 other media organisations, including the Guardian, in 67 countries.

The BBC does not know the identity of the source.

UK peer Lord Ashcroft remained a non-dom, that is he was not legally domiciled in the UK despite living there, at at time when it was widely believed he had given up the status.

He continued to avoid tax despite attempts by Parliament to make peers pay their full share, the leaked documents seen by the BBC's Panorama programme reveal.

The peer was domiciled for tax purposes in Belize at a time when it was widely believed he had given up the status.

The leaked documents show that between 2000 and 2010, Lord Ashcroft received payments of around $200m (£150m) from his offshore trust in the Bermuda. The Conservative peer continued to sit in the House of Lords and as a non-dom he did not have to pay tax on these payments.

Lord Ashcroft has not responded to the BBC's request for comment, saying it was because of the way he had been treated by Panorama in the past.

Image source, EPA

Labour has already reacted to the Paradise Papers leak.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said it contained "deeply worrying" revelations - and questioned how effective UK government pledges to tackle tax avoidance had been.

"Despite all the government's claims of cracking down on tax dodgers, this evidence confirms that tax avoidance is clearly continuing on an industrial scale," he said.

"Either the prime minister or the chancellor needs to explain how this scandalous behaviour has been allowed to go on unaddressed for so long and what action is to be taken now."

The Paradise Papers show that about £10m ($13m) of the Queen's private money was invested offshore. It was put into funds in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda by the Duchy of Lancaster, which provides the Queen with an income and handles investments for her £500m private estate.There is nothing illegal in the investments and no suggestion that the Queen is not paying tax, but questions may be asked about whether the monarch should be investing in offshore finance.

Image source, AFP

• Wilbur Ross, a top member of Donald Trump's administration, has business links with Russian allies of President Vladimir Putin who are under US sanctions
• Lord Ashcroft, a former Conservative party deputy chairman and a significant donor, may have ignored rules around how his offshore investments were managed. Other papers suggest he retained his non-dom status while in the House of Lords, despite reports he had become a permanent tax resident in the UK
• Questions have been raised about the funding of a major shareholding in Everton FC

A massive leak of documents has shed light on how the world's powerful and super-rich, including the Queen's private estate, secretly invest vast amounts of cash in offshore tax havens.

The leak, dubbed the Paradise Papers, contains 13.4m documents, mostly from one leading firm in offshore finance. BBC Panorama is part of nearly 100 media groups investigating the papers.