When the oligarch brothers Boris and Arkady Rotenberg were sanctioned for being part of Putin's inner circle, they relied on Western lawyers, bankers, and corporate service providers to preserve their wealth. The Rotenberg Files, an investigative series based on a new leak of over 50,000 emails and documents, reveals how they did it.

When people think of whistleblowers they think of Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden or Daniel Ellsberg.

Yet whistleblowers seldom gain fame. Most remain anonymous by choice, content to provide investigative reporters with facts and evidence for crucial stories and then simply fade away.

Whistle (Photo: Zephryis BY CC 3.0)At some level, almost every journalist’s source is a whistleblower. Million-page document dumps are important, but so is disclosure of one page or even just one fact that a government or oligarch doesn’t want you to know.

Seldom acknowledged and almost never thanked, insiders who blow the whistle are the unsung heroes of a just society. Without them, corruption would run rampant, public institutions could evade accountability and the rapacious would go unchecked.

The anonymous source of the Panama Papers leaks, “John Doe,” released a strongly worded manifesto in response to government inquiries into the data leak. The statement, shared on Thursday with OCCRP by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, called for reform of the system and greater protection for whistleblowers, and further explained the source’s reasons for the leaks.