Denmark Buys The Panama Papers… Even Though They Were Free

Denmark’s recent move to purchase information from the infamous Panama Papers leak goes to show the Danes don’t like cheaters. An anonymous source approached the Danish government over the summer offering a Christmas list of carefully “selected and sifted” information containing a variety of creative ways to tax evade – complete with some 320 Danish cases. The leaked files are being priced at 9 million Danish Kroner ($1.4 million) which wouldn’t seem unreasonable if the ICIJ hadn’t received them for free. Of course, buying essentially private information poses a certain moral conundrum of its own. Danish Taxation Minister Karsten Lauritzen has stated that though they “must take the necessary measures in order to catch tax evaders… there may be fundamental problems associated with buying leaked information.” But it’s ok if they’re catching the bad guys, right?