I'm kind of torn on this. On the one hand, I appreciate that they're not trying to hurt the little guys, the people who are just trying to get by in the world and use these offshore accounts quasi-legitimately the way kleinbl00 describes and argues how they're supposed to be used. On the other hand though, I feel like if you knowingly hide from the law and are aware of potential consequences, you should face them if they come your way. Then again, some laws are stupid and if you get overly technical and nitpicky about them, pretty much everyone breaks a law sooner or later. If I bought a pack of cigarettes and crossed state lines with them, then technically I'm breaking a tax law. That's of course significantly less severe than having an off shore account, but then again, who gets to decide severity?The German newspaper that first obtained the so-called Panama Papers, a vast trove of documents on offshore companies, said Thursday that it won't publish all the files, arguing that not all are of public interest.