Panama papers name Xi, Putin aides, Sharif, Messi and Indians in tax leaks

500 Indians are also named in the documents.

The Indian Express says its eight-month investigation of over 36,000 files has revealed around 500 Indian names on the firm's list of offshore companies, foundations and trusts. The newspaper says it has checked the authenticity of over 300 addresses.

An investigation into the documents by more than 100 media groups, described as one of the largest such probes in history, revealed the hidden offshore dealings in the assets of around 140 political figures.

The records were obtained from an anonymous source by German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and shared with media worldwide by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

The documents, from around 214,000 offshore entities covering almost 40 years, came from Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm with offices in more than 35 countries.

The investigations allege close associates of Putin, who is not himself named in the documents, "secretly shuffled as much as $2 billion through banks and shadow companies".

Twelve current or former heads of state are named in the investigations, including the prime ministers of Iceland and Pakistan, the president of Ukraine and the king of Saudi Arabia, as well as sporting and movie stars including Jackie Chan.

They allege Chinese President Xi Jinping and his family have links to offshore accounts, and claim Iceland's prime minister secretly owned millions of dollars of bank bonds during the financial crisis.

The papers also reveal that  FIFA ethics committee member Juan Pedro Damiani had business ties with three men who have been indicted over the probe.

Disgraced UEFA chief Michel Platini allegedly used Mossack Fonseca to administer an offshore company, while Messi and his father apparently own a shell company not discovered in a Spanish investigation into the football star's tax affairs.

Platini's communications service said in a statement sent to AFP that "all of his accounts and assets are known to the tax authorities in Switzerland, where he has been a tax resident since 2007".

The coalition says in enormity, the Panama Papers surpass Wikileaks in 2010, which included the release of 500,000 secret military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and 250,000 diplomatic cables, and infuriated the US.