A TRALEE man was instrumental in breaking the international ‘Panama Papers’ story, of how the world’s rich and powerful allegedly were involved in complex financial arrangements to hide their assets from taxes.

Gerard Ryle is at the helm of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which headed up the research and reported on offshore account holders. The documents from a Panamanian law firm were leaked to the (ICIJ) and more than 100 other news organisations.

The story has made headlines all over the world and the names mentioned in the documents include Russian Premier Vladimir Putin.

Gerard Ryle’s family is from Tralee and he was appointed head of the ICIJ in July 2011 from his role as deputy editor at the Canberra Times. He left Ireland in 1988 to work as a journalist in Australia.

His great-grandfather, Maurice P Ryle, was the editor of the Kerry People and went on the serve as editor of the Evening Herald and deputy editor of the Irish Independent .

Overseen by Gerard Ryle and Marina Walker Guevara, the ICIJ’s director and deputy director, respectively, the project revealed information on more than 214,000 offshore companies as journalists, working in 25 languages, shared documents and sought others’ help in analysis and translation.