What is your take on this story? Are you even surprised? How do you think it will affect the biz jet scene?
First to your questions. No, I am not surprised about the number of companies, but I am surprised of the actual outcome of the leak, more down below. No, I strongly believe it will not have a big effect on biz jet business, maybe not even noticeable.
Lets keep it straight. There was a network (I never heard off before, so maybe no better then the shell company business in terms of public transparency) of more then 400 journalists with their editorial staff and whole whistleblower network, which worked on more then 11m documents in 2.6 terabyte of data from over 200,000 companies for over a year(!), scanning over 14.000 people involved and what did they come up with, after all that investigation power? Public name picking and the statement that they don't even know whether there was a single illegal action example. Yes, I am surprised.
I meet the guys doing international and fast business every day and their business highly demand quick business foundation and low company lifetimes for projects. I never dared to think about their activities really in detail, but I am surprised that such investigative power of maybe beyond thousand man-year does not reveal a single big bang scandal. There are not many parts of a society, which would withstand such an investigative power. Just think what would happen in your hometown of 14.000 people investigated by 400 journalists for a year, or what would happen to your local bank, if journalists would scan the bank accounts to find hints for illegal action? Would they find - nothing - and start name picking of the major and the council members?
This may just be a big media bubble. I hope to be proven wrong, but until examples pop up ...