Tough days lie ahead for Asia's super rich: the slow drip feed of sensitive data regarding offshore accounting in UK tax havens has already taken a few high profile scalps.

A huge leak containing the secret accounting information of more 100,000 people around the world – politicians, business leaders and financiers are all among them – is being published by journalists.

Models pose on board a sports yacht at a boat show in Hong Kong. Hong Kong's richest are believed to be using offshore accounts to avoid tax. Pic: AP.

The cache reveals names and communiques of some of the world's wealthiest citizens and their use of the British Virgins Islands (BVI) to avoid paying taxes.

(READ MORE: Singapore's government lost US$600 million… what now?)

Among the records are more than 2 million email exchanges between employees and clients of firms that specialise in setting up and administering the activities of tens of thousands of offshore companies.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which was mailed a hard drive containing the data, has been partnering with 37 media outlets in 35 countries to analyse and release its findings.

The data leak includes information on over 120,000 offshore entities, which the ICIJ  says is 160 times bigger than the WikiLeaks' diplomatic cables which were released three years ago.

Those already swept up in the scandal include Jean-Jacques Augier, a personal friend and campaign treasurer of French President Francois Hollande; the Georgian Prime Minister, Bidzina Ivanishvili, Maria Imelda Marcos Manotoc, governor of a Philippine province and daughter of late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Prominent figures from Pakistan, India, Thailand and Indonesia all feature as secret BVI account holders. But the daily and weekly disclosures could be particularly damaging in Malaysia, which is heading to the polls in the coming weeks.

"Many of the structures are designed to conceal the true ownership and control of assets placed offshore," the ICIJ said in a blog posting. "Their identified addresses are spread across over more than 170 countries and territories."
Most of the people setting up offshore entities live in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, according to ICIJ's data analysis.

Among the ICIJ findings:

  • The mega-rich use complex offshore structures to own mansions, yachts, art masterpieces and other assets, gaining tax advantages and anonymity not available to average people.
  • Many of the world's top's banks – including UBS, Clariden and Deutsche Bank – have aggressively worked to provide their customers with secrecy-cloaked companies in the British Virgin Islands and other offshore hideaways.
  • A well-paid industry of accountants, middlemen and other operatives has helped offshore patrons shroud their identities and business interests, providing shelter in many cases to money laundering or other misconduct.

ICIJ's team of 86 investigative journalists from 46 countries represents "one of the biggest cross-border investigative partnerships in journalism history".

Not all of the secrets are out either – it will take weeks, maybe months, for journalists to scrub, analyse and publish the data. They will release their findings in batches, which means there's a painful waiting game for Asia's uber rich.