Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) cited the name of Indian businessman Ravikant Ruia as an example of "tens of thousands of people" from around the world linked to offshore companies and trusts. Officials of ICIJ, however, Thursday acknowledged in a conference call that many users of offshore are engaged in legitimate transactions and could not say what percentage of the revealed transactions were illegal.

But the "project team's investigations raise questions about the lack of transparency, lax law enforcement and illegal practices that are prevalent in the offshore world," they said.