Panama Papers can't clean up the truly bad actors

New York

THE Panama Papers can only clean up so much. A leak of more than 11 million documents from Mossack Fonseca, a law firm in the Central American nation, has kicked off a global offshore tax hunt. At least one world leader is already under fire and others could be damaged, too. The impact may be limited, however, in the least democratic regimes.

Far-flung accounts used to circumvent tax bills are sometimes perfectly legal, but also often cater to questionable and unscrupulous activity.