For more than 10 years, ICIJ has built a name for itself as one of the premiere investigative news outlets uncovering the shadowy world of tax havens and financial secrecy.

Inspired by ICIJ’s work, French news magazine XXI has planned a special edition focused on this $10 trillion industry, which will include interviews with advocates and experts like renowned economist Gabriel Zucman, as well as special investigative reports on tax havens like the United States, Dubai and Monaco and issues like money laundering, Russian oligarchs, and the trade in luxury goods.

In addition to its standard edition, XXI is also crowdfunding an English-language version of the magazine that can be pre-ordered via Kickstarter.

In a Q&A with ICIJ, XXI managing editor David Serenay shares the motivations driving this edition of the magazine, and some of the surprises he found while compiling the stories.

What made you decide on a special edition focused on tax havens and offshore finance?

It has been now several decades that a lot of civil actors have been very critical about tax havens. Members of Parliament, judges, journalists: all of them pointed out the fact that the offshore planet is detrimental to our democratic states. A lot of political leaders have said, from time to time that “tax havens are finished.” Those are the exacts words that Nicolas Sarkozy had in a G20 meeting in 2009 when he was President of France. But this is wrong: the offshore system has never been…