The tax secrets of thousands of corporations and wealthy individuals - including oligarchs and political leaders of nations - have been released into the public domain, with some suggesting that as much as $32tn (£21tn) is being hidden away in tax havens across the globe.

The revelations have been made by a team of International Consortium of Investigative Journalist (ICIJ) members sifting through 2.5m leaked records exposing the vast funds being stored on the exotic hideaways of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and Cook Islands.

Among the individuals named is the wife of Thaksin Shinawatra - Thailand's ousted prime minister and former Manchester City FC owner - and Jean-Jacques Augier, campaign co-treasurer for Francois Hollande in the recent French election. One British individual implicated is Scott Young, currently serving a six-month jail term for concealing assets in a divorce case, who is understood to be concealing over £600m in the BVI.

The total value of funds in offshore tax havens has been estimated at between $21 trillion (£13tn) and $32 trillion, according to a Tax Justice Network report published in 2012 and authored by former McKinsey chief economist, James Henry. This was estimated to equate to the total revenues of the US and Japan at the time.

Anita Monteith, ICAEW tax manager said: 'I suspect there will be a stream of these revelations. It will not just be the British Virgin Islands. But tax is a very complicated area so we do have to be careful of not creating witch hunts. In the UK, extreme tax avoidance is being tackled by the GAAR [General Anti Abuse Rule] and it will be really interesting to see how that develops over the years.'