A criminal trial has begun in a Panamanian court on money laundering charges against 27 employees of the law firm at the center of the Panama Papers scandal.
Eight years ago, financial records from law firm Mossack Fonseca were leaked, sparking international outrage over the use of offshore companies by wealthy individuals to commit tax fraud and conceal assets.
In 2016, Mossack Fonseca files were leaked to a reporter from the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the US-based International Union of Investigative Journalists. Reporters from more than 100 media organizations, including the Guardian, worked together to examine 11.5 million files.
The company’s founders, Jurgen Mossack and Ramon Fonseca Mora, are among those indicted. Both companies have previously denied all charges, saying they had no control over the offshore companies they set up for their clients. If convicted, he could reportedly face up to 12 years in prison.
According to the Associated Press, Mossack attended the hearing declaring his innocence and told reporters outside court he was “very optimistic.” Mr Fonseca’s representative told the court that his client was hospitalized.
Faced with international criticism, Panama adopted a new law in 2019 modernizing the country’s legal definition of money laundering. Aspects of the charges against Mossack Fonseca employees relate to activities that predate the law reform and could complicate prosecutors’ attempts to convict them. According to the International Union of Investigative Journalists.
Panama’s Supreme Court previously ruled that creating a shell company used for tax evasion is not considered a crime if the company in question was established before 2019.
So were Mossack and Fonseca. acquitted of other charges A judge has directed that the company did not handle or attempt to conceal funds stolen from Brazil two years ago as part of a massive corruption scandal involving the code-named national oil company. rear, lava Jato Or a car wash.
An offshore company with links to more than 100 politicians around the world, including 12 national leaders, was discovered by journalists analyzing the Panama Papers. That included $2 billion to an offshore company owned by Russian cellist Sergei Roldugin, a friend of President Vladimir Putin.
Then-Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson were both forced from office amid public outrage over hidden offshore assets linked to their families.
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Sharif was fired from his job and sentenced to 10 years in prison by Pakistan’s Supreme Court after reporters discovered undeclared real estate secretly owned by his family through an offshore company. Gunnlaugsson was forced to resign after it emerged he had not declared to his family the ownership of an offshore company with a $1 million claim against one of Iceland’s failed banks. It was done.
After the Panama Papers findings were made public, countries around the world began using offshore companies to recover unpaid taxes that had been hidden. By 2021 More than $1.36 billion in fines and fines for unpaid taxes It is said to have been recovered by exchequer offices around the world, including $253 million recovered by HMRC in the UK.
