City of Panama. One of the main partners of the Panamanian law firm that was at the center of the Panama Papers scandal in 2016 and other former directors of the firm distanced themselves from the alleged crime of money laundering on Monday at the start of the trial related to that far-reaching scandal. world in the Central American country.
“I am not responsible,” responded the Panamanian lawyer of German origin Juergen Mossack to a question from the judge in the case and the same did other defendants in the process.
Ramón Fonseca, the other partner of the Mossack-Fonseca firm, did not appear and did not even follow the online hearing because, according to his defense, he was being held in a hospital.
After being postponed on several occasions, the trial of the 27 defendants finally began, which also includes former executives and former representatives of the firm inside and outside of Panama.
The investigations began after the publication of 11 million secret financial documents from the Mossack-Fonseca firm that illustrate how some of the richest people in the world hid their money in tax havens or founded overseas companies to transfer or move dark money.
The records were first leaked to the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung and were shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which began publishing reports in collaboration with media outlets.
In Panama, the case includes a voluminous, multi-year investigation that has to do generally with the role the firm played in the creation of overseas companies that were allegedly used to transfer and move illicit money using the Panamanian financial system by from countries such as Germany, Brazil and Argentina, where Panamanian prosecutors traveled in search of collaboration.
The Mossack-Fonseca firm is accused, for example, of having facilitated the creation of public limited companies to move funds for the payment of bribes related to the Lava Jato case, considered the largest corruption scheme in Brazil, but the investigation also mentions companies processed by the law firm that were used to pay bribes from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.
The law firm, which closed its offices in Panama and dozens of other countries in March 2018, rejected being investigated in Panama by arguing that the firm was the victim of a global cyber attack and that the information “stolen” and disclosed misrepresented the nature of the industry and its role in global financial markets.
Upon arriving at the court where the trial is being held in Panama City, lawyer Mossack, 76, said he was very optimistic. “If there is true justice, we will get away with it.”
The repercussions of the leaks were far-reaching. They caused the resignation of the Prime Minister of Iceland and called into question the leaders of Argentina and Ukraine, several Chinese politicians and Russian President Vladimir Putin, among others.
U.S. prosecutors have also charged that the Mossack-Fonseca law firm conspired to evade U.S. laws to keep its clients’ wealth and hide money owed to the Internal Revenue Service. They also claim that the rigging dates back to 2000 and involves fake foundations and shell companies in Panama, Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands.
Fonseca has said that the firm had no control over how its clients could use the offshore tools — companies registered in an extraterritorial jurisdiction — that were created for them.
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– 2024-04-12 20:09:16
