This Friday, a Panama court acquitted 28 people accused of money laundering related to the defunct Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, the epicenter of the international scandal of the “Panama Papers”, which broke out in 2016.
Judge Baloisa Marquinez “acquitted 28 people accused of crimes against economic order in the form of money laundering” in the Panama Papers case, the court said in a statement.
Among those acquitted are the founders of the firm, Jürgen Mossack, and Ramón Fonseca, who died on May 9 in a Panamanian hospital.
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Furthermore, the ruling acquits all defendants in Brazil’s Lava Jato case, where the prosecution accused the Panamanian firm of laundering money from bribes from Brazilian construction companies, including Odebrecht, to officials from several Latin American countries to win contracts.
Since the crimes and the accused were the same, Judge Marquínez decided to consolidate the “Panama Papers” and “Lava Jato” cases into a single case.
In this latest scandal, it was also not possible to determine the entry of money from illicit sources into the Panamanian financial system, according to the ruling.
During the “Panama Papers” trial, held in Panama City between April 8 and 19, The prosecution requested 12 years in prison for Mossack and Fonseca, the maximum penalty for money laundering. For the rest of the defendants, he requested between 5 and 12 years in prison.
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However, Judge Marquínez ruled that the evidence collected from the law firm’s servers “did not comply with the chain of custody” and did not allow “certainty of its authenticity and integrity.”
“Additionally, the judge determined that the rest of the evidence was not sufficient and conclusive to determine the criminal responsibility of the accused,” the statement says.
The trial began eight years after the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) began publishing the “Panama Papers” on April 3, 2016.
This investigation, based on the leak of 11.5 million documents from the Mossack Fonseca office, revealed how personalities from around the world hid properties, companies, assets and profits to evade taxes or launder money.
To do so, they created opaque companies, through the Panamanian law firm, in order to open bank accounts and create shell foundations in multiple countries with the aim of hiding money, in some cases originating from illicit activities, according to the investigation.
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The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and the former rulers of Iceland, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson; from Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif; from Great Britain, David Cameron; and from Argentina, Mauricio Macri; In addition to the Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi were some of the names mentioned then.
The prosecution had accused Mossack, 76, and Fonseca, who died at 71, of being responsible for facilitating, through the firm, the creation of opaque companies in which executives of the German multinational Siemens deposited millions of euros outside the company’s real accounts.
This “black box” would have been used to hide money from the payment of commissions. The Panamanian office, according to the accusation, was also used to store money from a massive scam in Argentina.
“Justice has been done, we are extremely satisfied with the judge’s decision,” Guillermina Mc Donald, a lawyer for Mossack and the other defendants, told AFP.
However, “we are a little sad because along the way we lost Mr. Ramón Fonseca (founder of the firm) and he has not been able to see this result,” he added.
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The scandal led to the closure of the Mossack Fonseca law firm and the international image of Panama, which was widely regarded as a tax haven, was severely damaged.
Some analysts warned that at the time the “Panama Papers” emerged, tax evasion was not a crime in Panama. “There truly has been a great injustice that has been committed,” Mossack declared at the conclusion of the hearing. “Both my partner (who died after the trial) and all the people who have worked with me have been serious, honest and correct people,” he added.
