A Panamanian court on Friday acquitted 28 people charged with money laundering in connection with the now-defunct law firm Mossack Fonseca, the epicenter of the “Panama Papers” international tax evasion scandal.
Among those acquitted were the firm’s founders, Jurgen Mossack and Ramon Fonseca, the latter of whom died in May in a Panamanian hospital.
During the trial, which was held in Panama City in April, the prosecution asked for 12 years in prison for the duo, the maximum sentence for money laundering.Those implicated included former British premier David Cameron, Russian President Vladimir Putin, football star Lionel Messi, Argentina’s then-president Mauricio Macri and Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar, to name but a few.
– ‘Justice has been done’ –Panamanian prosecutors had alleged that Mossack and Fonseca helped create opaque companies in which executives of the German multinational Siemens deposited millions of euros outside the company’s official accounts.The trial began eight years after the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) began publishing the “Panama Papers” on April 3, 2016.
The investigation, based on 11.5 million leaked documents from Mossack Fonseca, revealed how personalities from around the world hid properties, companies, assets and profits to evade taxes or launder money.Offshore companies are not in themselves illegal, and there are numerous legitimate reasons for using them. But they can also be used to launder the proceeds of criminal activities or to conceal misappropriated or politically inconvenient wealth.
“Truly there has been a great injustice that has been done,” Mossack said after the conclusion of the hearing.