PANAMA CITY – The Panamanian law firm, Mossack-Fonseca, whose more than 11 million leaked documents, termed the ‘Panama Papers’ exposed murky wheeling and dealing of wealthy individuals to hide their assets, is closing its operations at the end of March 2018.
According to a statement obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the law firm, which served politicians and tycoons to conceal their assets, will close its remaining offices by the end of the current month.
‘The reputational deterioration, the media campaign, the financial siege and the irregular actions of some Panamanian authorities have caused irreparable damage, whose obligatory consequence is the total cessation of operations to the public,’said the law firm.
It further stated that a skeleton staff would remain in order to comply with requests from authorities and other public and private groups.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/world/panama-papers-investigation-wins-pulitzer-prize-for-exposing-offshore-tax-havens/
The firm, whose documents exposed more than 214,000 offshore entities tied to 12 current or former heads of state, 140 politicians, and others stated it would ‘continue to call for justice’ and would cooperate with authorities to ‘demonstrate that no crime has been committed.’
Founded in 1986, the Panama law firm expanded into an offshore empire with more than 40 offices around the world, from the British Virgin Islands to New Zealand.
In 2013, it employed more than 600 people and its billings exceeded $42 million, however, after the 2016 publication of secrets it had closed offices and reduced its staff to about 50.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/headline/pm-nawaz-sons-and-daughter-among-world-leaders-who-use-tax-havens-to-hide-their-wealth/
The law firm’s closure comes almost two years after the Panama Papers investigation laid bare the offshore ties of some of the world’s most powerful and most corrupt people.
The firm’s leaked internal files brought down the prime minister of Iceland Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, in a matter of days, however, the investigations stemming out of the Panama Papers took some 14 months to oust the Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif by the country’s top court.
The data breach from the Mossack-Fonseca firm was thoroughly investigated and published by an international consortium of journalists sending shock waves across the globe.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists shared the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting with McClatchy and the Miami Herald for their reporting on the Panama Papers.
The massive blow to the firm came in February 2017 when its founders were arrested in Panama City as the country’s attorney general launched a probe into their alleged connections with Brazil’s sprawling Lava Jato corruption scandal.
Juergen Mossack and Ramon Fonseca, who is also a former adviser to Panama’s president Juan Carlos Varela, were taken into custody by police in the Panamian capital, however, the pair was released that April.
Last month, Panamanian prosecutors raided the offices of Mossack Fonseca, seeking possible links to another Brazilian engineering company Odebrecht.
The Brazilian construction firm has admitted to bribing officials in Panama and other countries to obtain contracts in the region between 2010 and 2014.
Ramon Fonseca, a partner at Mossack Fonseca, denied his firm had a connection to Odebrecht, while accusing Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela of directly receiving money from Odebrecht, Latin America’s largest engineering company.
Notables named in Panama Papers
Twelve national leaders are among the 143 politicians, their families and close associates from around the world known to have been using offshore tax havens.
The national leaders named in the Papers include Britain’s ex-prime minister David Cameron, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, Pakistan’s prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Iraq’s ex-interim prime minister and former vice-president Ayad Allawi, Ukraine president Petro Poroshenko, Iceland’s ex-prime minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, and the son of Egypt’s former president, Alaa Mubarak.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been under pressure for a year in the face the Panama Papers’ revelations that his children owned shell companies that held homes in London.
In September, thousands of protesters stormed Islamabad’s streets to call for Sharif’s resignation following which the supreme court started investigations and entrusted a joint investigation team (JIT) with recording the statements of Sharif family.
The investigations led to the top court announcing that Nawaz Sharif, who was nearing the completion of his third term as permier, was unfit to serve in the capacity as a legislator.
