In the “Panama Papers” trial for tax evasion and money laundering, internal documents leaked to the press were not sufficient for a conviction, according to the competent court in Panama. The 28 defendants were acquitted.
Eight years after the leak of the database known as ‘The Panama Papers’ from the Panamanian law firm Mossack-Fonseca, all 28 accused have been acquittedin the case that triggered and international financial scandalamong them the German-born lawyer Jürgen Mossack.
According to the reasoning of the competent court of Panama City, the tests were not enough to convict the accused, who were accused, among other things, of money laundering by means of the creation of 215,000 shell companies in tax havens.
On the one hand, the untrusted test chain and, on the other, the evidence was not sufficient and conclusivethe judge ruled.
Origin of the ‘Panama Papers’
The ‘Panama Papers’ were published in 2016 by a group of several hundred journalists. The ensuing scandal posed a threat to many political careers, and even the footballer’s name. Lionel Messi was included in the documents.
The data was transmitted to the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), based in the United States, in 2015, more than four hundred journalists from more than a hundred media outlets participated in the prosecutionthe results were published in April 2016.
The published documents included 2.6 terabytes of data. His prosecution was initiated by journalists under the coordination of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The first results were published in spring 2016 in articles that sparked scandals and criminal proceedings around the world.
Who appeared in the papers and were the focus of the scandal
The list included the names of billionaires, sports stars y politicians. Numerous celebrities were involved in the scandal, including Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
After the publication, countless investigations were launched worldwide, the Panamanian offshore banking system suffered a severe blow. It took eight years for the case to be heard in court.
Among the accused Jürgen Mossack and the late Ramón Fonseca Mora are found, the two founders of the law firm. The law firm survived the scandal for three years and was closed in 2018.
After the scandal broke out, Panama approved some laws, but the Central American country remains in the blacklist of tax havens in the European Union. Since 2019, tax evasion in Panama is punishable by prison sentences, but only if the amount exceeds US$300,000.
Netflix filmed the scandal with Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas in the lead roles.
