The investigation on Panama Papers Was it a big scandal or a soap bubble? It seems the latter, at least from a purely judicial point of view. A Panamanian court has acquitted all 28 people accused of money laundering in connection with the Panama Papers scandal, thus concluding a trial that began last April. The secret financial documents leaked in 2016, revealing how some of the richest and most powerful people in the world used tax havens to hide their wealth with shell companies: among the prominent figures cited in the files are former US President Donald Trump, former Argentine President Mauricio Macri, former UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Russian President Vladimir Putin and that of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, the king of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Saud, famous actresses such as Emma Watson, footballer Lionel Messi and director Pedro Almodovar.
The Panama Papers scandal deflates
Among those acquitted in the investigation are Jurgen Mossack and the deceased Ramon Fonseca, founder of Mossack Fonseca, the law firm at the center of the scandal. The judge Baloisa Marquinez stated that the evidence examined by the court was not “sufficient” to determine the “criminal liability of the accused“. The trial, held in Panama City, lasted 85 hours, took 27 witnesses and considered more than 50 pieces of documentary evidence, according to local news reports. Judge Baloísa Marquínez ruled that the evidence collected through Mossack Fonseca’s servers was inadmissible and dismissed all criminal charges. The judge added that “the remaining evidence was not sufficient and conclusive to establish the defendants’ criminal liability“. This is one of the most important international journalistic investigations that has thus ended with nothing. The prosecution had requested the maximum sentence for Jurgen Mossack, Ramón Fonseca Mora, Dick Brauer, Axel Gauster and Hans Joachin Kohlsdorf, now deceased, as perpetrators of money laundering, it was reported The Press.
The largest document leak in history
The case exploded in 2016, when 11.5 million top-secret documents from the consultancy firm were released Mossack Fonseca. as part of an investigation, called a memo Panama Papersconducted by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (CIJI): ICIJ worked with reporters from 107 news organizations in 76 countries, including the British newspaper The Guardian and the Italian weekly the Express. The investigation aimed to demonstrate how Mossack Fonseca’s clients were able to launder money, evade sanctions and avoid taxes, in direct violation – at least according to the investigation – of international standards aimed at stopping money laundering and tax evasion. The main accusations were the creation of shell companies, apparently healthy and legitimate companies, but in reality empty shells that have the function of managing money, hiding the name of the real owner.
Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, explained at the time that the news had leaked from “journalists and members of other organizations actively seeking to discredit Putin and the Russian leadership“. The publication of the documents could be due to “former employees of the State Department, the CIA, other security services“, the Kremlin spokesman said in 2016.
