The verdict will be announced at the meeting dock to 27 executives and lawyers at the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.
They are accused of alleged creation Offshore companies for him Money laundering after a journalistic investigation in which more than eleven million documents were leaked Tax havens.
The ‘Panama Papers“They heaped heaps on politicians, businessmen and celebrities from almost all over the world and, in Spain, brought about the resignation of the former industry minister.” Jose Manuel Soria.
Mossack Fonseca, the defunct Panamanian law firm at the epicenter of the “Panama Papers”
The law firm Mossack Fonseca was at the epicenter of the scandal 2016 the “Popes of Panama,” a vast tax evasion and money laundering network involving politicians, celebrities, businessmen and prominent figures from around the world.
Intense media attention and investigations by the governments of several countries forced the closure six years before the start of the trial, which was scheduled for this Monday.
The audience “The trial is scheduled for 27 defendants for the alleged commission of the crime of money laundering” and will take place between this Monday and April 26, the alternative date set by the court for the trial that should have started in 2021, he reported. He Judicial Authority of Panama.
There are lawyers among the defendants Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca MoraFounder of the defunct law firm that was at the center of the scandal known worldwide as the “Panama Papers.”
The law firm, which had offices in a dozen countries, closed in March 2018 due to a lack of liquidity and clients. Its founders stated in a letter published in June of that year that their company had sold more than 250,000 companies in 40 years and that “was never involved in any illegal acts“.
The “Panama Papers” represented 11.5 million leaked documents from the Panamanian law firm detailing financial information and relationships between legal advisors in accounts abroad or in tax havens to allegedly hide assets.
In the Filtration A dozen world leaders, 128 politicians and officials, and hundreds of sports and arts stars, businessmen and other wealthy people from more than 200 countries were named.
Mossack Fonseca was also involved in the case.Lava Jato‘, which in turn counts as that Biggest corruption scandal in the history of Brazil.
Together with around thirty defendants, Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca are awaiting the verdict of a court in which the public prosecutor’s office accused them of having provided “legal-financial structures to conceal funds from illegal activities” through their law firm. to the “Lava Jato” property in Brazil.
But the court that handled this trial and the Panama Papers case combined them into a single case because they were similar in terms of the defendant and the facts investigated by the prosecution, according to the local press.
“In this trial we will defend ourselves against the two cases in which the prosecution accuses us of the alleged crime of money laundering,” said a statement accessed by EFE through a source close to the defense, which he also pointed out “that in no case is the crime specified.”because we always act within the framework of the law“.
He survived the Panama Papers for two years
The company was founded in 1977 by Mossack and Fonseca It did not survive the offshore companies and Lava Jato scandals and closed its doors in March 2018.
“The decline in reputation, the media campaign, the financial blockade and the irregular actions of some Panamanian authorities have caused irreparable damage, the inevitable consequence of which is the total cessation of public operations at the end of this month,” the law firm said in a statement when he announced the announced the cessation of operations.
He International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ, acronym in English), one of the protagonists of the “Panama Papers” investigation, “presented to the world an inaccurate picture of the services we provide based on stolen information, thereby distorting the nature of the industry” and his role in the global financial markets,” the office said at the time.
Mossack and Fonseca have always denounced that the Panama Papers case was built on information stolen from the office through a hacker attack, and they have accused Panamanian authorities of failing to investigate the matter.
Panama suffered one serious blow to his reputation for this scandal. Eight years later, the scale of the Panama Papers leak has not yet been surpassed: it filled 2.6 terabytes and more than 11.5 million Mossack-Fonseca documents, affecting more than 140 politicians and high-ranking officials around the world and exceeding the number of 1.7 million files technology consultant and former CIA employee Edward Snowden leaked in 2013.
