2024-04-08 19:44:09
Twenty-seven people began to be tried this Monday (8) in the case known as the “Panama Papers”, eight years after the explosion of the scandal that revealed how personalities from all over the world had hidden money through the work of the now-defunct law firm Panamanian Mossack Fonseca.
Judge Beloísa Marquínez opened the first hearing of the trial, which includes among the defendants Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca Mora, founders of the firm, as well as other lawyers and former employees of the now-defunct company. The 27 defendants are accused of money laundering and each faces a sentence of 12 years in prison under Panamanian law.
Upon entering the courtroom, Mossack said he was “very optimistic” in statements to journalists. “If there is real justice, we will be freed,” said the 76-year-old lawyer. Afterwards, before the judge, he declared: “I am not responsible for this crime.” His former partner, Fonseca, 71, did not attend the hearing as he is hospitalized, said his lawyer, Daika Indira Levy.
“From the beginning we highlighted the non-existence (…) of a precedent crime”, Mossak’s lawyer, Guillermina McDonald, whose office defends the majority of the accused, told the press.
Prosecutor Isis Soto stated that the Public Prosecutor’s Office will request what is provided for by law “as a sentence for each accused”.
The trial should have been held in 2021, but for various reasons it was postponed. Now, the hearings will extend until April 26th.
Worldwide scandal
The first allegations came to light on April 3, 2016, when the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) reported that several individuals allegedly practiced tax evasion and laundered money through the Panamanian law firm.
The Consortium had access to 11.5 million leaked documents, coming from the Mossack Fonseca office, which showed that heads of State and Government, political leaders, personalities from finance, sports and the arts hid properties, companies, assets and profits. They created shadowy companies in Panama to open bank accounts in other countries and create shell companies and foundations in which they could hide money, in some cases proceeding from illicit activities, according to the investigation.
Among those cited at the time were former rulers of Iceland, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson; from Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif; from Great Britain, David Cameron; and from Argentina, Mauricio Macri. Argentine football star Lionel Messi and Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, among other personalities, were also mentioned.
Lava Jato Targets
In Brazil, the office’s founders had already become the target of the Lava Jato operation, which even detained some of its employees amid investigations into the corruption scandal involving Odebrecht. The documents showed that the contractor created or sold offshore companies to politicians and family members from seven parties: PSDB, PMDB, PP, PDT, PTB, PSB, PSD.
Some of the Brazilian politicians involved directly or indirectly in the allegations were the then president of the Chamber of Deputies Eduardo Cunha, the former federal deputy João Lyra, the former senator Edison Lobão, the federal deputy Newton Cardoso Jr. (PMDB-MG), the former Finance Minister Delfim Netto, and former senator and former PSDB president Sérgio Guerra, who died in 2014.
The journalistic investigation showed that at least 22 Brazilian companies and families were in the Panama Papers files because they maintained relationships with companies open in tax havens.
In 2023, Mossack and Fonseca were tried in Panama for alleged money laundering as a result of the Lava Jato operation. The Public Ministry requested sentences of up to 12 years in prison for both, but the sentence has not yet been released.
Was there a crime?
With the scandal, the Mossack Fonseca office closed its activities, while the international image of the country, accused of being a tax haven, was seriously affected. Part of the current Panamanian legislation, however, did not exist when the case was revealed, which could make convictions in court difficult.
“The crux of the issue is whether or not a crime was committed in Panama with the standards of the time,” jurist Carlos Barsallo, who presided over the Panamanian department of Transparency International, told AFP. Barsallo recalls that, in 2021, the Supreme Court exempted a Mossack Fonseca employee because it considered that her actions at the time did not constitute a crime in Panama. “It may create confusion and frustration in the international community that this is the result after so many years and so much news,” she added.
For lawyer Dionicio Rodríguez, who defends one of the defendants, “today is a trial against Panamanian lawyers.” “You denounce a law firm, but you denounce activities that are legal in many other countries around the world,” he said, upon entering the courtroom.
After the “Panama Papers”, the country carried out some legal reforms, which allowed it to leave the “gray list” of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in 2023. Based in Paris, the FATF considered that Panama had made progress in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. However, Panama remains on the list of territories considered “tax havens” by the European Union.
“Eight years later, changes are happening, but more action is also needed,” Olga de Obaldía, executive director of Transparency International in Panama, told AFP.
With information from AFP
#Panama #Papers #trial #begins #Panamanian #law #convictions #difficult