From the opening of the Panama Papers trial, the tax evasion and money laundering scandal revealed in 2016 where 27 people are in the dock, the line of defense of the defendants is clear. “I am not responsible,” declared on the stand at the start of the hearing Jürgen Mossack, one of the founders, with Ramon Fonseca Mora, of the Mossack Fonseca firm at the heart of the scandal.
“We are simply waiting to obtain justice and I am sure that this is how things will happen,” said the 76-year-old lawyer at the end of the hearing.
The 27 defendants, including the two founders of the firm, are accused of money laundering and each of them faces a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison, but all plead innocence. A thesis which is not that of the prosecutor.
“The crime of money laundering has been proven and we must now determine the criminal responsibility of the accused,” declared the prosecutor in charge of the fight against organized crime, Isis Soto, at the end of the first day of the trial . A few hours earlier, she had indicated that the prosecution would request an “exemplary sentence” for the accused.
The leak of 11.5 million documents
The actions of the Mossack Fonseca study were revealed in 2016 by an investigation, known as the “Panama Papers”, carried out by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICJI).
Based on the leak of 11.5 million documents from the Mossack Fonseca study, it revealed that heads of state and government, top politicians and figures from finance, sports and the world artistic have hidden properties, businesses, capital and profits from their tax services.
Among the figures mentioned are former heads of government of Iceland Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, Pakistan Nawaz Sharif and the United Kingdom David Cameron, former Argentine President Mauricio Macri, as well as football star Lionel Messi and Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar.
This scandal led to the closure of the Mossack Fonseca firm and the image of the small Central American country was seriously affected. Panama is therefore on the blacklist of tax havens established by the European Union.
This trial, scheduled to last until April 26, was initially scheduled to take place in 2021 but has been postponed several times for various reasons. The debates in the coming days should become more technical. Some provisions of Panama's anti-money laundering laws were not yet in place when the case broke, which could make convictions more difficult.
Measures to combat money laundering
In Panama, the crime of tax evasion has only been punishable since 2019 and for amounts exceeding $300,000 per year. Previously, tax evasion was not considered a crime, but a simple administrative offense.
“The crux of the problem is whether or not a crime was committed in Panama according to the rules of the time,” underlines Carlos Barsallo, former president of the Panamanian section of the anti-corruption association Transparency International. However, the Supreme Court exonerated a Mossack Fonseca employee in 2021, finding that her actions at the time did not constitute a crime.
In the meantime, after this scandal, the reforms undertaken by Panama allowed it in 2023 to be removed from the “grey list” of the anti-money laundering organization GAFI. “Eight years later, changes are underway, but additional actions are also necessary,” said Olga de Obaldia, executive director of Transparency International in Panama.