Why the Panama Papers scandal is back in the spotlight

The Panama Papers scandal, which shook the world in 2016 by exposing the secret offshore dealings of politicians, celebrities, and business magnates, is back in the spotlight.

This time around it’s because a court in Panama has acquitted key figures from the now-shuttered Mossack Fonsesca law firm, which was at the centre of the scandal.

We explain what happened in this case, the role of Mossack Fonsesca in the Panama Papers scandal, and what the original leaked documents had shown.

Recent acquittals in the Panama Papers scandal

In Panama, Judge Baloisa Marquínez acquitted all 28 defendants, including the founders of the law firm Mossack Fonseca, which was prominently featured in the Panama Papers investigation. Jürgen Mossack, a German immigrant whose father served in Hitler’s Waffen-SS during World War II, and Ramón Fonseca, an award-winning novelist and former adviser to Panama’s president, were among those acquitted. Fonseca died in May before the trial concluded, leading to the dismissal of legal action against him.

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The trial, which lasted 85 hours in April, took place nearly eight years after the Panama Papers investigation was first published. It included testimony from 27 witnesses and more than 50 pieces of evidence.

Judge Marquínez ruled that the evidence collected from Mossack Fonseca’s servers had not been gathered following due process, leading to the dismissal of all criminal charges against the defendants.

The Judge stated that the evidence presented was “not sufficient” to establish the criminal responsibility of the defendants.

Originally, Marquínez had 30 working days to issue a sentence, but the Panamanian judicial code allowed for additional time based on the volume of files.A court representative noted that more than 300,000 pages were filed, which theoretically could have extended the judgment period to as long as 23 years under Panamanian law.

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The prosecution had sought the maximum sentence for Jürgen Mossack, the now-deceased Ramón Fonseca, Dick Brauer, Axel Gauster, and Hans Joachim Kohlsdorf, all accused of money laundering.

The Panama Papers scandal

The Panama Papers scandal erupted in 2016, based on a massive leak of 11.5 million files to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. These files were shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and revealed the offshore financial secrets of 140 politicians, as well as numerous celebrities and business owners globally. The investigation uncovered how these individuals used a secretive parallel economy based in offshore tax havens to move their money.

Role of Mossack Fonseca

Mossack Fonseca played a crucial role in facilitating these activities. The firm’s operations involved creating and managing shell companies in offshore jurisdictions, enabling clients to hide their assets and identities. They provided “nominal directors” and shareholders to mask the true owners, facilitating the movement of money across borders without scrutiny.

Often exploiting weak regulations in tax havens, the firm’s services allowed individuals to evade taxes, launder money, and engage in illicit activities while maintaining anonymity and bypassing legal and financial oversight.

Scope of the Panama Papers scandal

The files indicated that Mossack Fonseca worked with more than 14,000 banks, law firms, company incorporators, and other intermediaries to set up companies, foundations, and trusts for their clients.

The leaked data covered nearly 40 years, from 1977 to the end of 2015, making the Panama Papers investigation one of the largest cross-border journalistic collaborations in history.

Big names involved

The Panama Papers revealed the extensive reach of Mossack Fonseca’s operations. Among the prominent figures implicated were Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, who resigned after it was disclosed that his family had undeclared offshore accounts. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was disqualified for life from office after being implicated. Other notable figures included former British Prime Minister David Cameron, football star Lionel Messi, Argentina’s then-president Mauricio Macri, and Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar.

The files exposed offshore companies controlled by the king of Saudi Arabia and the children of the then-president of Azerbaijan. They also revealed offshore companies linked to at least 33 individuals and entities blacklisted by the US government for wrongdoing, such as doing business with Mexican drug lords, terrorist organizations like Hezbollah, or rogue nations like North Korea and Iran.

Impact of the investigation

The Panama Papers had a profound impact worldwide. Mossack Fonseca closed within two years of the investigation’s release, overwhelmed by lawsuits and global pressure.

In Iceland, then-Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson resigned after documents revealed his offshore company used to shelter money, which he hadn’t disclosed.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif faced political downfall, too, albeit a much slower one. The documents related to Sharif revealed his family’s offshore assets, leading to widespread protests and an official probe into his finances. He was ultimately disqualified from the prime ministership and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Additionally, a fine of $10.6 million was imposed and he was banned from holding public office for life.

He returned to Pakistan recently after four years in self-imposed exile in London and is active again in the country’s political scene.

Some of the most complex connections unveiled by the investigation involved wealth moved around in accounts held by close allies and friends of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In 2023, Swiss prosecutors charged four banking executives for their role in helping move millions of dollars, failing to flag warning signs about the likely true owner of the accounts. The bankers were convicted and fined hundreds of thousands of Swiss francs.

The challenges of holding the powerful accountable

Despite the far-reaching revelations, most individuals named in the Panama Papers faced little consequence. For example, football star Lionel Messi continued his career without major repercussions or public backlash.

The Panama Papers investigation also led to widespread public protests and outcry, prompting reforms in tax havens like Panama and the British Virgin Islands. However, the results of these reforms have been mixed. The British Virgin Islands, home to the largest number of offshore companies mentioned in the leaked documents, passed a law in 2017 that required offshore service providers to report the real owners of companies to the Islands’ authorities. However, this information is not publicly available. The US Treasury Department’s efforts to establish a company ownership database are ongoing but have faltered recently.

While significant steps and proclamations have been made toward greater transparency in the global financial system, much work remains. In Europe, for instance, multiple ownership registries in countries like Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands were rolled back. This happened after a European Union court ruled that a public Luxembourg registry violated business owners’ privacy and potentially put them in harm’s way.

The Panama Papers scandal continues to be a stark reminder of the challenges in the fight against financial secrecy and corruption, especially by those who are in power.