"Panama Papers" trial: Court acquits 28 defendants
Judge Baloísa Marquínez based her decision on the fact that the evidence collected on the law firm's servers did not fit into the chain of evidence. There were doubts about "authenticity and integrity". The other evidence was not sufficient and conclusive to establish the criminal responsibility of the accused.
An international research team around "Sueddeutsche Zeitung" published their investigations under the title "Panama Papers" in April 2016. The investigations, based on the analysis of 11.5 million documents from the law firm, revealed the names of prominent persons, politicians, and athletes who were supposed to have hidden their wealth from the tax authorities. According to the research team, both illegal tax avoidance strategies and tax evasion and money laundering crimes were uncovered.
Mossack is a lawyer from Fürth in Bavaria who holds Panamanian citizenship. In the 1960s, his family emigrated from Germany to Panama. Mossack studied law in Panama and worked in various law firms in Panama City and London afterwards.
In the 80s, he founded the law firm Mossack-Fonseca with the native Panamanian Fonseca, specializing in letterbox companies. In 2018, the firm announced that it would cease business due to "irreparable" image damage.
The publications about the "Panama Papers" led to investigations all over the world and a debate about tax havens and money laundering. In the aftermath, the Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson and the Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resigned from their offices.
Former British Prime Minister and current Foreign Secretary David Cameron and football star Lionel Messi were also listed in the documents. Additionally, it is alleged that the former Argentine President Mauricio Macri and Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar were involved.
According to "Spiegel" estimates, more than 1.3 billion dollars in fines and taxes were collected after the publication of the "Panama Papers". Panama introduced reforms after the "Panama Papers" to protect its financial system and improve its international image.
- The public prosecutor's office in Germany initiated a process against Mossack Fonseca and Ramón Fonseca over allegations of tax avoidance and money laundering, as revealed in the Panama Papers.
- The German court of law requested a letter from Mossack to clarify his involvement in the Panama Papers scandal, but he refused to cooperate.
- The Panama Public Prosecutor's Office also launched an investigation into Mossack Fonseca in response to the Panama Papers exposé.
- Many of the letterbox companies mentioned in the Panama Papers were based in Panama, which has been criticized for facilitating tax avoidance and money laundering activities.
- The Special Prosecutor's Office in Germany sent a letter to Ramón Fonseca requesting information related to the Panama Papers, but he failed to comply.
- The Panama Papers revealed that Mossack Fonseca had helped several prominent figures, including politicians and athletes, set up offshore companies for tax avoidance purposes.
- The German government has expressed its support for international efforts to combat tax avoidance and money laundering in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal.
- The Panama Papers highlighted the role of Germany in the global network of tax havens and forced the country to take measures to prevent tax evasion and money laundering.
