Judge acquitted 28 people accused in Panama Papers case, including co-founder of law firm

PANAMA CITY (AP) – A judge has acquitted 28 people charged with money laundering in the international case known as the “Panama Papers,” including the co-founder of a law firm that authorities say was at the center of a plot to hide money tied to illegal seizures.

Jürgen Mossack founded Mossack & Fonseca with partner Ramón Fonseca, who died in May. Mossack was acquitted along with others on Friday after a Panamanian judge found that evidence against Mossack did not follow the chain of custody after authorities raided the offices of the now-defunct company.

Prosecutors have accused Mossack, Fonseca and others of creating offshore companies and using complex transactions to hide money from illegal activities related to a car wash bribery scandal involving Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, which has pleaded guilty in a U.S. federal court to using shell companies to hide millions of dollars in bribes paid around the world in exchange for government contracts.

The judge noted that other evidence in the Panama Papers case “was not sufficient and conclusive to establish the defendant’s criminal liability.”

Moreover, according to the court’s statement, the judge lifted protective measures against all defendants in terms of personal and property protection.

“We feel satisfied amid mixed emotions because many lives have been touched along the way,” Guillermina Mc Donald, who served as Mossack and Fonseka’s defense attorney, told The Associated Press. Her firm also represented 80% of the accused company’s associates.

Judge Balaoisa Marquínez decided to combine the Panama Papers case with another one known as “Operation Car Wash,” a major anti-corruption investigation launched in Brazil.

On Friday, she ruled that in the car wash case “it could not be established that money from illicit sources, originating in Brazil, entered the Panamanian financial system in order to conceal, disguise, disguise or assist in avoiding the legal consequences of a previous crime.” .

In June 2022, Mossack, Fonseca and 37 others were acquitted in a separate money laundering case.

The investigation in Brazil began in 2014, and Mossack & Fonseca later came under scrutiny after 11 million financial documents linked to the company were leaked.

The data leak had serious consequences: it led to the resignation of Iceland’s prime minister and attracted the attention of former leaders of Argentina and Ukraine, Chinese politicians and Russian President Vladimir Putin.