Eight years after the explosive Panama Papers scandal, a court in Panama has acquitted more than two dozen defendants implicated in the case. Prosecutors had sought prison sentences for the accused on charges of money laundering, but the court’s decision on Friday highlighted significant evidentiary issues.
The Panama Papers, a cache of 11 million secret financial documents, exposed a vast network of tax havens involving high-profile individuals such as football star Lionel Messi and Africa’s wealthiest man, Aliko Dangote.
According to Panamanian prosecutors, the Mossack Fonseca law firm and its associates established a web of offshore companies to conceal money linked to illegal activities, including the “car wash” corruption scandal involving the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht. Some of these shell corporations were reportedly used for fraud, tax evasion, and evading international sanctions.
However, Judge Baloisa Marquinez cited a lack of conclusive evidence to support the money laundering charges. She pointed out that evidence collected from the law firm’s servers had not been gathered in accordance with due process, raising doubts about its “authenticity and integrity.”
Mossack Fonseca was once the world’s fourth-largest offshore law firm. In the wake of the scandal, Panama’s government implemented reforms to identify the ultimate beneficiaries behind limited liability companies and their assets.
The Panama Papers leak, consisting of 11.5 million files, was initially obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The investigation revealed the offshore financial secrets of some of the world’s richest and most powerful public figures, leading to widespread protests, government probes, and the resignation of Iceland’s prime minister.
