Panama Papers trial begins, 27 people charged in global money laundering case

On Monday, Panama’s Criminal Court began the trial of 27 people accused in connection with the global “Panama Papers” money laundering operation.

Those on trial include the owners of the law firm Mossack-Fonseca, which was at the center of a massive 2016 document leak.

The Panama Papers contain 11 million secret financial documents that illustrate how some of the world’s richest people hide their money.

The leaks had widespread fallout, leading to the resignation of Iceland’s prime minister and putting the leaders of Argentina and Ukraine, Chinese politicians and Russian President Vladimir Putin, among others, under scrutiny.

The oft-delayed trial began on Monday with lawyers Juergen Mossack, Ram³n Fonseca and other former representatives, lawyers or former employees of the company facing money laundering charges.

Mossack attended the court and said “I am not guilty of such conduct.”

Fonseca’s lawyer said he was in a hospital in Panama at the time.

The case centers on accusations that the company set up a shell company to acquire properties in Panama using funds from a vast Brazilian corruption scheme called Car Wash (Lava Jato in Portuguese).

Fonseca said the company, which closed in 2018, had no control over how its clients used offshore vehicles created for it. Mossack and Fonseca both hold Panamanian citizenship, and Panama does not extradite its citizens.

In 2022, the pair were acquitted of other charges.

The records were first leaked to German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which began publishing collaborative reports with news organizations in 2016.

U.S. federal prosecutors have accused the law firm Mossack Fonseca of conspiring to circumvent U.S. law to preserve the wealth of its clients and conceal taxes owed to the IRS. They claim the scheme dates back to 2000 and involved bogus foundations and shell companies in Panama, Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands.