Panama Papers . Panama Papers (in English) or Panamaleaks , name by which the largest massive leak of internal documents of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca is known, one of the most important law firms specializing in the creation of offshore companies (paradise prosecutors), whose investigation was carried out by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), created in 1997 at the initiative of the Center for Public Integrity, based in Washington and a member of the structure of think tanks (Think Tanks) created by the circles of power in the United Statesfor their ideological campaigns against progressive political leaders and those of social destabilization, and the German newspaper Süddeustche Zeitung , which uncovered an extensive investigation that revealed the “offshore” accounts owned by wealthy and powerful people, including current and former governors, businessmen, criminals, athletes and celebrities, to hide their wealth [1] [2] .
The United States Department of State acknowledged that Washington financed through the Agency for International Development (USAID) the journalists who hacked the computers of the law firm Mossack Fonseca to violate private business information [3] .
Summary
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- 1 Antecedents
- 2Mossack Fonseca
- 3 Research
- 1 Results
- 4 References
- 5 Sources
Background
The Panama Papers take their name from the Pentagon Papers , the name given to a secret report by the United States Department of Defense on the involvement of that government in military and political issues in Vietnam between 1945 and 1967 . . The documents came to light thanks to The New York Times newspaper .
Mossack Fonseca
Mossack Fonseca is a law firm created in Panama in 1986 , when the Panamanian Ramón Fonseca and the German Juergen Mossack unified their two firms under the same name. The firm has a presence on all continents – with European offices in London , Luxembourg , Switzerland , Malta and Gibraltar .- and is specialized in commercial law and creation of international structures. It is the second law firm in Panama for incorporating companies in the local commercial registry and one of the five largest firms in the world in the creation of offshore companies, also known as tax havens or tax shelters, in the case of places where the creation of commercial companies it is one of the main, if not the only, industry in the country. Its success lies in the enormous tax advantages that citizens of other countries can obtain by using these companies and in banking secrecy, necessary to hide goods or assets from the tax authorities of each country. These companies can be used simply to accumulate wealth, but often have other purposes, such as buying shares,
The firm has been accused on several occasions of helping citizens of other countries to evade their taxes. In February 2016 , the Brazilian police ordered the arrest of five employees of the firm for their involvement in the money laundering scheme by directors of the public company Petrobras . In 2015 , a judicial investigation in Germany accused Mossack Fonseca of having helped hundreds of clients of Commerzbank, the second largest bank in the country, to hide their assets in Luxembourg.
The law firm is managed by Juergen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca Mora, the first founder of the firm, born in Germany in 1948 and moved with his family to Panama, where he obtained his law degree. His father was a Nazi during World War II , in which he served in the Waffen-SS ranks, the latter was born in 1952 and also obtained his law degree in Panama, but had already studied at the prestigious London School of Economics, this he had a small business until he became associated with Mossack and the two went into offshore companies, opening offices in the Virgin Islands.
Research
US State Department spokesman Mark Toner admitted that Washington funded the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project journalists who hacked into the computers of the Mossack Fonseca law firm [4] and argued that the financing through the Agency for International Development (USAID) to a group to violate private business information in the firm was not to “pursue certain objectives or people”, but for independent journalistic investigations [5] .
A team of more than 370 journalists from a hundred media outlets in 76 countries worked for a year (2015) to analyze the documents and bring to light the secrecy that prevailed in the creation of companies in tax havens around the world .
The documents span nearly 40 years of internal work at the Panamanian firm, from 1977 to December 2015, and include emails, bank accounts, databases, passports, and firm client records, and reveal hidden information on 214,488 offshore companies. connected to more than 200 countries.
The disclosure of the documents had an unprecedented global impact, as the Mossack Fonseca firm has offices in 35 countries around the world.
There were more than 11.5 million internal documents of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, considered one of the five largest global registrars of offshore companies, to which the German newspaper Süddeustche Zeitung had access , the first to obtain the documents. and then provide them to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) [6] , created in 1997 at the initiative of the Center for Public Integrity, based in Washington and a member of the structure of think tanks (Think Tanks) created by the United States power circlesfor their ideological campaigns against progressive political leaders and social destabilization.
The ICIJ is funded, among others, by the Open Society Foundations and the Ford Foundation. The first is directly linked to the well-known financial speculator George Soros who, in turn, is an active member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the most influential structure in US foreign policy. The second is a foundation that has historically been related to the CIA, and that serves as a front for it, like USAID [7] .
The research was coordinated, among others, by organizations such as the Center for Public Integrity, financed by the Ford Foundation, the Carneghie Endowment, the Open Society and the Rockefeller Foundation [8] .
Results
The Panama Papers made it possible to demonstrate how wealthy taxpayers, banks and law firms carried out unethical and borderline operations with the help of Mossack Fonseca. The firm acted as guardian of the secrecy of its clients even when it was discovered that they were members of criminal organizations, drug traffickers, corrupt politicians or tax evaders.
These documents do not necessarily indicate illegal activity, however, shell companies and tax havens (such as Panama) can be used to conceal origins of financial transactions and company ownership [9] .
In total, 140 politicians from 50 countries around the world appear in the investigation, 12 heads of state and numerous personalities from political, cultural and sports fields. The leak provided data on the alleged financial activities of 128 politicians and public officials from different countries [10] .
The event became a historic milestone for investigative journalism and a denunciation of tax havens and the facilities that hundreds of world personalities have to hide their money in the shadows.
This revelation allowed for the first time in history to see the entrails of the world financial system and see how the movements through its dark holes feed crime. It was also the largest journalistic collaboration in history, in which up to 25 different languages have been worked on.
