Prosecutors said the raid of the firm’s offices in Panama City was carried out with officials from an organised crime unit to seize documents linking Mossack Fonseca to “illicit activities”.
The raid is the latest in a series of swoops which took place on the law firm’s subsidiary offices in El Salvador on Saturday and Peru on Tuesday – with both country’s reportedly seizing accounting documents related to possible tax evasion and fraud.
‘Panama Papers’
The move follows the leak of millions of documents, called the ‘Panama Papers’, more than a week ago which detailed how the rich and powerful around the world set up offshore trusts designed to evade tax and avoid sanctions.
‘Panel of experts’
In the aftermath, Panama’s president Juan Carlos Varela said that Panama will create an international ‘panel of experts’ to help improve transparency in its offshore financial industry.
The head of state defended his nation against what he called a “media attack”, accusing wealthy countries of unfairly scapegoating his government and warning western media outlets stop blaming Panama as “tax evasion is a global problem”.
Mossack denies wrongdoing
Meanwhile, Mossack Fonseca, the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm, has denied any wrongdoing, saying it is the victim of a hack and that it only set up offshore financial accounts and anonymous shell companies for clients and was not involved in how those accounts were used.
It also emerged that the firm’s partner, Roman Fonseca, had previously served as a minister in Valera’s government before stepping down earlier this year after separate allegations linked the firm to the corruption scandal engulfing the Brazilian state oil company Petrobras.
