Panamanian lawyer Ramon Fonseca, one of the two founders of the law firm at the heart of the 'Panama Papers,' has died at age 71 while awaiting trial in the global scandal that broke in 2016 During the night, Mr. Fonseca “died, he was hospitalized, that’s why he did not attend the trial,” which opened on April 8 and had not yet delivered a judgment, said. Thursday, May 9 at Agence France-Presse (AFP), Guillermina Mc Donald, a lawyer for the former company at the center of the scandal that revealed how celebrities around the world hid money from the tax authorities.
Mr. Fonseca died in a hospital in the capital of the small Central American country, Ms. McDonald said, without specifying the causes of death.
During the trial, which ended on April 19, the maximum sentence for money laundering – twelve years in prison – was requested against Ramon Fonseca and Jürgen Mossack, the two founders of the Mossack law firm Fonseca. The court had to deliver its judgment within thirty days. “Any legal process carries an enormous burden for a person who is accused, and even more so in the circumstances in which this process took place,” Mr. Fonseca's lawyer, Daika Indira Levy, told AFP after having confirmed the death of his client.
The affair broke out in 2016 after the publication of an investigation, the “Panama Papers”, carried out by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, of which Le Monde is a member. Based on the leak of 11.5 million documents from the Mossack Fonseca study, it revealed that heads of state and government, top politicians and figures from finance, sports and the artistic world hid properties, businesses, capital and profits from the tax authorities.
To this end, they created opaque companies, through the Panamanian cabinet, to open bank accounts and create shell companies in several countries, in order to hide money, in some cases coming from illegal activities, according to the consortium's investigation.
The case was brought to the cinema
Figures mentioned include, among many others, Russian President Vladimir Putin, former heads of government of Iceland Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, Pakistan's Nawaz Sharif and the United Kingdom's David Cameron (current head of British diplomacy). , former Argentine President Mauricio Macri, as well as football star Lionel Messi and Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar. The scandal led to the closure of the Mossack Fonseca firm and the country's image was seriously affected.
The prosecution accuses MM. Mossack and Fonseca for having facilitated, through their law firm, the creation of opaque companies in which executives of the German multinational Siemens deposited millions of euros outside the company's real accounts. This “box B” would have been used to hide money linked to the payment of commissions.
The Panamanian firm, according to the prosecution, was also used to store money from a massive scam in Argentina. “Really, there was a great injustice (…) I repeat that my partner and all the people who worked with me were serious, honest and correct people,” Mr. Mossack declared during his pleading on April 19 .
The case was brought to the cinema. Ramon Fonseca, who wrote several novels, was played by Spanish actor Antonio Banderas in a film directed by Steven Soderbergh, The Laundromat, the Panama Papers Affair (2019).
