Image source, Martin Pernetti/AFP via Getty Images
- author, Anna Lamche
- Role, BBC News
A Panamanian court has acquitted all 28 people accused of money laundering in connection with the Panama Papers scandal, concluding a trial that began in April.
Secret financial documents were leaked in 2016, revealing how some of the world’s richest and most powerful people use tax havens to hide their wealth.
Among those acquitted were Jürgen Mossack and the late Ramon Fonseca, founder of Mossack Fonseca, the defunct law firm at the center of the scandal.
Judge Balueza Marquinez said the evidence considered by the court was “insufficient” to determine the criminal responsibility of the defendants.
During the trial, prosecutors asked for a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison for money laundering for both Mr. Mossack and Mr. Fonseca, who died in hospital in May.
Mossack and Fonseca denied that they, their company or their employees acted illegally.
The trial, which took place in Panama City, lasted 85 hours, heard testimony from 27 witnesses and considered more than 50 pieces of documentary evidence, according to The Hill. Local news reports.
After a long period of deliberation, the judge said that the evidence collected from Mossack Fonseca’s servers was not collected in accordance with due process, and dropped all criminal charges against the defendants.
The largest data leak in history, known as the Panama Papers, was the leak of 11 million documents to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, and was shared with an international team of journalists.
In 2017, Mossack Fonseca said the company had been the victim of a computer hack and that the leaked information had been misrepresented.
In total, the data revealed links to 12 current or former heads of state and government, including dictators accused of embezzling funds from their countries.