Monday, April 4, 2016

“Panama Papers”: the firm Mossack Fonseca at the heart of the scandal – Les Echos

“Panama Papers”. Behind this name hides what can be considered the biggest scandal of tax fraud ever known. And at the heart of this case, Mossack Fonseca, discreet Panamanian law firm that specializes in tax evasion. Discreet ? More so because since Sunday, 3 April, a survey by several media around the world, coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) revealed documents from the firm revealing assets in tax havens, many officials political and prominent personalities.

But who is actually Mossack Fonseca firm? Located in Panama’s business district, it was founded in 1977 by two partners: Jürgen Mossack Fonseca and Ramon Mora. The first, born in Germany in 1948, emigrated in this small country in South America with his family to pursue his law studies. According ICIJ, citing documents from the US Army, his father, a former Nazi, had served in the SS (elite units of the German Army) during World War II. It would also have offered to spy for the CIA as “old files information.”

As for the other founder, Ramon Fonseca Mora, born in 1952, also earned a law degree in Panama before continuing his studies at the prestigious London School of Economics. In an interview, he said it had considered becoming a priest. He then led a small company before merging with Jürgen Mossack and so to open an office in the British Virgin Islands. According to the ICIJ, half of the companies that the firm has created – more than 113,000 – were based in the tax haven.



Stuck in the scandal Petrobras in Brazil

But Mossack Fonseca also opened a branch in a micro-State Pacific Niue. In 2001, revenues of the company were so high in this island they contributed to 80 percent in Niue annual budget. When, under international pressure, the British Virgin Islands were forced to abandon the stock system anonymous bearer Mossack Fonseca returned to Panama and was also installed in the archipelago Anguilla, in the Caribbean.

the company has spent money to try to erase the internet references linking to tax evasion practices and money laundering. But several countries have begun to follow its activities closely. In Brazil, it has been cited in the bribery scandal of state oil giant Petrobras, which has shaken the country. In the United States, a judge of Nevada said that the cabinet had deliberately tried to hide his management role in its local branch in this American state.

Last month, Ramon Fonseca Mora – who was an adviser to President Juan Carlos Varela of Panama since 2014 – announced he was taking a leave. He said he had made the decision “to defend (their) honor”, while the accusations in the Brazilian case multiplied. The revelation of these documents is a “crime” and an “attack” against Panama, said Sunday the head of the law firm, Ramon Fonseca Mora. “It is an attack against Panama because many countries do not like us to be very competitive to attract companies,” he told AFP.



AFP Source

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