Panama City (EFE) for which they face a sentence of at least five years in prison.
Both are part of the 32 accused for alleged money laundering. In accordance with article 254 of the Penal Code of Panama, it is punishable by between five and 12 years in prison, plus aggravating factors.
The investigation into this case began in 2016 “due to news events related to the ‘Lava Jato’ operation in Brazil, which allegedly linked a law firm in Panama dedicated to the creation of corporations,” as recalled by the Judicial Branch.
The Organized Crime Prosecutor’s Office maintains that the Mossack Fonseca firm allegedly “provided legal-financial structures for the concealment of money from illegal activities” linked to “Lava Jato” in Brazil.
“No, judge, innocent,” Mossack replied, in the courtroom of the Second Criminal Court in Panama City, when Judge Baloísa Marquínez asked her about the charges against her.
Fonseca, who participated virtually in the hearing, said when asked that “of course not” he is guilty. And she added that, in addition, she considered it a “ridiculous decision” that she was called to trial on appeal after Judge Marquínez herself dismissed all the defendants in this case.
“We have a letter from the ‘Lava Jato’ judge in Brazil who says that we were not even named in that trial,” Fonseca told EFE.
The dismissal and its modification
In June 2022, Marquínez, then as head of the Third Liquidating Court, issued the “provisional dismissal in favor of 39 people, and a definitive dismissal for another” for the “Lava Jato” case.
He argued, among others, that the investigation “did not show which accounts were created in Panama with the purpose of hiding money of illicit origin. Nor the amounts of money received from offshore or extraterritorial companies.
But last October, a higher court modified the dismissal ruling. And he opened a criminal case against 32 people in response to an appeal by the Public Ministry (MP, Prosecutor’s Office).
“There is no prior offense or otherwise. All this started at one point for reasons that are not legal and that is going to be demonstrated. It is thought that the reasons are of a political nature, that they do not have to do with me but with others involved,” Mossack told reporters.
All defendants in this case have pleaded not guilty. His defenders appealed to the arguments of the judicial resolution that in the first instance ordered the dismissal.
The Prosecutor’s Office announces witnesses in the Mossack and Fonseca case
The Second Superior Prosecutor against Organized Crime, Isis Soto, assured upon her arrival at the judicial headquarters that the Public Ministry (MP, Prosecutor’s Office) has the elements to prove the crime of money laundering.
“We have the number of elements of conviction that were collected in international judicial assistance by the Federative Republic of Brazil, witnesses, collaboration agreements, bank documentation, which we will be able to pour into this act of hearing,” said prosecutor Soto.
He added that in this trial “the elements” that the judge “did not assess” during the preliminary hearing will be highlighted. And in which Marquínez ordered the dismissal.
Soto pointed out that seven of the 15 witnesses that will appear during the trial are provided by the Prosecutor’s Office. The trial is scheduled until July 7.
The investigation of the “Lava Jato” case in Panama consists of 299 volumes. The trial is broadcast live by the Judicial Branch of Panama through its social networks.