The Judicial Branch and the prosecution also indicated that the trial will be held between November 15 and 18, 2022.
More than thirty people will go to trial for their alleged involvement in the Panama Papers scandal, an investigation that revealed, in 2016, how personalities from around the world hid money through a Panamanian law firm, the Judicial Branch reported on Tuesday.
The court “decided to open a criminal case against 32 citizens, for the alleged commission of a crime against the economic order, in the form of money laundering, in the case known as the ‘Panama Papers,'” according to a statement.
The prosecution also announced in another note that Judge Baloisa Marquínez “decided to accept the request” from the public ministry and will bring 32 people to trial “for money laundering.”
The Judicial Branch and the prosecution also indicated that the trial will be held between November 15 and 18, 2022.
Although the notes do not mention names, a source in the case confirmed to AFP that among those called to trial are Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca Mora, founders of the Mossack Fonseca law firm.
This firm was the epicenter of the 2016 scandal of the so-called Panama Papers, a publication by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) that revealed how some personalities from around the world allegedly evaded taxes and laundered capital through that Panamanian office.
The investigation, based on the leak of 11.5 million documents from the Mossack Fonseca law firm, showed that heads of state and government, world political leaders, personalities from finance, sports and the arts hid properties, companies, assets and earnings.
The former presidents of Iceland, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson; from Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif; David Cameron from Great Britain and Mauricio Macri from Argentina, as well as soccer star Lionel Messi and Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar were just some of those mentioned on that occasion.
After the scandal, the Mossack Fonseca office was forced to close operations. (I)
The prosecution had requested, in a previous hearing, held in November 2021, the call to trial for these 32 people for the crime against the economic order, in the form of money laundering.
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