Evidence records

attributedA Panamanian newspaper reported on 4 May 2016 that five companies it linked to Ramón Fonseca Mora were on the DGI list of companies with more than ten years of unpaid tasa única: Mossack Fonseca & Co (Hong Kong), Mossack Fonseca & Co Trading, Mossack Fonseca Corporate Services Ltd Inc, Mossack Fonseca Inc and Mossack Fonseca Med. A sixth, Mossack Fonseca & Co Sociedad de Costa Rica, already appeared as dissolved in the Public Registry; according to the newspaper the others, including Mossack Fonseca Inc, still appeared as current. It gave the fee as $300 a year. ⁶

qualification

The newspaper's reading of the registry at the time of publication; the status of each company changed later.

attributedA January 2014 review of Mossack & Fonseca based on Panama's Public Registry describes the firm as divided into several legal entities, two of them dated 1988: Mossack Fonseca Inc and Mossack Fonseca & Co Trading Inc. The review notes that the shareholders of a Panamanian sociedad anónima do not appear in the public registry, and that Jurgen Mossack and Ramon Fonseca appear in various director and secretary positions across the group's companies. ⁹

qualification

A secondary review of registry records; it does not show who held the shares of Mossack Fonseca Inc.

attributedA Chilean investigative news outlet reported in April 2016 that, for a company the firm had registered in Panama in 1987 for a Chilean client, Mossack Fonseca also supplied a nominee ('pantalla') board made up of José Alberto Ruiz, Diva Argelis Patiño, Leticia Montoya, Francis Pérez and Cornelio McKay, 'all executives of the firm'. Montoya and Pérez still sat as nominee directors of that company in 2016, and a Chilean investigative news outlet put Montoya's directorships at 11,038 offshore companies in more than ten jurisdictions. ⁶

qualification

Press account based on the leaked records of the firm; the company concerned is a client company, not Mossack Fonseca Inc.

response

A Chilean investigative news outlet noted that, since the publications, Mossack Fonseca had defended itself by saying that the checks it ran before taking on new clients were rigorous and far exceeded Panamanian standards.

attributedUsing Public Registry data compiled by a commercial registry-data service, a regional journalism network reported that Mossack Fonseca had registered at least 52,696 persons as directors of Panamanian companies up to October 2014, and that the firm's owner Jurgen Mossack himself appeared as director or subscriber of 3,664 companies. ⁷

qualification

Counts compiled by journalists from registry data up to October 2014.

attributedCounts of Leticia Montoya's directorships differ by source and date: a regional journalism network found 11,071 Panamanian companies under that name (plus 758 as Leticia Montoya Moran, 8 as Leticia Moran and 60 as 'Leticia Moran y otros') in registry data up to October 2014; a Panamanian lawyer quoted by a Panamanian newspaper in April 2016 cited 10,967 companies created by the firm; a commercial registry-data service's profile counts 10,850 organisations and 61 related directors, the first of them named Francis; and a separate commercial registry-data service's name-matched page shows 23,224 links. ^{7 8 9 10}

qualification

A separate commercial registry-data service warns that it matches by full name and may combine several people; the other figures come from registry compilations at different dates.

attributedA Panamanian newspaper reported in May 2016 that Leticia Montoya, an employee of the firm and an officer of about 3,000 of its Panamanian companies, appeared in every Mossack Fonseca company on the DGI list of tasa única arrears, the list that includes Mossack Fonseca Inc, and that Ramón Fonseca Mora and Jürgen Mossack appeared as officers in most of those companies. ¹¹

qualification

The article does not say which companies had Fonseca Mora and Mossack as officers.

attributedFrancis Perez, described by a Panamanian newspaper in April 2016 as a clerk of the firm, appeared as director of 10,544 companies according to that newspaper; a regional journalism network counted 10,667 companies in registry data up to October 2014; a commercial registry-data service's profile counts 10,462 organisations and 51 related directors, the first of them named Leticia; a separate commercial registry-data service's name-matched page shows 23,046 links. ^{8 12 13 7}

qualification

The figures come from different registry compilations and dates; a separate commercial registry-data service warns that its name matching may combine several people.

attributedA regional journalism network counted Diva Argelis Patino de Donado among the most frequent directors of companies formed by Mossack Fonseca, with 4,665 companies up to October 2014; a separate commercial registry-data service's name-matched page shows 2,924 links. ^{7 14}

qualification

A separate commercial registry-data service warns that its name matching may combine several people.

attributedA regional journalism network counted Jose Alberto Ruiz among the twenty most frequent directors of companies registered by Mossack Fonseca, with 2,164 companies up to October 2014; a separate commercial registry-data service's name-matched page shows 4,908 links. ^{7 15}

qualification

A separate commercial registry-data service warns that its name matching may combine several people.

attributedA regional journalism network counted Cornelio McKay among the twenty most frequent directors of companies registered by Mossack Fonseca, with 2,310 companies up to October 2014; a separate commercial registry-data service's name-matched page shows 7,176 links. ^{7 16}

qualification

A separate commercial registry-data service warns that its name matching may combine several people.

attributedAccording to a German newspaper, Mossack Fonseca's nominee-director service cost about $150 a year per director and company, and the firm usually appointed three nominee directors; the journalists' book on the leak puts the client's price at about $450 a year for the three. A Panamanian newspaper, citing a lawyer and an internal document published by the investigative journalism consortium, reported a charge of $150 a year per company. ^{8 20 21}

qualification

Press accounts based on the leaked records; the two newspapers describe the unit of the $150 charge differently.

response

In a general statement to a German newspaper, Mossack Fonseca denied offering structures designed to hide the identity of true owners and said its services always rested on legally recognised arrangements used by all providers in the industry.

attributedThe journalists' book describes the nominee system as resting on three forms found by the thousand in the leak: the nominee director's declaration to follow the true owner's instructions, a general power of attorney given to the owner, and an undated resignation letter. It says the firm usually had its nominee directors sign blank documents, from bank-account forms to share forms, and that folders of blank sheets signed by three nominee directors were found. A television news outlet reported that the firm kept blank documents signed by two employees used as directors, including an undated letter resigning as directors and officers of a company. ^{21 22 20}

qualification

Journalists' accounts based on the leaked records.

response

In a general statement to a German newspaper, Mossack Fonseca denied offering structures designed to hide the identity of true owners and said its services always rested on legally recognised arrangements used by all providers in the industry. In February 2015 the firm told the same journalists that anyone receiving a power of attorney over one of its companies was first screened through World-Check.

attributedAccording to the journalists' book, the firm's nominee directors were not employed by Mossack Fonseca itself but by Mossfon Executive, a Panamanian company formerly called International Outsourcing that had about twenty employees in 2013, which the book counts among more than 200 'satellites' of Mossfon. ²¹

qualification

Journalists' account based on the leaked records; the book does not say whether the officers of Mossack Fonseca Inc were among those employees.

attributedAnother Panamanian newspaper reported in April 2016 that Bufete MF & Co. served as a parent company for a series of corporations that in turn acted as subscribers or officers of new companies; in one 2005 incorporation deed, Leticia Montoya, an employee of the firm, acted for Dulcan Inc and another employee for Winsley Inc, both companies of the firm that recur as subscribers or officers and share the firm's address in the Arango Orillac building. ²³

qualification

The newspaper notes that such networks of companies are lawful under Panama's Law 32 of 1927 and are probably found at other law firms in the same business.

attributedA German newspaper reported in April 2016, from the leaked records, that Mossack Fonseca repeatedly offered clients, for a five-figure sum, a real person who would appear as the owner of a company in place of its true beneficial owner, so as to defeat ownership checks. ²⁰

qualification

Journalists' account based on the leaked records; the person the newspaper names as one such stand-in is a private individual and is not named here.

response

Mossack Fonseca denied ever having offered this service, according to the newspaper.

attributedAccounts of the firm's origin differ. A local-history wiki and an online encyclopedia say that Jürgen Mossack started his own law practice in Panama in 1977 and that it became Mossack Fonseca in 1986, when Ramón Fonseca joined as partner (an online encyclopedia: through a merger with Fonseca's firm). Another Panamanian newspaper reported that the two men constituted the partnership Mossack, Fonseca & Co before the Second Notary of Panama on 24 January 1986. A financial-crime law blog and a news outlet date the foundation by both men to 1977. ^{1 2 3 4 5}

qualification

Secondary accounts; no founding deed is retained in the evidence.

attributedThe same complaint describes the two men, the law firm and the corporation together as 'MFGROUP', primarily engaged in forming and maintaining offshore companies, which it calls 'products', for clients such as banks, law firms and accountants. The plaintiffs stated that they did not advise the ultimate end users to whom their clients sold these companies and that the group kept its own compliance and due diligence procedures as Panamanian and other laws required. ⁸

qualification

Self-description by the plaintiffs in a pleading.

response

In the same complaint the plaintiffs stated that around 2014 the group set up a dedicated compliance unit of twenty or more employees in El Salvador, that the claim that the firm or the corporation arranged shell-company cover for crime bosses and corrupt politicians was false, and that, although targeted by two Panamanian cases for about four years, none of them had been convicted of any charged crime.

attributedA January 2014 review of offshore service providers described Mossack & Fonseca as 'first and foremost, a law firm and not a pure offshore service provider' that offered company formation through its offices in about thirty jurisdictions, together with nominee services, trusts, yacht registration and investment advice, and listed licences held by firm entities in the British Virgin Islands (MossFon Trust Corporation, Mossack Fonseca & Co. (B.V.I.) Ltd. and MossFon Authorised Representatives (B.V.I.) Limited) and an authorisation for trust company business in Jersey. A Chilean investigative news outlet described the firm in 2016 as a global law firm based in Panama specialising in creating paper companies in tax havens. ^{10 11}

qualification

Secondary descriptions; the BVI and Jersey licences were not read in the regulators' own records.

attributedAn online encyclopedia describes a group of about 600 employees and 46 subsidiaries in jurisdictions including the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Jersey, Luxembourg and the U.S. states of Wyoming, Florida and Nevada; a news outlet reported affiliated offices in 44 countries in 2014; the firm's own 2018 statement speaks of a presence in more than 40 countries and more than 600 staff. ^{2 5 12}

qualification

Approximate figures from secondary sources and from the firm itself.

attributedA news outlet reported in December 2014 that the firm later added a third director, the Swiss lawyer Christoph Zollinger. The investigative journalism consortium described him in April 2026 as a former co-owner of the firm who had left it years before the Panama Papers were published. ^{5 13}

qualification

Press accounts; his period at the firm is not dated in the retained records.

attributedIn a statement on the closure of its operations, reported by a financial-crime law blog on 15 March 2018, Mossack Fonseca said that after the publications it had reduced its offices and staff worldwide to fewer than 50 people. It blamed reputational deterioration, the media campaign, a 'financial siege' and irregular actions by some Panamanian authorities. ^{12 4}

qualification

The firm's own account.

response

The firm said that no criminal proceedings had been opened against it for providing its company-formation service in any jurisdiction where it incorporated companies, that the only investigations were in Panama, and that it had supplied all information the authorities requested.

outcome

The firm said it would stop serving the public at the end of March 2018, after 40 years, while a small team would keep answering requests from the authorities.

attributedThe investigative journalism consortium reported in June 2018, from a second leak of the firm's records, that the firm closed offices in the Isle of Man, Jersey and Hong Kong from May 2016, that later in 2016 Fonseca and Mossack announced their retirement from the firm, and that an email to clients said a skeletal firm would remain open for a few years to meet existing obligations before it would 'eventually wither away'. ¹⁴

qualification

Journalists' account based on leaked records.

attributedThe investigative journalism consortium reported in June 2018 that, two months after it learned of the data breach, the firm still could not identify the owners of more than 70 percent of 28,500 active companies in the British Virgin Islands, its busiest offshore centre, or of 75 percent of 10,500 active shell companies in Panama. ¹⁴

qualification

Journalists' reading of the firm's internal records.

response

In late March 2016 the firm had told the investigative journalism consortium that it conducted thorough due diligence on all new and prospective clients, often exceeding the rules that bound it. For the June 2018 report Mossack and Fonseca did not answer the investigative journalism consortium's specific questions; that month the two lawyers issued a press release saying that the firm, its employees and its founders were 'never involved in unlawful acts'.

attributedAccording to the investigative journalism consortium's June 2018 report, an audit by the Seychelles Financial Intelligence Unit concluded that the firm's Seychelles office did not regularly monitor high-risk, politically connected clients and had breached six anti-money-laundering laws and regulations; the unit's director wrote of 'significant deficiencies'. ¹⁴

qualification

The regulator's findings as reported from leaked records; the audit report itself is not retained.

response

Mossack and Fonseca did not answer the investigative journalism consortium's specific questions for this report; in June 2018 the two lawyers issued a press release saying that the firm, its employees and its founders were 'never involved in unlawful acts'.

attributedAn investigative nonprofit reported in May 2016 that the British Virgin Islands financial regulator had taken enforcement action against the firm and ordered it to appoint a qualified person to oversee its operations and report regularly. ¹⁵

qualification

Press account; the regulator's notice is not retained.

attributedThe investigative journalism consortium reported in June 2018 that, in Panama, Mossack Fonseca transferred clients to Orbis Legal Services, which hired some of its employees to keep 'the same level of service', and that in Samoa the firm became Central Corporate Services Ltd. ¹⁴

qualification

Journalists' account based on leaked records; no registry record links Orbis Legal Services to the firm.

attributedPanama's Second Specialised Prosecutor's Office against Organised Crime referred in 2019 to 'the law firm Mossack Fonseca or Bufete MF&Co', according to a Panamanian news outlet's report of its request for trial. ¹

qualification

Wording of the prosecution as quoted by the newspaper.

attributedA Panamanian newspaper reported on 16 June 2022 that Judge Baloísa Marquínez of the Third Liquidating Criminal Court had ordered the provisional dismissal of the Lava Jato case against Jürgen Mossack, Ramón Fonseca Mora and 37 other people. According to the ruling as reported, the investigation had not shown which accounts were created in Panama to hide illicit money, the amounts involved, or the traceability of funds allegedly coming from Brazil, nor that the firm managed any fund or bank account from Brazil; the court lifted all precautionary measures and bail. The case, opened in 2016, ran to 293 volumes. ^{3 4}

qualification

Newspaper report of a provisional dismissal; the retained records do not explain how the case then went to the trial that ended in the 2024 judgment.

attributedAnother Panamanian news website reported on 27 January 2022 that in the Siemens case, a Panamanian money-laundering proceeding over the alleged concealment of undisclosed funds of executives of the German company Siemens through the firm, which began with a raid on the firm in April 2016, Jürgen Mossack, Ramón Fonseca and Christoph Zollinger were among those called to trial, while the cases of several of the firm's employees were dismissed or declared extinguished. ⁵

qualification

Newspaper list of the court's decision to send the case to trial; the retained records do not report a separate judgment in this case.

attributedAn online encyclopedia states that Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca were put on trial for money laundering in Panama City on 26 June 2023, that the prosecution asked for up to 12 years in prison for concealing assets linked to the Car Wash case, and that it requested sentences for 26 other defendants and the acquittal of four. ^{6 7}

qualification

Encyclopedia summary; the same passage says both men were acquitted and that Fonseca died a month later, which conflicts with the court reports that his criminal liability was extinguished because he had died in May 2024.

attributedA Panamanian news website reported on 29 June 2024 that Judge Baloísa Marquínez, in a 339-page judgment, acquitted all 28 defendants in the 'Panama Papers'–'Lava Jato' money-laundering case, among them the firm's founder Jürgen Mossack, ordered all personal and property precautionary measures lifted, and declared criminal liability extinguished for the other founder, Ramón Fonseca Mora, because he had died. ⁴

qualification

Newspaper report of the first-instance judgment; the judiciary's own notice of the 2026 appeal confirms the acquittal judgment No. 03 of 28 June 2024.

attributedAn online encyclopedia cites court papers filed on 15 October 2019 as stating that Mossack and Fonseca 'are the subjects of an FBI Investigation in the Southern District of New York' and were 'defending criminal charges against them in Panama'. ⁶

qualification

Quotation of court papers through an encyclopedia; no U.S. charge against the two men is retained in the evidence.

attributedThe investigative journalism consortium reported on 24 April 2026, citing a German public broadcaster and the court's spokesperson, that the Regional Court of Cologne had convicted Christoph Zollinger, a former co-owner of the firm, of aiding and abetting tax evasion and sentenced him to one year and nine months on probation, with a three-year probation period. The court found that offshore companies had been set up in Panama and other tax havens 'on a massive scale' and 'in a factory-like manner'; the indictment listed 50 offshore companies and an estimated tax loss of about 13 million euros, and an initial charge of forming criminal organisations was dropped. ⁹

qualification

Press report of the judgment.

response

Through a statement read by his lawyer at trial, Zollinger admitted the charges of aiding and abetting tax evasion.

outcome

He waived his right to appeal, according to the court's spokesperson.

attributedThe U.S. Department of Justice described Mossfon Asset Management, S.A. in December 2018 as an asset management company closely affiliated with Mossack Fonseca. An investigative nonprofit had reported in May 2016 that the firm liquidated this financial-services arm, which it used to help clients invest their money, and applied to cancel its licence while Panama's securities regulator investigated its compliance with due diligence requirements. ^{11 12}

qualification

The DOJ description appears in a press release on an indictment; the liquidation is a press account.

attributedAccording to the journalists' book on the leak, The Mossack Family Foundation, created in 1997, is the centre of Jürgen Mossack's private asset planning: it owns his private offshore companies and receives all the profits from Mossfon's activities, and he is its principal beneficiary. The book adds that Mossfon's affiliated companies are generally held by offshore companies that in turn belong to a foundation. ¹⁴

qualification

Journalists' account from leaked records; no retained record ties the shares of Mossack Fonseca Inc to the foundation.

attributedThe journalists' book describes an internal spreadsheet prepared by the firm in 2014: in fiscal 2013 the group had about one hundred companies with distinct business purposes and somewhat more than a hundred associated shell companies, grouped under twelve holding structures with more than 200 companies in all; its turnover was $42.6 million, and it had 588 employees, 342 of them in Panama. ¹⁴

qualification

Journalists' reading of a leaked internal document.

attributedIn a reply brief dated 4 December 2014, which appears in the court record as Document 102-6 in case 2:14-cv-00492, filed on 16 March 2015, NML argued that M.F. Corporate Services (Nevada) was Mossack Fonseca's alter ego, so that serving the Nevada company was effective service on the firm, and asked for an evidentiary hearing if the court found that evidence inconclusive. NML stated that Imogene Wilson is or was the president of M.F. Corporate Services (Nevada), instructed its sole employee under the contract between Mossack Fonseca and the Nevada company, worked from the same address as the firm's Panama offices, and served or had served as director and assistant secretary of Aldyne Ltd.; that Leticia Montoya, an employee of Mossack Fonseca in Panama, was a corporate officer of Aldyne; and that Tornbell was the sole shareholder of the Nevada company, with Mossack Fonseca as its registered agent and five individual directors, Montoya among them, all employees of the firm. ²

qualification

Assertions of a litigant in a reply brief; the court's own findings are in its order of 16 March 2015.

response

According to the brief, M.F. Corporate Services had opposed NML's motion, contending among other things that NML cited the wrong legal standard for alter-ego status and that the funds allegedly embezzled by Lázaro Báez were irrelevant to NML's judgment enforcement.

attributedA Chilean investigative news outlet reported in April 2016, from the September 2014 deposition of the Nevada company's only employee, that she described herself as its sole administrator and employee, named Imogene Wilson as its president, and acknowledged that the company had no clients other than the Panamanian law firm; she had also acted as secretary of Aldyne Ltd., a Seychelles company whose registered agent is Mossack Fonseca. A Chilean investigative news outlet described Wilson as a Panamanian executive of the firm and a director of more than 420 offshore companies created by it. ³

qualification

Journalists' account of a deposition and of the leaked records.

attributedA Chilean investigative news outlet also reported, from the firm's internal emails, that a few days after the September 2014 deposition an IT specialist of the firm travelled to the Las Vegas office of M.F. Corporate Services, arranged a telephone that would not show the firm's corporate directory or keep call logs, and cleaned the employee's computer, with the extracted files kept at Mossfon's headquarters in Panama. ³

qualification

Journalists' reading of leaked emails; no response from the firm to this account is retained.

attributedAccording to the journalists' book, a bank-account opening form in the leak shows that all the shares of M.F. Corporate Services (Nevada) were held by Tornbell Associates, which in turn belonged 45 percent to Jürgen Mossack, 45 percent to Ramón Fonseca and 10 percent to Christoph Zollinger, a minority partner in the firm. ⁴

qualification

Journalists' reading of a leaked form; no registry record of Tornbell's shareholders is retained.

response

Asked by the journalists, Zollinger denied being a shareholder of Tornbell Associates. The book also notes that Mossack had declared under oath that Mossack Fonseca did not control the internal affairs or day-to-day operations of the Nevada company and that the two were not in a parent-subsidiary relationship.

attributedAn investigative nonprofit reported in May 2016 that the firm's Wyoming operations were also run from the Nevada office and that, after its local Wyoming partner cut ties, M.F. Corporate Services Wyoming had 60 days to find a new registered agent or face dissolution; an expert called the Nevada company's abrupt resignation from 1,024 companies 'absolutely unusual'. ⁸

qualification

Press account.

attributedA German newspaper's journalists, who examined the firm's files on the 123 companies NML attributed to Lázaro Báez, wrote that they found no decisive evidence linking the companies to Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and concluded that a large part of the 123 companies were connected to the Argentine case only because the same internal nominee companies of the firm also managed the few companies that could probably be attributed to people close to the Kirchners. ⁴

qualification

Journalists' conclusion from leaked records; it does not address the court's jurisdictional findings about the firm.

response

According to the journalists, Mossack Fonseca had told them in February 2015 that the companies had 'nothing to do with NML's case against Argentina'.

attributedA Bolivian newspaper reported in October 2017, from the Panama Papers, that Cochabambina de Electricidad and Trabajadores de Luz y Fuerza gave rise to Soelbo, an offshore company 'created by the Mossack Fonseca law office'; that on 12 July 2007 PPL Global sold all its Bolivian shares to Soelbo; that on 31 October 2007 Soelbo created Luz del Valle S.A. in Bolivia; and that on 9 April 2008 the ELFEC shares were sold to COMTECO through Soelbo. Cochabambina de Electricidad was formed with capital of $7,000 to acquire the remaining 40 percent, and Soelbo with $10,000 in 100 shares of $100 that could be registered or bearer shares. ³

qualification

Newspaper account based on leaked records.

attributedAccording to a Bolivian newspaper, Mossack Fonseca confirmed in August 2007 payment for registering each company, with invoices of $2,623 for SOELBO and $2,664.50 each for Trabajadores de Luz y Fuerza and Cochabambina de Electricidad; on 21 December 2007 Criales, Urcullo & Antezana reported that the companies had elected new directors, increased their capital and exchanged their bearer shares for registered shares. ³

qualification

Newspaper account based on leaked records.

attributedA Bolivian newspaper also reported that in July 2007, when the clients wanted a Panamanian bank account for the companies, the firm offered the services of its trust company Mossfon Trust Corporation, described in the firm's correspondence as licensed by Panama's Superintendency of Banks since 1993, with fiduciary licences in the British Virgin Islands since 1986 and in Jersey since 2005; so that the clients' signatures would not appear on banking documents, it offered authorised signatories for the accounts, at $600 a year, with account-opening fees of $1,000 in Panama and $2,000 abroad. ³

qualification

Newspaper account of leaked correspondence.

attributedAn online encyclopedia describes Jürgen Mossack as a German and Panamanian lawyer and co-founder of Mossack Fonseca, a former law firm headquartered in Panama City with more than 40 offices worldwide; a news outlet called him German-born. According to an online encyclopedia he served on Conarex, Panama's council on foreign relations, from 2009 to 2014, and announced on 7 April 2016 that he was resigning from it because of the leak. ^{1 2}

qualification

Encyclopedia and press descriptions.

attributedAn online encyclopedia describes Ramón Fonseca Mora, who died on 8 May 2024, as a Panamanian novelist, lawyer and co-founder of Mossack Fonseca, who was minister-counselor to President Juan Carlos Varela and president of the Panameñista Party until he was dismissed in March 2016 because of the Brazilian Lava Jato ('Car Wash') investigation. A Panamanian newspaper described him in May 2016 as a former minister-counselor of the president and former president of the party. ^{1 2}

qualification

Encyclopedia and press descriptions.