PANAMA CITY: A Panamanian court has acquitted around 28 accused of money laundering at the center of the “Panama Papers” scandal, the court said in a statement.
Judge Baloisa Marquinez “acquitted 28 accused of money laundering” relating to the now-defunct Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, the court said in a statement.
Among those acquitted were the firm’s founders, Jurgen Mossack and Ramon Fonseca. The latter passed away in May in a hospital in Panama. During the case proceeding, which was held in Panama City in April, the prosecution asked for about 12 years in jail for the pair, the maximum sentence for money laundering in the country.
However, Marquinez has found that evidence collected from the firm’s servers had not been collected in line with due process, raising doubts regarding its “integrity and authenticity.”
The court also ruled that “the rest of the evidence was not enough and conclusive to determine the criminal responsibility of the defendants,” according to the statement.
Leaked documents from Mossack Fonseca in 2016 showed how many of the world’s wealthy stashed assets in offshore firms, triggering scores of probes around the world.
Others implicated included former British Prime Minister David Cameron, Lionel Messi, Argentina’s former President Mauricio Macri and Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar, to name but a few.
